Progressive Springs Best Oil Type ????

Hi

I am ungrding my front springs and rear shocks to progressive 440 on rear and progressive springs in the front forks. Can someone advise me on whats the best grade and make of oil to use in the front forks.

Cheers
Barry

Super fancy expensive fork oil is not a major priority for a street bike like it would be for something that gets punished off road, but just like anything else, we have the desire to install the best there is. You can ask each owner and probably get a different answer every time about brand and thickness, synthetic and multi-weight.

For simplicity, I'd go off what is recommended in the service manual taking into account recommendations from the spring maker (Progressive in this case). The factory book will have the suggested Triumph replacement grade and procedure for your bike listed. You can obviously change to thinner oil for softer and thicker for harsh based on your ride preference.

I didn't replace the oil when I changed out the springs, I was careful to remove them slowly so I wouldn't lose any oil (it was less than a year old). I changed the springs with the forks, wheel, brakes etc. still on the bike because I wasn't in the mood to remove the forks just to dump out clean oil. The levels checked out fine afterward so I was good to go with the factory stuff.

The Progressive springs with stock oil resulted in a little softer ride at the top with slightly less dive and firmer at the bottom of travel. Changing the oil weight will of course change the damping characteristics either way however your preferences lead you.

I think that when I do change out the fork oil, I will go one grade thinner just to soften it up a tad. Most likely will use a Castrol product, but that's just me.

HellFire said:

Super fancy expensive fork oil is not a major priority for a street bike like it would be for something that gets punished off road, but just like anything else, we have the desire to install the best there is. You can ask each owner and probably get a different answer every time about brand and thickness, synthetic and multi-weight.

For simplicity, I'd go off what is recommended in the service manual taking into account recommendations from the spring maker (Progressive in this case). The factory book will have the suggested Triumph replacement grade and procedure for your bike listed. You can obviously change to thinner oil for softer and thicker for harsh based on your ride preference.

I didn't replace the oil when I changed out the springs, I was careful to remove them slowly so I wouldn't lose any oil (it was less than a year old). I changed the springs with the forks, wheel, brakes etc. still on the bike because I wasn't in the mood to remove the forks just to dump out clean oil. The levels checked out fine afterward so I was good to go with the factory stuff.

The Progressive springs with stock oil resulted in a little softer ride at the top with slightly less dive and firmer at the bottom of travel. Changing the oil weight will of course change the damping characteristics either way however your preferences lead you.

I think that when I do change out the fork oil, I will go one grade thinner just to soften it up a tad. Most likely will use a Castrol product, but that's just me.

Click to expand...

just a question is the front fork spring replacement an easy job and does it require specialty tools

albertaduke said:

just a question is the front fork spring replacement an easy job and does it require specialty tools

Click to expand...

It's supposed to require two special tools. One of them is easy to make using a piece of sheet metal about 2"x4", and the other looks alot like an oversize die holder. They are listed and shown in the service manual.
I used a couple of screw drivers and the sheet metal "keeper". It can certainly be done without the special tools, but it took two guys and hurt my hands quite abit.
Triumph's procedure calls for removing the forks and doing it in a vice one at a time and dumping out the oil by inverting them. I did them both while still on the bike and reused the oil. My way isn't much fun, but it saved alot of time and disassembly.

HellFire said:

It's supposed to require two special tools. One of them is easy to make using a piece of sheet metal about 2"x4", and the other looks alot like an oversize die holder. They are listed and shown in the service manual.
I used a couple of screw drivers and the sheet metal "keeper". It can certainly be done without the special tools, but it took two guys and hurt my hands quite abit.
Triumph's procedure calls for removing the forks and doing it in a vice one at a time and dumping out the oil by inverting them. I did them both while still on the bike and reused the oil. My way isn't much fun, but it saved alot of time and disassembly.

Click to expand...

when I come back I will investigate your way of changing the springs looks to me somehow better than removing the whole front

albertaduke said:

when I come back I will investigate your way of changing the springs looks to me somehow better than removing the whole front

Click to expand...

If you don't need to change the oil, it's the way I would do it every time. Keep in mind that it takes two people and the guy pushing down should weigh 200 lbs or more.

HellFire said:

If you don't need to change the oil, it's the way I would do it every time. Keep in mind that it takes two people and the guy pushing down should weigh 200 lbs or more.

Click to expand...

thanks for the update

It a lot easyier to remove the fork legs complete one by one. Then make a stopper out of plate steel and tape up the alu fork tube spring spacers, then use two sets of locking grips around the taped up area. Then keep the fork upright and place one end on floor then pressdown on the locking grips whilst a friend inserts the stopper you made earlyier.

This way is much easyier and quicker and less chance of injury to you and the rocket. By doing it this way you lose no oil and your body weight helps in compressing the springs when pushung down.

Regards
Barry

Fixitbaz are you saying that taking the front end completely apart so you can swap out the springs on the ground is easier than doing it on the bike?

If that's what you are inferring, I might agree as long as you had the facilities needed to solidly support a loose fork on the ground without risking damage or marring the finish while compressing the spring. And if the dis-assembly time it took to take off the front wheel, fender, brake calipers, lines etc., just to remove the forks is overlooked.

It would involve doing the same procedure you described with them off the bike and on the ground, but just leaving them securely mounted to the bike while standing over them on a small step ladder.
I have the Rivco center stand, Skips Paddock stand would do the same job of supporting the bikes weight (a solid stack of wood might work too). With the idea being to support the bike at the rear of the engine (pivot point) and a floor jack at the front of the sump, you can raise and lower the jack. And after unscrewing the fork caps, the spring and shock rod will rise up out of the tube while the front end descends on the floor jack.

A second pair of hands is still needed this way as well, but only to insert and remove the special tool (notched sheet metal keeper). The other guy does not need to hold the strut upright or from moving around on the ground so there is no risk damaging the finish.
If someone knew what he was doing, had the Triumph special tools or something similar, the center/paddock stand, floor jack, step ladder, cap wrench and a helper .... the whole job could be done in half and hour.
The most difficult part of the job is the special tools .... the notched, flat keeper is easy enough to duplicate .... the spring compressor is not. The spring spacer tube is made from fairly thin aluminum tubing, it is easily crushed from the sides if squeezed. I used a pair of large screw drivers through the two holes on the spacer and pressed down on those. Since they weren't in a solid "T" straight across from each other, it was very hard to control for very long and made my hands ache.

..good info here..when I changed my springs over to Progressives, I took the forks off too..taking them apart was the easy part..couldn't get them back together by myself for love nor money..ended up taking them back to the dealer for the re-install and oil change....hellfire, if I would have known you then, I would have been yelling..help..btw..almost time for a hooters run..