Let’s perform front maintenance.
The rear suspension overhaul was done at Scuderia Okumura, and as always, the work was speedy with a solid finish.
The taper has that fresh-replacement smell.
There’s no real need to replace it, and it saves on cost, so we’ll just lubricate and adjust it.
That said, the stem is remarkably clean—probably without any repainting. Impressive.
And with that, the stem work is complete.
Now we’ll disassemble the front fork.
We drilled a hole so we can use a tool to compress it like this.
The fork oil was very clean.
Tight contact areas = shiny
Original areas = what you’d call a pear-grained or dull finish. When you smooth out these shiny spots like this, it seems to reduce leaks.
Check that the bolt slides in smoothly by hand. We use a fresh bolt every time.
Drill the initial preload collar and cut 10 mm to back off the preload a bit.
We jot down a note on the collar so we don’t lose track.
After a thorough cleaning, we wipe it down and blow it dry with compressed air.
Then we pull a vacuum and we’re done. The condition is excellent and the work is progressing smoothly.
