getting heavy fork oil in small motorcycle markets

[mademiriam]

Just thought I'd let others know, even though I'm sure this is one of those things everyone but me has been aware of.
For anyone running bikes with older forks, the recommendation is often to go to 30W fork oil. This is virtually impossible to find in my area and just gets snickers from the motorcycle parts counters.
However evidently one can use 30W non detergent oil, which is luckily very plentiful as its used in some car transmissions and older cars in general. The important thing is that it's single weight and non detergent. It's cheaper than regular fork oil as well.
Now I USUALLY keep myself out of all oil and tire threads as they are a bit like starting a war, but this seemed worth passing on.
 

[smooth operator]

  Maybe the older forks are different than the more moderen forks,I don't know. But what I understand from the info I got, with my RT gold valves is you want to go with a light wt. and you can adjust the amount of oil in the forks by measuring the level from the top with the forks compressed.I'm not saying its wrong to go with a heavier wt. oil with say, a older 400 bndt.(much more in tune with tile trade info) But I know I'm ot going that route with my 98 bndt(is that considered older now?) I want the oil to flow through freely.
        Dan

[mademiriam]

I think it totally depends on the bike you're using and the use for it. The 98 Bandit fork is probably not much different from ANY other bandit fork to be honest but I'm not sure and just guessing.
I used to own an old GPZ 550 and the advice I always got was to change to a heavier oil (I had already changed the springs) and now with the EX500 even though it has gold valves the advice from most of the racers is to try a heavier oil. I am no concerned that the W30 will not move freely, it's still amazingly liquid. In fact if I remember correctly the 700 Madura I owned which used to corner like a bear ALSO came with some recommendations to change the oil. Oil weight change in a cartridge style fork is really the only adjustment of damping. My 05 1200 just has 20W which is still heavier than recommended, but I push the front end pretty hard in a lot of my riding and I have the illusion this is helping.
I'm not advocating everyone switch to a heavier oil, just giving people and idea of an avenue to actually try it if they think it may help their bikes handling.