In this episode of the BMW F800GS service, I remove the front fork legs, clean them up and change the fork oil. Before I put them back on the bike, I clean and service the front brake callipers.
Yeah, I agree with the previous comments. This video isn’t literally a dude showing how he cleans his bike. The important part (how he actually disassembled the internals and put them back together) is completely left out! Nice 15 min video on how to use brake cleaner!
Hey, this is "the dude". 🙄 I wasn't my bike, it was my friend's bike. I had been working on it for 2 months on and off - the silly things you do to help a mate with a low budget to get back on a motorbike, aye?! Agreed that some parts weren't filmed - they weren't deliberately left out, by the way. I just forgot to place the camera and press record. Now here's the shocker; there's no disassembly apart from removing the cap and pulling the spring out (which is the part I forgot to film). The cartridge is never touched when changing the fork oil. This is quite clearly explained in the BMW workshop manual and the Haynes manual. My videos are not manuals, they're merely "this is how I do it, hope you enjoy". Sorry you didn't enjoy it. I am hoping I've learnt a lot since 2015 when this video was filmed and that future videos will be better and that you'll enjoy them more. I've also noted that there's no need for more "how to clean your forks using brake cleaner" videos. Excellent, brake cleaner is chuffin' expensive. And talking of expensive, I guess you get what you pay for when it comes to TH-cam videos! 🤣👍🏻 Hope you have a great day and that you come back despite me fumbling up the filming almost three years ago. ☮︎
Hi, very informative video and thank you for your time making it. I have a question around 5:39, what do you mean by not extending the forks otherwise they will pop out? is it really that difficult to rebuild it??
I’ve not taken the F800GS fork legs out completely and I can’t recall the procedure in the manual, but usually fork rebuilds require some special tools. If you have the tools it’s not difficult. Sometimes just tedious and messy. Tools can be clamps, holders, extra long sockets, seal guides and such. If you want to fully rebuild the F800GS forks, I’d recommend reading the Haynes or BMW workshop manual - or if there’s a video. To change the oil or springs, you don’t need to go any further than the video. Sorry I can’t be more specific.
You're right, it's not a good video. For some reason I didn't film the important parts. Luckily it's explained in the manual, which you have, right? And if you look in there, there's actually not much missing from the video. Click the subscribe button and you might get a better video soon as my own forks need the oil changed. I just need to find a few pennies and a lot of time. Thanks for watchin' - I hope the other videos were a bit more informative.
Thanks for this video, it has a lot of good info. My caliber pistons don’t move evenly but they are both free. Could this just be air in the line and it needs a good bleed? Thanks
Hi! If they move freely, then that's good enough. It's almost impossible to get them to move exactly together, but if you, for example, put a piece of wood in between the pads (or just pistons and calliper) then they should move pretty much together. One will probably go a bit earlier than the other, but once one starts to build up resistance, the other one should come to help out very quickly. If that's the case, all is good. Air in the system is manifested by a spongy brake feel, and if you grab the brake initially, and then grab it immediately again, the lever will grab earlier. In other words, pumping makes the brakes feel better. That's a sign of air in the lines, and then you need to bleed the brakes. Hope that helps! Thanks for watching!
Jocke Selin, some day should be wonderful if you can organize a trip to Alaska... I ride the same bike, my dream is to ride to Alaska among 3 or 4 riders... By the way, I am from NY... where are you?
One of the main complaints about our F800gs's is that the forks are squishy. What about replacing the stock weight oil with a thicker one? Good idea? or not? What about changing to progressive springs? If I was rich would upgrade to Ohlins or something. Looking for improvements but at less cost. What about changing that spacer?
My other half has got the Hyperpro 25mm lowering kit on her F800GS. It comes with progressive springs and, what I believe to be, thicker oil. The ride is much firmer and the dive is significantly reduced. In other words, yes, thicker oil will reduce the dive and squishyness a lot. Spring rate is a different thing though. I don't know what weight oil BMW supplies, nor do I know what the weight of the oil that Hyperpro supplies is. I'm sure a local friendly track-day oriented motorcycle garage could shed some light on what weights to use, or maybe Google would be able to help.
