+1 on dealership ignorance. My dealership not only gave me the wrong brake pads for my 82LS with ATE calipers, but also gave me the set of EBC shoes for the rear that fit a standard R65 (my drum is 220mm vs the standard 200mm). Ended up getting a proper set of pads from Beemershop and OEM shoes from somebody closing out a dealership on eBay.
The parts department at my dealership couldn't do anything with the measurements I gave them from my factory manual... and they wanted to give me store credit when I returned the improper shoes. Also said I'd have to get BMW parts, as there were none in the aftermarket, but bmw2valve.com has them [smiley=angry.gif]
I seem to have better luck finding these parts with people who specialize in Airheads. Beemershop, the new bmw2valve.com, motobins (helloooooo shipping!) etc.
As for the forks... changing to a heavier weight oil will make the forks stiffer. However, there is no industry standard for fork oil weights, so if you want to experiment between heavier and lighter oils you should stick with the same brand. Some people also use
red automatic transmission fluid for fork oil. It's certainly cheaper, and some Hondas actually called for ATF in the lube specs. Not much to quantify your experimentation though when using that stuff. My "feeling" is it's a bit on the light side of Belray 7.5wt. You can also get the forks a little bit stiffer by using a little more oil, but don't use less than spec, and make sure the forks have an equal amount.
One other thing. When you reinstalled the forks, did you put them in the triple trees and install the wheel before putting the springs and caps back in, making sure that everything moved smoothly? One reason your forks could be stiffer is that they are no longer parallel to one another and bind as they compress. This is often called "striction."
And before Monte shows up...
I have an 86 mono regular R65.
put that in your sig or your initial post and people can help you off the bat.
