Train wreck???

You talkin' about me or the discussion? Are you trying to insult me? Do you question my ethics Gizzo? If so, you simply don't know me very well.

Art, I started to misunderstand your latest reply. I think I got it now. In reply to your reply, I understand the workings of multi-viscosity oils. They are to retain thinness during the cold. I have considered changing from Rotella dino to Rotella synthetic for the lower winter number, but by the time I get around to it, winter will probably be over. Anyway, the point is that these oils still get thicker, just not as thick as the straight oils. Difference is that one just gets thick, but the other turns to caramel, you might say.

Here's some temp-viscosity data for generic motor oils of certain SAE weights. http://www.viscopedia.com/viscosity-tables/substances/engine-oil/

I've been doing some testing with a mixture of T6 and ATF. Now I took some videos of that as well as documentation of the old oil that was in it, but I'm feeling pretty lazy about going through the trouble of putting them on here. If you want, I might just post them.

I started to consider going through a little trouble to experiment since I had opened my big fat jaw on this and annoyed everyone. Yeah, guys, I've got this bright idea... So you say I should be the one to do the hard work, or else I'm full of BS? Okay, sure, I'll do the work to prove my honor. Okay, you can give me some insults while you're at it. I'll take it. Or not.

Should I take a screwing, metaphorically speaking?

Dave, you are correct in questioning my desire to work on my bike. I doubt it too. If and when I feel like playing with oils and actually feel like sharing my findings on this forum, I'll post them here. Until then, I'll just put in whatever I want and ride.  I'm lazy.

I got the other fork off and drained the oil that was in it. The job wasn't hard. The oil seemed comparably thick. It could have been 15-20 weight fork oil, or it could have been motor oil for all I know. It wasn't red. There seemed to be some of it in the blown fork that I put the ATF in at first. The old oil stayed to the bottom, which made me wonder if ATF and motor oil have miscibility issues. I'll see if they separate.

Given the thickness of the former oil and my itch to try something thicker than ATF, I doubt I will be happy with straight ATF. My Dad mentioned trying some 68 hydraulic oil, which would be quite suitable except for its comparatively low viscosity index. Not so good for winter riding.

No, I don't have to get "butthurt" about everyone's comments, but that doesn't mean I have to jump through fiery hoops to try to please people who don't think much of me. I used to feel quite alarmed when someone poked at me on this forum. I've been getting hard to it. Doesn't mean it doesn't bother me, though.

Gizzo, you may like being harsh with people. Just make sure you don't mind the same harshness thrown back at you. Golden rule, you know.

Furthermore, If Kenny wants to use this post or any others as ammo for another verbal attack, well, he knows the correct orifice (of his) into which he is more than welcome to thrust it. If all he can do on this forum is find ways to insult me, why should I respect anything he says? I clap the dust from my hands.

Yep

Thanks

I too am off this train.

Got the bike back together with fork boots. I ended up using about 2/3rds ATF with 1/3 5W-40 T6. I took her for a test drive after dusk in freezing temps. Yes, it is stiff. Yes, it bugs me that I didn't try regular ATF for this kind of weather. It's better than it was before I worked on it, though. It seems fine for the rough back-roads. One pothole in my driveway jarred me a little; other than that, most of my trip through the rough dirt road seemed fine. The only thing that bothers me most was hitting that rough patch in the road (asphalt) around 55 mph. . I wonder if the wheel didn't leave the ground. . I am hesitant to waste anymore old ATF or effort reassembling the forks. Winter will be over soon, and the oil I put in will probably be just right for summer. I hope.

While I can't say about special additives or other suspension oil whatnot, many, if not most suspension oils of the weight I mentioned have kinematic viscosity numbers and viscosity indices no better, or even worse, than what I just put in with my homemade mixture. If I were to do better on those numbers alone, I would have to be rather picky about my fork oil choice. http://mahonkin.com/~milktree/motorcycle/fork-oil.html Taking the average of the oil's viscosities (the sum of 34+34+87 for two parts ATF and one part Rotella), I came up with a viscosity of approximately 52. Exactly how much motor oil I added is not entirely clear, though I don't think I'm very far off. This viscosity number is near the thicker end of 15w fork oils. On those viscosity numbers, I don't seem any worse than typical fork oils. Not sure about dynamic viscosity, though. Haven't really studied it.

All in all, the forks seem no worse than those stinking rear shocks. They seem a notably better: firm, hard, but not as painful, if you get what I'm saying. To beat all, I'm considering tightening up those rear shocks like everyone else has been doing.

At least I'm not riding (as WD put it) a "mushmobile" . And, yes, the forks still dive. They just do it in a more dignified manner. .

A word to the wise. From this experiment and the research I have learned this: If you ride in all temps and want a nice, firm ride during the summer without pulling your forks, make sure you SPECIFY a fork oil made with a HIGH viscosity index of the weight you want. That way you don't have to risk suffering come winter. The typical 15w fork oil does not have a very impressive viscosity index. Bel-Ray 15w, for example, comes in a regular version (very crappy VI) and an HVI version (great VI). Now why don't I use straight ATF since it has such good all-around qualities? I wanted to try something thicker.

Unless there is some special difference between fork oil and my mix that I am missing or a miscalculation, or some random crazy engineering thing that I don't know, I doubt I would have done much better with 15w fork oil. In fact, plain Bel-Ray 15w, with its 53 viscosity and 103 VI, would have been even worse.

I'll figure this thing out eventually.

cheapnewb24 wrote on 02/11/16 at 23:36:55:

Unless there is some special difference between fork oil and my mix that I am missing or a miscalculation, or some random crazy engineering thing that I don't know, I doubt I would have done much better with 15w fork oil. In fact, plain Bel-Ray 15w, with its 53 viscosity and 103 VI, would have been even worse.

I'll figure this thing out eventually.

So this quoted clip just makes my blood boil. It's an insult to the thousands of chemical engineers that develop, test, validate and verify oil (of any type). I would say with 100% certainty that you ARE missing a calculation, or some random crazy engineering thing. Reading stuff on the internet doesn't make you a chemical engineer - it doesn't make you anything other than someone without a degree in chemical engineering that DOESN'T understand random crazy engineering things.

Moved to the cafe to prevent any illusion that this represents reputable information.

This thread exists for the entertainment of a few members.