Being a motivating force, Yun came over today to give me the excuse to remove the front forks from the K100RS.

For some reason I had built this up to be a big job in my mind but it took less than an hour and a half to take everything apart. I'll try to make it over the UPS tomorrow to ship the forks out to RaceTech.





I'm very interested to see what kind of difference I'll notice with the new suspension. Racetech says they have a 7 day turnaround.

Excellent! Can't wait to hear about dialing in the new front end...

Forks shipped off to Racetech. I called to confirm with them that even in the busy season they have a one week turnaround.

The forks should arrive there on Friday. I expect to have them back week after next.

After that I just need to see about getting both bikes tuned up and have fresh rubber put on and they should be good and ready for Deal's Gap in May.

Then we find out what Yermo's turnaround time is.

Well, there is that.

Just checked UPS tracking and my forks have arrived at RaceTech. Hopefully I'll have from them on Monday or Tuesday after they've had a chance to inspect the forks.

Is this what you're talking about?

You liked the Michelin Pilot Road 2's, so you might want to consider the new Pilot Road 3's, which have just come out. They have a new tread pattern for better performance in the wet.

Ian, yup, that's essentially the service. They'll install the cartridge emulators and new springs and go through the forks pretty thoroughly. They should be significantly better than stock when I get them back.

I just got a call from them. They are starting work on them and should, hopefully, have them done this week.

Got a status update from Racetech. The bushings were shot beyond use but contrary to what they thought they were able to locate a source for new bushings.

Unfortunately this means it'll take an additional week. I should easily have the forks back in time for Deal's Gap. Once the forks, discs and pad are bolted on the only prep work I'll have to do is put new rubber on both bikes and change the oil and filters.

My forks are done. They are being shipped using UPS ground and should be here towards the end of next week.

"Excellent.", in my best Mr. Burns voice ...

Not trying to copy-cat here, but I just removed my forks, too. Except in my case I just want to change the oil. It's a pretty big job for an oil change, which is why this is the first time doing it on this bike in over ten years.

Not having rafters in my garage like Yermo, I had to rig up my folding ladder to support the bike:





In order to change the oil I need to remove the cartridge from this guy and pump it out:





That's as far as I've gotten, as family duty calls. I look forward to getting the oil replaced, everything cleaned up and put back together, and my first test ride.

yermo's forks are back

race tech also sent the old parts back with the forks.

I kinda like that, you get to see how bad the bushing were getting and what parts they replaced