[bpe]

I don't know who has seen the cost of fork oil lately. What I'm wondering is:
Does everyone use Fork oil specific oil? or Will any oil do you?

 

[MattTries]

I always buy Maxima since it's available at the Cycle World near me--and sticking with a single brand makes things easier when making guesses on adjustments.

 

[bpe]

I've always used BelRay.

 

[[email protected]]

Maxima works for me for the same reason; local availability. Price is OK, plus the actual viscosity can get confusing when mixing brands.

Some useful info when it comes to viscosity.

As you can see, the actual viscosity isn't necessarily the what it says on the label.

 

[fog]

the only reason to use fork specific oil is, the viscosity of it is controlled accurately,
when tuning my race bikes forks I used motor oil from 20 up to 90 even added STP at one point to try to control a specific problem at the track.
so any old oil will do ,but you won't know exactly what you have

FOG

 

[[email protected]]

If you think motorcycle fork oil is expensive, check out the price of bicycle fork oil. I've started using Maxima (left over from my motorcycle fork jobs) in my MTB shocks using the chart above to make sure I'm using the correct viscosity. It works just fine at about 25% of the price of the fancy red Fox bicycle stuff.

As FOG said, any old oil will do. The trick is making sure you are getting the desired viscosity.