Forks Oil

[renos-a10]

Hi all ,
Yesterday i start my BSA A10 ( 1960 ) ... all fine .I make a ride and all sound great.
Somebody know that oil must but in form and how much?
Thanks
Renos

[MG]

Hello renos!

BSA recommends SAE20, I found SAE30 to work better for me and on smooth modern roads.
Each fork leg contains 225cc.

Cheers, Markus

[renos-a10]

Thanks Markus. I buy SAE30 . I think the guy who buy my BSA he didn't but something in forks 

[Goldy]

BSA,s were known for having soft front suspension and this was always dealt with by using thicker oil. I would put SAE 30 or even higher oil in them. All the best.

[LJ.]

Putting the oil aside for a moment... Bear in mind that there are two types of fork springs, it is easy to get the wrong sorts as one sort is for side car pulling, (a firmer spring) the other being solo. (softer) I currently have side car springs in my forks and although nice and firm as a solo rider there is the occasional knock when going over bumps or potholes. I really should revert back to the softer solo springs.

[brackenfel]

Hi LJ,
Mine does that too, a "clonk" just sometimes, not consistently..
As I haven't had the bike long (well, at least before pulling it to bits!!) I presumed the previous owner had done something wrong as he said he'd rebushed the forks..
Will start by emptying out whatever is in there (he put grease in the primary area so who knows....!!) and replacing with maybe SAE30.. I must admit I hadn't considered the springs - are they easy to tell which type you have??

Thanks,

Adrian

[Greybeard]

BSA,s were known for having soft front suspension and this was always dealt with by using thicker oil. I would put SAE 30 or even higher oil in them. All the best.

I'm changing the oil in the forks. I already have monograde SAE40. What do you reckon?

[Greybeard]

Too late; I've done it.

[Black Sheep]

I use tractor universal 10W 30 in the forks. It's great for hydraulics and gives supple suspension. SAE 40 does seem a mite heavy.

[Greybeard]

Oh well, I'm off to Derbyshire this weekend for my next BSAOC camp. So, along with two rideouts and the return journey I'll be covering about 250 miles over the weekend. I may be changing the oil in the forks next week!

[coater87]

 well GB,

 You never know if you dont try.

 Who knows, it may be perfect.

 Or they may be so stiff you pogo-stick to the camp....

 Lee

[morris]

Have tried many grades of oil from 10 to 90 in the forks but didn't really noticed much difference. Have 30 grade gearbox oil in for the moment and will probably stick with that.

[JulianS]

The clunk on extension is a BSA feature, most pre A65 damper rod types do it sometimes - it was often commented on by magazine road testers. The bushes clash because there is little damping on rebound.

[duTch]

 

The bushes clash because there is little damping on rebound.

 ..or none    This is one of the reasons that I chose to use a Conical (OIF) type front end

[JulianS]

I got so fed up with the clunk I got a local engineer to convert my late A10 forks to accept the A65 damper rods. That worked fine no clunk but the usual mudguard split developed so fitted complete A65 damper rod forks  with stronger mudguard mounting (and 1958/59 SR front mudguard) to my A10. Clunk gone no mudguard splits.

Tried the Eddie Dow conversion before that. Helped with compression damping but not with the extension damping, still clunked.