Suspension Boots??

TrialsPaul · Post by **TrialsPaul** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:05 pm

Here is another solution I found on the Aussie dirt biker site.

www.adbmag.com/tech_articles.php - Look at repairing fork seals article and the foam saver description.

This is a 10 cent solution.

It is interesting to note, on this article, how you have to be careful if mud get under the seal savers. The mud and dirt gets trapped and starts to wear against the forks.

Shibby! · Post by **Shibby!** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:58 am

The aftermath of all this discussion...

Post by **dirtyboy** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 2:35 pm

Very cool Shibby!

I have some of those waiting to go on my bike. Not much need in the winter, so I figured I'd wait til spring.

Shibby! · Post by **Shibby!** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:21 pm

dirtyboy wrote:Very cool Shibby!

I have some of those waiting to go on my bike. Not much need in the winter, so I figured I'd wait til spring.

Thats what I thought, but then I consider it one less thing I have to do for spring. I had nothing else to do so I dug right in!

With a helper it wouldn't be too hard or take too long, but by yourself, lifting (or in my case) hanging the bike took a little inginuity, and then balancing the tire while sliding the forks out and preventing it from pulling the brake line too hard was another obsticle. Once off, the next hardest was trying to lift the one fork tube to slip it the savers over while preventing it from falling over.

Everything was do-able easily with one person, just takes a little longer. Can't wait to see how they work! The thing thats nifty about the Suzki's fork shields is they alrady have a guard to prevent it from rubbing on the wheel and some of the rotor (this would be more useful with the rubber ones) but I never noticed it till I was assembling them last night.

Kwi-Chang · Post by **Kwi-Chang** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:39 pm

Is that how it showed to mount them? When I had mine I was told that the long length was to protect your upper fork not the lower. I had mine on so they only went a few inches down on the inside tube

Kwi-Chang · Post by **Kwi-Chang** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:43 pm

http://www.sealsavers.com/abi002/showde ... 11&CATID=1

Post by **dirtyboy** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:56 pm

I've seen quite a few KTM's mounted like Shibby did last year and it worked great. That's how I plan to mount them also. It should keep most of the dirt out since it's sealed on the top and the bottom.

Shibby! · Post by **Shibby!** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:08 pm

Kwi-Chang wrote:Is that how it showed to mount them? When I had mine I was told that the long length was to protect your upper fork not the lower. I had mine on so they only went a few inches down on the inside tube

Bahahhaa.. Who reads instructions anyways??

I just though this would work so I did it. I will see how it works out this weekend. If they don't work I'll cut them off to change them later, but I assumed the longer ones were for the INNER tubes, not to protect the outer tubes, as well.. they don't need the protection.

EDIT: I checked out the link, now I don't know what model of Yamaha that is, but is there a chance those are traditional style forks and NOT inverted?? That would explain the location of them...

And on a second look, they have inverted fork shields... so they got me beat. Why protect the outer tubes?? Racers are WAY to picky on how their bikes look.

WR_Dave · Post by **WR_Dave** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:08 pm

They protect the upper tubes to prevent small dents and dings from roost, rocks and branches. These small dents can make the inner tube not operate as smoothly as it should up to even sticking the lower tube in a compressed state. I've never seen anything that severe but, that the theory behind protecting the upper tubes. I have that very same thing under my rubber boots and it is mounted the same way. Is there a beating a dead horse emoticon? WR Dave.

Kwi-Chang · Post by **Kwi-Chang** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:32 pm

I'm going to try the Aussie Dirt Bike trick (small piece of neoprene in between).

As for beating the dead horse...

cedric · Post by **cedric** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:49 pm

As a bit of a different approach, have any of you tried the film negative trick? I too bought a set of seal savers, but I was saving them until I replaced my fork seals (which I bought a long time ago, but haven't needed yet because of the trick). The idea is, when your fork seals start leaking, you wiggle a film negative between the fork tube and the seal, and dislodge the grit that is causing the leak. This has worked at least three times for me, turned a leaking dribbling mess into a nice dry fork. It worked so well that my seal savers and new seals have been sitting in a drawer for a year now.

I was skeptical, but I figured I'd try it since it was free, and it works for sure. I would recommend it to anybody before you shell out a bunch of cash to have the fork seals replaced. If you need more info on this, PM me or spend some time looking around on thumpertalk, that's where I heard about it.

Post by **dirtyboy** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:46 pm

I used a business to do the same thing as the film trick. It worked fine. Once I put the seal savers on, I haven't had to do the business card since. No I'm wrong, I had to do it once last year just before the Smith race. It's always good to ride Saturday to verify if your bike is in working order.