GSXR1000 K5? Today we’re doing stem bearing greasing and adjustment, plus fork oil replacement for the first time.
Let’s tear into it right away.
When I loosen the stem nut, I hear a “creeeeak” sound like aluminum scraping…
Looks like the grease is dried out.
The adjustment nut and lock nut under the top bridge won’t budge at all!
With a special wrench and the inner tube as a lever, finally… it loosened!
Wow, it’s gotten to this state!
Now let’s take a look at the bearings.
They’re all dried out. When you tighten it this much with so little grease, the steering gets really heavy
and it’s not good for the bearings.
Back in the day, frames would get pretty hot and grease would flow out from around the stem, so people used high-viscosity grease to prevent that.
But lately, seals have improved and grease formulations have gotten better, so even low-viscosity grease doesn’t leak out,
and it really contributes to a big improvement in steering response.
It’s definitely an item worth checking.
The fork oil is just slightly dirty. We’ll add some ASH, adjust the oil level, and set it.
This should definitely improve the operation!
The bolts we removed get a proper amount of grease and are torqued down.
Tighten the axle and check the wheel roll, and the push-pull will improve a lot too.
It’s really cold today.
Yep!