Hey, thanks for warning the masses. However, if you would have read the comments before watching the video you would have saved yourself some time. However, let me iterate it for you; yes, this video is not up to my desired standard. I apologise for that. If you would have read the manual, you'd know that the rest of the procedure is very simple. You unbolt the top cap, and then you undo the locking nut and screw the top cap off, and pull the spring out, along with a few other gubbins. You can then pump the old oil in and refill it with new oil, reversing the procedure to refit. I'd also like to point out that this video was never intended to be an explanation of how upside-down-forks work. The only maintenance you can do to them is to replace the oil - which I, for some reason, forgot to film. If you subscribe, you might be in luck soon; my own forks need this process doing to them, so if I find some time, I'll film it and do a better video of it all. Thanks for watchin'! 🤗
Yes, I agree. I'm annoyed I didn't film that either for some reason. Sadly the footage is over 2 years old and I only managed to publish the video this September. Anyway, if it helps you, or someone else. You unscrew the top of the fork, and then the damping rod is screwed into the bottom of the top cap. It's got a squish nut on there, so you insert an open ended spanner (wrench) into there and you undo the nut, then you can unscrew the top-cap from the dampening rod. Then you can pull out the spring. That's as much disassembly that's needed to change the oil or the spring.
I take it that outty77's reply above is OK? If it's not, I'll have to try to find out for you as I can't remember. What I do remember is that the level needs to be correct, it's not the volume that's important.
Yeah, I agree with the previous comments. This video isn’t literally a dude showing how he cleans his bike. The important part (how he actually disassembled the internals and put them back together) is completely left out! Nice 15 min video on how to use brake cleaner!
Hey, this is "the dude". 🙄 I wasn't my bike, it was my friend's bike. I had been working on it for 2 months on and off - the silly things you do to help a mate with a low budget to get back on a motorbike, aye?! Agreed that some parts weren't filmed - they weren't deliberately left out, by the way. I just forgot to place the camera and press record. Now here's the shocker; there's no disassembly apart from removing the cap and pulling the spring out (which is the part I forgot to film). The cartridge is never touched when changing the fork oil. This is quite clearly explained in the BMW workshop manual and the Haynes manual. My videos are not manuals, they're merely "this is how I do it, hope you enjoy". Sorry you didn't enjoy it. I am hoping I've learnt a lot since 2015 when this video was filmed and that future videos will be better and that you'll enjoy them more. I've also noted that there's no need for more "how to clean your forks using brake cleaner" videos. Excellent, brake cleaner is chuffin' expensive. And talking of expensive, I guess you get what you pay for when it comes to TH-cam videos! 🤣👍🏻 Hope you have a great day and that you come back despite me fumbling up the filming almost three years ago. ☮︎
Hi,
very informative video and thank you for your time making it.
I have a question around 5:39, what do you mean by not extending the forks otherwise they will pop out? is it really that difficult to rebuild it??
I’ve not taken the F800GS fork legs out completely and I can’t recall the procedure in the manual, but usually fork rebuilds require some special tools. If you have the tools it’s not difficult. Sometimes just tedious and messy.
Tools can be clamps, holders, extra long sockets, seal guides and such.
If you want to fully rebuild the F800GS forks, I’d recommend reading the Haynes or BMW workshop manual - or if there’s a video.
To change the oil or springs, you don’t need to go any further than the video.
Sorry I can’t be more specific.
awfully explained, no detail for people looking to do it by themselves...
You're right, it's not a good video. For some reason I didn't film the important parts. Luckily it's explained in the manual, which you have, right? And if you look in there, there's actually not much missing from the video. Click the subscribe button and you might get a better video soon as my own forks need the oil changed. I just need to find a few pennies and a lot of time.
Thanks for watchin' - I hope the other videos were a bit more informative.
