The Africa Twin CRF1000L Owners' Thread

17000 miles on mine.Not the smoothest tranny made lol.If I get lazy and tired I sometimes get a false neutral between 4th and 5th and 5th and 6th.Likes to be pushed into gear with vigor.Quality oil helped it a bit.Got quite a bit better after 5k but still far from a silky gearbox.

9.48mm shim for valves. Same as other crf models.
Checked mine twice. Only 1 exhaust needed a tweak.

As for forks, don't be intimidated by them. They are simple devices made to sound ultra complex.
There is a science to damping. But the mechanics are very simple.
If you want to do a quicky oil change in forks, whip forks off, remove cap entirely, drain oil, remove spring, hang them upside down and pump damp rod to help to drain cartridge. Leave hanging upside down a bit to get a few drops more. You won't get all the oil, but I bet better than 95% of it. Not much gets left in cartridge.

Oil height, others covered it here, but yes. Fork collapsed, Damp rod collapsed, Spring in. 55mm from top oil to top edge of outer tube. Ensure when you have refilled fork with oil, you pump damper rod through stroke. It will have equal resistance through stroke when bled.

Don't use stock oil height with after market springs. I acquired a set of forks this had been done to.
They hydraulic locked neared of stroke. No more room. When I collapsed forks, oil level was at top of outer tube. I guess old mate wonder why he had leaking seals.
The 55mm method, caters for any fork spring and gives stock air gap.

Spring wise, most after market, if not all are longer than stock. This being said, trim the difference from the spacer. If new fork spring is 30mm longer than stock, trim 30mm off the spacer. 2 reasons, gives stock installed preload, and makes it damn easier to install.

Installing fork cap, turn rebound adjuster full anti clock, then turn it in 3.5 turns. Screw cap on until you feel the rebound needle lightly seat inside damper rod. Nip up locknut to the cap. Test rebound adjuster to see if you have 3.5 turns of adjustment. Don't getcrazy tightening the locknut. Folks have broken these off overtightening. Nip up firm.

Spring selection, database will give you a place to start.

Great info @Motociclo, really appreciate all the work and information you share with the AT group. I'll be doing the regular maintenance on my forks for the first time this winter and even though I'm well used to working on right-side-up forks, this will be my first experience with upside-down ones. All your information has been super helpful. Between now and winter I'll be gathering some parts (seals, oil, and maybe springs) as well as researching the necessary tools (which I'll endeavor to make instead of buy if I can). Looking forward to it.

No worries.
If i can help some one/ anyone save a few dollars and they learn something as they go then half the battle is won.

These forks aren't a complex fork, very easy to work on.
Twin chamber forks aren't anymore difficult to work on either, but a touch more complex in construction.

I have had no one to teach me. Had to work it out myself. What i have done, just have a methodical approach to disassembly and assembly.
Understand how components interact and fit with each other. Take pic as you go if it makes it easier.
Workshop manuals do a pretty good job explaining.

I will take a pic of tools i use and offer some options.
Can be done without special tools, but they do make it easier.

This is the way I've learned as well, mostly on vintage bikes, and it works well for me. I take my time (Canadian winters are good for this ) so I can learn as much as I can through the process.

Alright, awesome. All you guys have given me the confidence to do this. I'm pretty handy and have always worked on my own vehicles, and with all the great folks here, I'll manage this. In the next few weeks I'll put the orders out. Can someone verify my list so far? Am I missing anything? Or other recommendations?

Tools i use to servce forks.

The piece of tube with bolts. I used to use this to pull down on springs. Screw into spacer.

Couple of tie downs to pull on it.
The big thing on left is home job firk compressor. Rough as hessian jocs,but works well. Use this now.

Universal seal driver. 43 to 50mm. Cheap and works. Not professional quality, but adequate for home guy.

Notched flat. Made this to hold spring down if you don't have way of compressing spring. Thus eould be your minimum if doing solo.

Damper rod tool. Helps bleed damper.
Can make one with M10x1mm threaded nut. Tac a bit of rod to it. Just leave a gap for oil to flow out of.
I got RT ones with heap of RT tools.



Regular tools.
24mm spanner.
19mm socket.
17mm spanner.
14mm spanner.
Blade screw driver. Helps to pic out circlip as well as screw adjusters.

A chesp turky baster, or a syringe with tube to get oil level at the end.
I use this. Pretty cheap.

Wow, awesome! Thank you very much. Looks like I should be able to make most of those, which will help keep costs down and add to the fun of the project (I love making tools if I can). Thanks again.

Looks pretty good.
I have found the fork bushes to be pretty good.
Unlikely need replacing.
Use 10wt oil also.

Careful swapping out shock spring.
Lots of stored energy as you compress.
Easy task, but bit of care required.

Seals may come with grease, if not run some rubber grease on inside lip of oil seal.

So as not to damage either seal on install,
I heat chrome tube gently and wrap elec tape. Tape will shrink nicely over edges.
See pic. Is only rough example to give idea.
Keep it neater than this pic.

I have a leaky seal now as well....we need to do a group seal replacement workshop.

I have a nice heated garage, a lift, and no mechanical ability.... who's in????

I could stop by this winter.Dealing with a storm damaged roof and adding on to my garage now.I go up there when ever I can to visit my mother.Unreal what a 15 minute freak storm did to house a couple weeks ago.Could hardly stand up in wind.

You could record it and YouTube it so others know what to do.Seems like the only time I am on YouTube is in trials crash videos.

You mean so others know what "not" to do....

Reading up on this, one of your posts mentions needing to shim the bushings....
.10mm, is that correct? What did you use as a shim? Tia!

I use 0.05mm shim.
Wrapped around, gives 0.10mm overall.

Have a read through this. Cover shim in last few posts.

https://advrider.com/f/threads/fork-install-guide.1250293/#post-33031653

Thanks so much for the link and the help.

Amphib, if you get the Cogent fork springs, you will not have to trim the spacer. They are the same length as stock, just bigger wire, so heavier spring.

Pre Filter socks work well to save main filters

I'll take all the help I can get!

I'm getting pretty excited about this. Took awhile, but found some .050 mm shim stock that wasn't rediculously expensive or in a massive quantity. Currently making a plan for the tools. So the turkey baster, is that to precisely remove oil to reach the 55mm desired level?

Sure why not? If that was the playing field/status quo, I'd make due. My kind of riding allows 100 mile gas stops no problem. I guess the relativity I'm addressing is it seems every other American male who can afford a truck owns one that gets 10 MPG doing their 85 MPH down the highway, so I'd still be double the average for my demographic riding moto and my DD, where I do care about economy, gets 33 MPG highway. But do I feel some personal responsibility to save the environment? No, I'm pretty sure I'm going to live to see major ecological collapse regardless of whether or not every motorcycle on Earth gets 20 MPG or 1000 MPG.