R65 1982. Fork seals failling when riding on cold outside temperature .

[Tony Smith]

Ariette fork seals ,(Motobins).

I also spin the fork legs in a lathe and polish them, probably not the issue here, but good practice.


Beyond that I have nothing. I am smart enough to live where 18 degrees Celsius is a cold winter day.

[georgesgiralt]

Hello Tony,
I spent a  rainy afternoon measuring the worst tube. It is far beyond hope as the diameter varies where the seals have done their job during the years.  Definitely very very worn . And a friend of mine which used to do a lot of  hard chroming in it's days said to me that the cost of chroming them would be far above the price of the Polish new tubes....
I rode the bike in very cold weather and the seal did not leak so I consider the job done and the bike returned to serviceable status 

[dogshome]

The old stanchions look totally worn out. Notsurprised you had some issues. The new ones look, well, new!

[Bob_Roller]

I installed gaiters on my `81 R65 in 2007 when I did a lot of work on the bike it had 80,000 miles, 130,000 km .
They didn't quite look right at the time, but seems 'normal' now .