November 26, 200817 yr Hi All, Just serviced the forks on my recently acquired 2001 Rev3. Does anyone know what the height of the oil should be in both legs with the forks fully extended? On my race bikes, this is far more accurate than measuring volume; you use a syringe (or the top of a squirty bottle thing) and push a disc of cardboard along the tube so the distance between the tube and the end of the disc is the same as the air gap (height of oil) and then simply extract fluid until no more will come. It's dead accurate and mitigates for any oil remaining in the fork or dampers. Does anyone know what the gaps should be? Thanks Graham
November 26, 200817 yr Can't be 100 % helpful but I do know that the Rev 3 manual quotes compressed gap ( I think it is 120mm on an '07) even though it isn't stated in the manual - if you use this quoted gap with the forks extended you end up with a very solid front end!. Jim
November 26, 200817 yr Author Thanks Jim, that's the sort of thing I'm looking for! I'll try 120mm and see how it feels. Graham
November 26, 200817 yr Thought is might be different between legs - see this 2006 manual - seems 60 on right and 120 on L Jim http://metalmarkers.org/sitebuildercontent...rfiles/rev3.pdf
November 26, 200817 yr according to beta website left leg take out spring full compress 120mm air gap right leg full compress 60mm air gap this information was for the 2001 spec rev3
November 27, 200817 yr Thanks PHB. I guess I should have looked there first!Graham No problem glad to help i made the mistake of looking at the user manual which isnt very clear and put way to much oil in by the time i had put it all back together you would have needed an elephant to compress the forks, I had the worlds first rigid forked Beta
November 27, 200817 yr Author I guess I'd better come clean and explain why I need to know... <Ahem> I rebuilt the forks on Sunday. Spent a lot of time on it and removed all the old oil from the fork tubes and dampers. Replaced the seals and measured the bushes etc. A jolly thorough job. I had to leave it for a few hours and returned to it after dark, working on the patio with a girt big halogen lamp, as I often do. I carefully measured out the correct quantity for the right leg, safe in the knowledge that I had no residual oil. I then set about carefully puring the oil in past the damper rod. Now, here comes Dim Moment #1: DM1: I still had oil left in the jug and the fork leg was pretty full! I'm fully aware that the air gap should be measured compressed and that there has to be one, so I scratched me head a bit. Whilst doing so, DM2 occured. I'll move on to that, but DM1 wasn't discoved until after DM2, but basically I had carefully measured out the fork oil using the wrong units on me jug and put nearly twice the amount in. Still, that was soon to be rectified... DM2: The bike was supported on a block of wood on 2 axle stands, again, as I have done many times before. The patio at JZ towers is of a suitably 'rustic' flavour and as such, not a totally flat surface. This contributed to DM2. For no apparent reason and without warning, the bike fell off the axle stands onto the forks. This obviously compressed both forks. There was now no longer too much oil in the right hand leg... ...There was, however, too much oil on me, the patio, the house wall, the rest of the bike... It's amazing how far less than half a litre of 5-weight fork oil will go. At this point, I found a cat to kick and effed and geoffed for a while. I could no longer face stripping, drying the forks and replacing the oil, particularly as by now I would only have enough oil to top up what was there rather than empty and start again. At this point I attempted to show my wisdom by suggesting it to be more accurate to set the oil height rather than the volume... What a per-lonker...
November 27, 200817 yr I guess I'd better come clean and explain why I need to know...<Ahem> but basically I had carefully measured out the fork oil using the wrong units on me jug and put nearly twice the amount in. What a per-lonker... sounds familiar,,,,,,,,,,,exactly what i did doh
November 27, 200817 yr Author sounds familiar,,,,,,,,,,,exactly what i did doh You're just trying to make me feel better!
November 27, 200817 yr OK 120mm with spring included! Just a bit more makes the fork stiff as it bottoms out. 5 or 7.5.
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