holy crap I think I fixed it...

[1KPerDay]

The SheePz has been off the road for about 10 months due to my ill-conceived
attempt to perform routine maintenance (fork oil, seals). Initially the
forks felt okay upon reassembly but when i went for a long ride the bike
beat me up to the point that it was infuriating. Furthermore, the forks
bottomed harshly with a metallic "clunk" on sharp bumps or curbs/driveways.
I took them apart... again... and couldn't find anything wrong. Everything
was where it was supposed to be, fork oil level was correct, etc.

So I fumed for a few weeks, asked around here and elsewhere, and finally
decided that perhaps it was the 15W oil, or possibly the bushings. I ordered
new bushings just for fun (the ones that go in the fork lowers) and prepared
to reassemble the forks for the third or fourth time. Then an AHA moment; it
appears I misread the BEVEL on the fork bottom spacer as the TAPER... I had
the bevel facing up. The taper was so gradual as to be almost impossible to
see, but it's there. So this time i put the bevel down and the taper up,
used 10W oil, and reassembled. Finally got the forks/wheel back on tonight
(after wrestling with the unbelievably difficult reassembly of the front
brake splitter/air dam/horn mount/wire speedo holder group, also known as
Satan's Rubik's Cube), took it out for an around-the-neighborhood shakedown
and I'm astounded to report that the forks seem perfect. No bottoming, nice
and smooth... in fact they accentuate the fact that the stock shock is
clapped out now. :D I don't know if it was the 15W oil, the bushings, or the
flipped spacer, or a combination, and I don't really care.

Thanks to all for the help and advice; I can't believe how good this feels.

Now I'm sure the fork seals will blow in a couple hundred miles. LOL
 In the process I also somehow fixed the horn... I don't know how. It wasn't
working, I took it off and installed one sent to me by a generous GPZ
lister, beeped it once, finished installing the front wheel, tried beeping
it again, didn't work... sort of "hhrrrrrrrr"ed... pulled it off, put the
original back on... works fine. ?????????

I just hope it works long enough to pass inspection. Ha!
-- 
Utah Jeff
'96 SheePz1100