Fork/Motor Oil/ATF

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shoey949 · #1 Unread post by **shoey949** » Sat May 13, 2006 10:50 am

The nearest store which sells fork oil is a 45 minute drive away so I wanted to know if I could use ATF or motor oil in my forks. Does motor oil or ATF deteriorate or harm the seals or the forks?Is their any noticable differance in the ride quality?

Thanks,
Nate

#2 Unread post by **9000white** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:15 pm

i have always used atf in all my bikes without any problems.

BuzZz · #3 Unread post by **BuzZz** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:18 pm

Fork oil is fork oil only because it is designed to be a certain viscosity and remain that viscous over as great a temperature range as possible. Well mostly, you still want the lubrication qualities for the sliding parts in the fork, but it's primary job is as a damping medium.

So if your riding an old bike with damper rod forks, the suspension action is well removed from modern stuff anyways, and even a huge change in fork oil wieght will not be as noticable to the ride.

If you have modern cartridge forks with high/low speed comp and reboud adjustment, then it will be much more sensitive to what fluid is in there.