Thanks for this video, it has a lot of good info. My caliber pistons don’t move evenly but they are both free. Could this just be air in the line and it needs a good bleed? Thanks
Hi! If they move freely, then that's good enough. It's almost impossible to get them to move exactly together, but if you, for example, put a piece of wood in between the pads (or just pistons and calliper) then they should move pretty much together. One will probably go a bit earlier than the other, but once one starts to build up resistance, the other one should come to help out very quickly. If that's the case, all is good. Air in the system is manifested by a spongy brake feel, and if you grab the brake initially, and then grab it immediately again, the lever will grab earlier. In other words, pumping makes the brakes feel better. That's a sign of air in the lines, and then you need to bleed the brakes.
Hope that helps! Thanks for watching!
Be mindful that the black oil is possibly the annodising failing inside the fork tube....
Subscribed!!!!! Thank you!!!
Thank you! There's another one scheduled for tomorrow morning and in the future I hope to do more videos, with higher quality. Hope you enjoy!
Jocke Selin, some day should be wonderful if you can organize a trip to Alaska... I ride the same bike, my dream is to ride to Alaska among 3 or 4 riders... By the way, I am from NY... where are you?
One of the main complaints about our F800gs's is that the forks are squishy. What about replacing the stock weight oil with a thicker one? Good idea? or not? What about changing to progressive springs? If I was rich would upgrade to Ohlins or something. Looking for improvements but at less cost. What about changing that spacer?
My other half has got the Hyperpro 25mm lowering kit on her F800GS. It comes with progressive springs and, what I believe to be, thicker oil. The ride is much firmer and the dive is significantly reduced. In other words, yes, thicker oil will reduce the dive and squishyness a lot. Spring rate is a different thing though. I don't know what weight oil BMW supplies, nor do I know what the weight of the oil that Hyperpro supplies is. I'm sure a local friendly track-day oriented motorcycle garage could shed some light on what weights to use, or maybe Google would be able to help.
No video or info of the internals or actually doing any work. The only thing this video shows is unbolting the forks.
Hey, thanks for warning the masses. However, if you would have read the comments before watching the video you would have saved yourself some time.
However, let me iterate it for you; yes, this video is not up to my desired standard. I apologise for that. If you would have read the manual, you'd know that the rest of the procedure is very simple. You unbolt the top cap, and then you undo the locking nut and screw the top cap off, and pull the spring out, along with a few other gubbins. You can then pump the old oil in and refill it with new oil, reversing the procedure to refit.
I'd also like to point out that this video was never intended to be an explanation of how upside-down-forks work. The only maintenance you can do to them is to replace the oil - which I, for some reason, forgot to film.
If you subscribe, you might be in luck soon; my own forks need this process doing to them, so if I find some time, I'll film it and do a better video of it all.
Thanks for watchin'! 🤗
How much fork oil???
I would advise checking in the manual for your year model bike.
I don’t want to give incorrect information to you :-)
You didn't film the most complicated parts, but I appreciate the info nonetheless.
Thanks, what parts should I film if I get the chance to redo the movie? I know I didn't film every step, so I'm looking to improve.
The part where you gutted the fork! That's the part I was most concerned about.
Yes, I agree. I'm annoyed I didn't film that either for some reason. Sadly the footage is over 2 years old and I only managed to publish the video this September.
Anyway, if it helps you, or someone else. You unscrew the top of the fork, and then the damping rod is screwed into the bottom of the top cap. It's got a squish nut on there, so you insert an open ended spanner (wrench) into there and you undo the nut, then you can unscrew the top-cap from the dampening rod. Then you can pull out the spring. That's as much disassembly that's needed to change the oil or the spring.
That seems pretty simple. I guess I'll find out first hand in a few weeks, just ordered some new springs.
I'm sure it'll be easy and clear once you've got your hands on the parts. Just ask if you have any more questions.
What is the oil capacity for each bar?
I take it that outty77's reply above is OK? If it's not, I'll have to try to find out for you as I can't remember. What I do remember is that the level needs to be correct, it's not the volume that's important.
Not helpful at all
Yes, I know, this is my worst video in this series. I’m hoping to make a better one, please read the other comments.