Africa Twin Premature Front Fork Failure (Current Owners and Prospective New owners Must Read)

Does anyone know their fork spring rates? Shock?

Do the 2020 upper fork tubes fit 2016-2019 AT models?

If you're thinking in solve the stiction issue, you can just fit the 2018-2019 ATAS tubes. It's just a direct swap, and it doesn't modifies anything but the stiffness, preventing any premature wear.

If it's just for aesthetics, sorry, i don't know.

I bit the bullet and will be swapping the ATAS forks this weekend. I have 37k on my bike and the forks finally got to the point where rotating them doesn't unstick them anymore.

Ill be taking it down to Arkansas for a shakedown run next week. Should be nice and hot down there, so if the forks are gonna stick it should show up then!

All finished with the swap. 2019 ATAS fork bodies, stock 2016 internals. My wieght 205lbs plus 45 lbs load out, preload set to 2.5 from bottom, dampering 2.5 turns, compression 8 turns.

The carnage

Feels nice and responsive so far. Will update after the trip.

Can you verify the 2019 ATAS upper part #'s?

When I order mine , I'd also like to get the new "bronze" colored ones

Welcome to the dark fork tube club!

i had the extended warranty, bike has 12,800 miles, and after 2 months waiting for a decision, the word from the dealer is it's a wear item......

need the bike next week for a 2 month ride in the northwest. i'll reassemble the forks again, rotate the upper by 90 degree and see what happens. bringing 2 sets of spare fork seals.







the fork oil with little bits of solids

I might have an extra set of SKF HD green seals. Those *should* last you for a long time.

I may have found the last sets currently in the country in the parts warehouses. Took 4 orders from 4 different places to find them.

When are you leaving for your ride?

leaving next Wednesday but i need to put together the bike by tomorrow so i could test ride it over the weekend.

the local Honda dealer in Glendale has the fork seal kits and i'm picking them up today. should have bought the kawi seals but i procrastinated and most places don't have them in of stock.

the SKFs are good. was looking at them to put on my XCountry but the dealer installed the BMW oem parts instead. they go by what the book says.

thanks Moshaholic2.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the AT Adventure Sport (ATAS) of 2018 and 2019 had longer suspension travel than the standard AT of those years and years' prior. New 1100cc ATs of 2020 have the same suspension travel as the standard AT of years' prior, but also these newer ATs are generally depicted* with bronzed upper fork tubes such as what we see on the ATAS that many of us used to fix our fork woes on standard ATs (OEM fork tubes were gold - stiction, premature wear).

Does anyone know or care to speculate on the difference between 2018-19 ATAS forks and 2020 AT forks beyond the reduced travel? The end goals would be to determine:
-If 2020+ AT owners may anticipate fork issues (certain color upper tubes don't guarantee anything unless we know of some correlation between color and technical spec); and...
-If the better fix for standard early year AT owners with fork woes is to upgrade with upper fork tubes from a 2018-19 ATAS OR from a 2020 AT.

Three new ATs, three different color fork tubes

Dang that middle bike looks good

Just got my forks back from the evil orange bike mechanic down the street (i didn't trust doing the fork seals myself)

Noticed when the fork gets inverted in my hand you can hear the oil swoosh through the fork. (Not fast but you can hear it moving to the opposite end, I assume, through the valve)

I've actually never pulled forks off a bike before to notice... is that a normal sound???? Or is there too little oil?

There should be a 50-55mm airgap at the top with the spring in before sealing them up. So you could hear something. Ask him how much air he put in there. Manual says to put in 95mm airgap with spring out. Guys on here don’t use stock springs so we measure airgap with spring in before replacing the cap.

The 50 mm air gap only exists when fork is collapsed.
With fork extended air gap is 270mm, there abouts. Only a certain amount of oil lives in cartridge, about 100mL, rest is free to roam. If you turn fork upside down oil will sloosh around. Its fine, provided correct amount was put in when reassembled.

Can someone tell me "how bad" this issue really is? Can you tell right away that your forks are very stiff? Or is it more like a 10% decrease of your damping capabilities? Do you need new fork seals all the time?

Context: I want to buy a used AT and I'm trying to figure out if I should get a (cheaper) 2016 model and just live with the issue or spend more and go for a 2018+ model.

Thank you.

Get a 1299 super adventure r buddy, I've had a hassle free life with mine,

The only time I notice anything is taking off from a stop you can feel the front end come up a little. Ridding it in the storke you can not feel it at all. When I do is when I will repair mine.

2017 with 15,000 miles, been feeling it since about 7,500

2018’s have more things that generally are better then 16-17 models, throttle by wire being the biggest improvement (especially on DCT models with better slow speed throttle impute and more engine control with EB (Engine Breaking) options etc), lighter crank, THICKER and REVISED FORKS. The dash IMO is better on the 16-17 bikes for legibility and it’s got old school cable throttle so generally robust. I’d say if they were generally close in price or you wanted the DCT model, I’d get the newer bike hands down. Aside from that, price and preferences is an individuals choice. I happen to have a 2016 and 2018ATAS in my garage at the moment so that’s from seven months with both bikes.

As for the individual 2016 “Honda Fork-Gate” Issue, I reworked my internals and my fork guy said he’d ride it till it died. Obviously it’s a big deal to the “Suspension Purists”, they’ll tell you the sky is falling! I’d say, its individual choice. People love to complain and you can go on and on about this but to me it just gets to a point of.....”what’s the point?!”.

Good luck on whatever you do.

My 2016 was fine although springs were way too soft.
UNTIL about 5K miles and the stiction progressively worsened until I could no longer ride it.
Bullshit on the purists idea. I rode a (3) KLR650's over 17 yrs of that gives you a clue.
Finally I took one apart my self and found the damping tubes had severe binding. Shipped them and on the 2nd time with Konflict they replaced the tubes and problem is gone, so far.
Alex at Konflict stood behind his work and I am pleased. Thank you!!