New front fork fluid. Inlet chamber volumes.

Fork Fluid

When I initially assembled the front forks, about 5 months ago, I re-used the old oil because I was not sure if the fork seals were leaking or not.
I now know, after a few test rides, that the fork seals are sealing fine.
So yesterday I drained the forks of the old oil and left it overnight to drain fully out of the drain plugs.

This morning I put 374ml of the cheapest Automatic Transmission Fluid I could find in each fork.
Note: R6k takes 374ml of fluid (Cartridge), R5k takes 435ml of fluid (Damper Rod).

This stuff cost NZ$13 per litre from "The Warehouse"
"Synthetic Additive Formulation" = fancy stuff,.. NOT

I figure that I will have better suspension (on average) if I use cheap fork oil that I replace often, compared to  using top quality (expensive) oil that I seldom replace. I'm sure that a lot of people will disagree, but I am keen to at least try out the idea.

Inlet chamber

Also, one thing I thought about the other day:
The balance volumes that plug into the top of the reed blocks are different in volumes when the bike is standard.
However, I modified the crankcase volumes to be equal.
So,..  that means that I should probably replace the larger balance volume with a spare smaller balance volume.[edit] see below [/edit]
I have two spare balance volume units so I guess I will do it soon.

Standard inlet chambers with different volumes?

But HOLD ON  a second.

I just bought a syringe from my local rural supplies store for $2 and measured out the two balance volumes using ATF oil. See below:...

NOT what I had expected!

It turns out that the two volumes are close to equal, with only 1cc difference. 34cc and 33cc.

And the smaller looking volume is actually the slightly bigger volume.

So I will just leave them as is. The 1cc difference is possibly due to errors in my measuring anyway.

[edit] Ah,.. a bit of a mistake in my thinking here.
These "balance volumes" are actually just upstream of the reeds, so do NOT form part of the crankcase volume.
These volumes are sometimes blocked off in race bikes as they mainly affect low to mid-range I believe. [/edit]