It's hard to tell from the US owner's manual (I think they printed part of the maintenance table in Italian), but I believe the fork oil is scheduled for replacement at 4,600 miles. I put this service off mostly because there are no oil drain screws, and partly because I've never had a bike with USD forks, but at 7,700 miles I had the front end suspended to work on the suspension, so I changed the fork oil then. The following is the procedure I used. I didn't have a manual to guide me on this, so I can't guarantee it's accuracy. It worked for me.
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Raise the front of the bike securely so that the front wheel is unweighted. I suspended my bike from an engine hoist. Loosen the top pinch bolts on the triple clamp, as well as the pinch bolts on the clip-ons. Unscrew the fork caps--if you back off the preload completely, they will not be under any pressure. You may want to tape the anodized caps so you don't scratch them up like I did. |
| After removing the caps, raise the front wheel so that the forks compress all the way and the fork caps stick out the top, then measure the oil level from the top of the forks. (I think I made this measurement without the forks completely compressed, so my measured values were in error). |
| The trick to avoid removing the forks is to drain the oil through the compression valves. For reference, count the number of turns in to seat the adjusters. Then back the adjustment screw out all the way so the needle isn't contacting the orifice. With an pan or beaker underneath, remove the entire compression valve with a 14 mm wrench and allow the oil to drain. |
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Replace the compression valves snugly and reset the adjustment screw. Refill the oil from the top. After adding about 8 ounces, I pumped the fork up and down a few times to bleed the cartridge (I'm not sure this works for USD forks), then I compressed the forks completely and set the final oil level. Replace the fork caps, then torque the pinch bolts on the triple clamps and handlebars to 25 N-m. Reset your preload adjustment if you changed it.
I don't have the oil level spec for the Falco or RSV, nor do I know if the level would be specified with the cartridge and spring still in the fork. I ended up setting my oil level to 6 cm, using approximately 925 ml of fork oil (460 per leg). Later, I measured the volume I drained out to be almost 900 ml (450 ml per leg). I used Showa 10wt fork oil, sold in 475 ml bottles under the Pro-Honda label. The oil that I drained from my forks was very clean (the cleanest I've even drained), so it's probably OK to postpone this service.
Updates
10W is
not the oil viscosity you want. Too much rebound and compression
damping. I turned down the compression last fall, but the rebound
is incredibly high. The wheels leave the ground a lot. I'm guessing
5W is the way to go.| Fork oil volume drained (per leg): | 455-457 ml |
| Recommended oil viscosity: | 5W |
| Oil level: | 8 cm |
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