Replacement of Fork seals, oil and/or springs:

Put the bike on it's centre stand en put a jack under the crank case to make sure that the front wheel remains free from the ground.
Remove the front fender en the front wheel, think about the allen head screws wich lock the axle.
Remove the rubber plugs at the bottom of the fork leggs and remove the hex head cap (wrench 22) next to them.
Remove the eccentric rod of the brake caliper with help of one of the fender bolts (see page: Adjusting of the brake calipers).

Unscrew the nuts at the bottom of the fork legs with a 13 mm wrench en, if necessary, fixate the shock absorber ends with a 4 mm allen key.
When the nut comes loose the oil will start dripping out of the fork leggs so make sure you have a can of at least 1/4 litre for each legg to put under it.
Without the nuts the lower parts of the fork leggs can be removed from their inner parts so that the seals can be replaced in the lower parts of the leggs. After mounting the seals and cleaning up a bit the lower parts can be mounted again.

Mount the fender, the wheel and the brake calipers (see page: Adjusting of the brake calipers).
Unmount the handlebar and unscrew the caps (with the two holes on top) on top of the fork leggs, some models don't have such a cap here but an allen head cap.
If desired the springs can be replaced by removing the heads of the fork leggs (36 mm wrench), think about the little spring tension, and by pulling out the springs to replace them with new ones (other, progressive springs seem to improve the steering behavior).
The forks can be filled with fork oil, 235 ml each fork legg (250 ml when the shock absorber itself, wich is not described here, had been dismounted).
Remount the caps on top of the fork leggs and remount the handlebar.

I replaced the front springs with progressive ones from "de hobbyist" which cost only 89 dutch guilders a set (about 45 USD), replaced the seals (went leaking during winter) and replaced the oil and I have to admit that the driving behavior has improved altough I don't know what had the most influence here, the springs or the new oil.
After I had looked at the (cross-section) drawings and I had read the covering story I was a bit worried about the job but it turned out better than expected, probably unmounting the shock absorber itself is a hard job (isn't it ?). Along with the new springs also came a clear story of howto replace the springs.




(c) W.P.Barendsen 2000