Springs support the bike, the fork oil only dampens the bumps. It's the springs that take the bumps. Fork oil is not a substitute for springs. On a sport bike, you first set "sag". You have to get the right spring rate for the bike to work over bumps. Then, you have to get the correct damping. On my road racers and flat trackers, the suspension is done by Lindeman Engineering of California. Suspension is THE most important thing on the bike for going fast. It cost me $700 to do both ends of my KX motard, revalving and springing it for road racing, a bike that was originally set up for MX. The XR100s required a Works shock with proper spring rate and damping. XR shocks are toys because the XR is intended as a toy. The stock shock is little more than a spring guide. I've road raced a motard XR set up with stock shock and proper spring. Pogo stick is what comes to mind.
So, springs/fork oil do different jobs. You cannot compensate for improper spring rate by stiffening fork oil, doesn't work that way. There's lots of stuff on the web explaining suspension. You can start at the race tech site,
www.racetech.com I think. Suspension tuning is a cottage industry around the motorcycle racing world, it's that important.
On a touring bike, you're not that concerned with the way the bike handles. Heck, a Wing is the wobbliest thing I've ever put a butt on anyway. I mean, it handles like a Mack Truck on two wheels. It's meant for the interstate, not the twisty mountain road or the road race track. Ever experienced "Wing Wobble"? That's a combination of soft rear suspension and drive shaft torque reaction. It can wake you up, let's put it that way!
You come off a corner and try to get in the power early to get drive off the corner as you would on a sport bike, but the back in just starts pogoing and it won't go away until you straighten the bike up. It's down right scary. So, I ride my GL1100 rather gingerly, learned early on it was no GSXR, ROFLMAO
One of the things that's hard on fork seals is air suspension. Get the air pressure too high and you can blow out the seals. Too, fork oil level is critical in this regard. If there's not enough air space above the oil level, you'll blow out the seals rather quickly first big bump you hit. Stiffer springs in the forks will help alleviate both of these problems. Rather than BUY new springs, you can preload them more, but that's a bandaid, not a cure.
I need to put fork seals in the thing, living with it for a while, but that's an even bigger pain. Besides, danged seals are fifty bucks a set! Well, they're that from Honda and Bike Bandit, but maybe I can find some aftermarkets somewhere. Anyone got a link to cheaper? I used to get "Leak Proof" aftermarket seals from Parts Unlimited, but don't get the Parts Unlimited stuff anymore.
Never do today what you can put off til tomorrow, eh? I didn't even know if they sold "Leak Proof" anymore, haven't seen 'em advertise.
