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So, With the old shock linkages installed the rear was transformed - lovely, but the front was shite.

I tool a look at it last night with a view to screwing stuff in and out and having a quick bounce to see what it did.

There was a nasty clunk coming from the forks so I had a look and to my shame - shame I tell you! - discovered that the forks had about 10mm fore and aft play. Fuck only knows how I didn't feel that while riding, especially as the Welsh was rather rapid in parts..

I can only assume that I hadn't seated the bottom race fully and that the last few miles knocked it home. Anyway - it took me 20 mins or so to whip the top yoke off and tighten everything up again, and then I did the twiddly thing with the comp and rebound screws and backed the pre-load right off..

Today was the first time that the bike felt halfway right, but it was a teeny bit weavy so I think I might slacken off the stem nuts a nadge. It's still firm at the front though, but loads better than it was, and no clunk when I hit the brakes..

I can only begin to imagine how awful it would have been with the wrong linkages and a flappy front end... Glad you're getting it sorted...

Mang ...

It was compounded by a leaky front tyre which would lose 10psi in a day's riding, but oddly was airtight in the garage. I'd assumed that the divey front end was down to a soft tyre which then got pumped up...

Having said that, even with the proper inflation and a slack bearing I was blissfully unaware that anything was amiss..

The front is still not terribly compliant, so before I do the spring thing I'll reduce the oil volume and go down a weight too, I'll have to dig out the bottle to see what I put in there but I suspect it was either 5 or 7.5 ..

It just gets better... The recommended oil is SAE 5 fork oil, but by the sound of it the forks would benefit from a full strip down and clean. Do you know how long it was since the fork oil was changed? I was horrified by the amount of grey sludge that came out of the last set of forks I dismantled.

Mang - I've had the forks apart, but just the sliders and springs not the damping gubbins.. However I might pull them apart again to replace with less volume of a lighter oil..

I replaced the tyre a couple of weeks ago and no more leakage...