Fork question

Hi all,
my 2012 Tenni at 40K kms. The book says to change the oil of the forks at 20K. Mine was never done from new.
Question : can I just drain and refill with fresh oil, or do I need to do a total forks out job?
I'm not comfortable buggering with the forks which means a trip to my friendly MG dealer and probably a $400 charge.
Thanks

I believe you have to take it apart, which would make sense to replace the seals and everything else since the parts are cheap.
I wouldn't sweat this yet as you don't have enough miles to worry about...I thought the manual in the US mentioned servicing the forks at 30K miles?

The forks will need re-sealing as they come out as you take the forks apart.

Rather than simply replacing the oil I strongly suggest that you take the forks to a suspension expert and have him tune them for your weight, this will involve him stripping and re-valving them as well as simply replacing the oil.

One of the first things I did with mine is drop them out and take them to my local suspension expert. (While capable of doing it myself Laurie does a dozen sets of these Showas a week! Why would I bother struggling getting it right when he can look at my great bloated carcass, check the spring rate and shim stacks and know exactly what to do!).

While this initial set up will cost you, (I think Laurie charged me something like $250 but that was 'Mate's Rates') if it's right any subsequent re sealing or re oiling should be cheap as chips.

Before I invested in the Matris inserts when Laurie did mine he used 5wt oil and about 50ml less of it, re-shimmed the valving and told me to run the spring preload almost as far up as it would go. The result was a huge improvement over stock. The Matris stuff is simply light years ahead though!

If you turn it into a 'Project' you can whip the shock out as well when you're greasing the linkage and swingarm bearings and get that seen to. It needs re-valving, (Replacing is better!) and a stronger Spring too.

Pete

Good advice, many thanks.

I had my suspension reconditioned by our local suspension guru, who also swapped the rear mono spring for a stronger Honda one as I'm heavy (was about 130kg at the time) and 'fitted' the bike to me.

It cost me $750, but was well worth it as my 2008 GRiSO which wallowed, bottomed out, and was badly upset by corner bumps after I bought it in 2015, is a totally different handling bike now.

Probably the best money I could spend on my GRiSO apart from the roller kit. In fact, If I ever buy another bike, I'm taking it in for the same treatment.

I have lowered the front yokes to the 6th fork ring (at the top) and it drops into corners now, and is so stable that I could go to sleep while cornering and wake up on exactly  the same line I rekon ;-)