Sticky fork response

[nick]

Hi,

I have just bought a 1989 revere and the forks are very stiff and unresponsive. the forks do not really rebound at all. Once they are compressed they seem to stay compressed and I have to pull up on the handlebars to return them to normal sag position.
The previous owner said that he added extra fork oil to stiffen them. Could this be the problem?

[Jake]

Hi Nick,

On some NTV's there are drain bolts near the bottom
of the slider if you think the forks contain too
much oil.....(Not sure if you can do this on the Revere).

But, are both forks affected and is either one of
them bent slightly?

As the Haynes manual puts it if your forks
are ‘binding’ they should be disassembled
and inspected for wear….which means not
only checking the fork tube and slider but also
the damper rod in the lower end of the fork.
(See pages 6.6 to 6.10 of Haynes).

www.hawkworks.net/manual/12.html#12-12-fork

www.hawkworks.net/manual/12.html#12-0-overview

When I had my forks done I removed the spacer
at the top of the fork tube and replaced the standard
Honda springs with longer Hagon progressive springs.
It’s a matter of choice which oil you choose. Hagon
recommend 5w but I ended up using 15w.

See threads below for more info.

growell.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=body&action=display&thread=911

growell.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=body&action=display&thread=895

growell.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=body&action=display&thread=828

growell.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=body&action=display&thread=778

growell.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=body&action=display&thread=950

[ilegalalien]

sounds like a bent stanchion or badly aligned fork legs.. one test would be to check the forks are at the same height on the top yolk then undo the bottom yolk bolts and the front wheel... give the forks a few good bounces and check for sticking/bends ect.. if it bounces and returns ok then tighten the wheel and then the lower yolk.. still sticks? then try undoing one top yolk and twist the stanchion... any bend will be noticed by movement of the lower leg.. repeat this both sides... unfortunatly Revere forks are harder to come by on e-bay but at least you can get revere and ntv600 ones as they are the same.. if it's just stanchions you need i think also bros and hawk's are the same but dont hold me to that untill i measure a set up

[nick]

Thanks for the advice Jake and ilegalalien.

I had a bit of a fiddle with the forks yesterday. I slackened the lower yokes and the wheel and did some bouncing of the front end. It seemed to help a little but they are still not right. I suspect that the fork stanchions have been damaged at some stage so I have bitten the bullet and bought some new ones (ouch).

I am going to get the head bearings replaced at the same time as there is a very unsettling notch when the bars are at straight ahead which makes turning in at low speed fun.

Hopefully these repairs will return the bike to the reassuring handling thing that it should be!

[nick]

New fork stanchions, bushes, seals and fork oil. Forks were still a bit sticky for the first 20 miles or so. They are now slick as can be. What a difference!
Thanks for all the advice.
Nick.

[everydaybiker]

Did the same job on mine earlier this year. Forks weren't sticky but the chrome was worn above the oil seal (yellowing) and wouldn't seal. Expensive rebuild with new stanchions but few options at that point!

I think I may need to adjust my new head bearings again though. I think I was probably over-cautious and didn't tighten them enough, as the steering is rather twitchy.