depressurizing forks

[JAYKAY]

is it true that ,the gold screw at the top of your forks (not the clickers) is to depressurise the forks, and if so when do you need to do it or have i been told a load of shit?

[ALLEN]

yep its true,get tie downs if you want to depressurize them and just tighten them up,but dont be like my mate and stand behind them and get oil all through your mouth and all over your self.lol.

[JAYKAY]

but do you need to do it so your fork seals dont blow like why do you depressurize them

[ALLEN]

i doubt that the fork seals would blow,but id be careful just in case,you depressurize them if there is to much pressure in them or they are to hard.

[[TOPGEAR]]

yeh i do that everyride. all u need is a screw driver.

but be careful when u do it the first time, the first time i done it there was heaps of pressure and i ****ing shot myself in the head with the little screw haha.

[troop of doom]

hahahaha mee too

[ALLEN]

haha pmsl,sucked in.haha.

[ALLEN]

does it **** your fork seals?

[scobes]

you need to regualry depressure your forks, just before every ride just undo the gold screw and do it back up on both forks, is all you have to do, and it helps save your fork seals also

[GStylEr]

Yeah and you're supposed to do it with the bike on a stand so the forks are fully extended... I do it every ride. If you don't, the pressure builds up and yes it blows your fork seals I'm pretty sure.

[JAYKAY]

fark thats why my last seals blew i wish i knew about it before they blew for apparently no reason to me at the time!!!

[DirtCowboy]

Gstyler is on the money the forks need to be depressurized but you dont have a lot of pressure on them like R2DFMX suggest cause you shouldnt be having your fork oil coming screaming out the you do it on a stand or just holding on to the bike. The fork seals will blow if you dont do this regularly and since it aint that hard its a lot better than wasting good time and money not to do it. Its just a simple part of maintanence and should really be done every ride or at least every couple of rides. But rememer the more your jumping and compressing the fork it be quicker to build up pressure.
And a simple idea to stop copping a screw in the skull keep a lil pressure on the screw with the screw driver and undo it slowly it you can hear the pressure start to go down without have the screw right out and you dont actually need to fully remove it in most cases

[[TOPGEAR]]

i just learnt how to do fork seals :) piss easy

does anyone know how much those ****ers are to push the seals back in ?

[yamaha_54]

the front wheel has 2 be off the ground not compressed with tie downs

[DirtCowboy]

Topgear for pushing in the fork seals i made up a jig out nylon it was then lathed down so it fit over the inner tube and inside the outer tube then cut it in half and make a strap to hold the two piece together it gets the seal in easy as and even so you dont **** the seal before you even get it all back together.

[[TOPGEAR]]

what did u make it out of ?

[HOLLYWOOD]

i depressurize my forks after every ride but if im hitting ramps all i sometime do it durning the day also

[mulisha_mike]

yes you have to do that after every ride. my brother has just had his seals replaced for the second time in 9 months except i picked his bike up for him and asked the guy at the place where it was fixed (this guy owns a company called GPS Racing Suspensions, so he knows about the forks and shocks) and he told me to take lete teh air pressure out after every ride and the seals will last a hell of allot longer.

but to kinda go allong with what R2Dfmx said. when you strap the bike down you should put somthing in between the fender where the clamp is and the tire so there isnt so much pressure on the seals or you will blow your seals fast. i just made a little wood thing, i will get pics

[mulisha_mike]

ok im thinkin scratch me gettin pics since the only digi cam i have oly costed me $20 and it doesnt feeling like working as of right now. maybe tomarrow if i can get it to work i will get some pics

[JAYKAY]

yeah this dude at yamaha told me to do that

[DirtCowboy]

Topgear i made it out of nylon its just industrial plastic so the does scratch the crap out of the fork

[sparticus]

Bleeding the air out of the forks is not just for saving your fork seals. Its mainly there to maintain your desired action in the fork which works best at neutral pressure (when fully extended).
As you ride around and pressure builds up your forks slowly get stiffer which depending on how fussy you are is not really what you want one youve got them dialled in the way you want them. Also nine times outta ten when upsidowners start leaking (esepecially if they started leaking alot earlier than they should have) its not cause there blown but because there little bits of dirt trapped between them. Insert a little piece of laminated card or a feeler gauge between the seal and the slider and wipe around to clean them, they usually stop leaking. Try it, what have you got to loose you were probably gonna get them replaced anyhow.
Sorry if i sound like captain obvious and everyones already aware of this just thaught it might save some people a little $$pindoolie