The protectors trapped all the sand and dirt inside and eventually, sand particles found their way to the dust and oil seal.
BHPian vijai recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I had fork seal protectors on my Tiger 900 Rally Pro – something like this. And something terrible has happened. The protectors trapped all the sand and dirt inside and eventually, sand particles found their way to the dust and oil seal. The result is constant scouring of the inner tube to the point where the tube developed tiny tubules through which the fork oil started leaking. This was on the right fork and the left fork was spared. This was caught by the mechanic when I went in for a rear brake pad replacement and asked them to check the front as well. Was told a good option would be to replace the inner tube since all other fixes would just be temporary. Considering it’s an ADV and the whole point of getting an ADV is for the superior suspension, I went in for the replacement.
The replacement part took 2 months to arrive – not sure what’s happening with the long wait times for spares. Probably Triumph has not yet sorted out its logistics after the recent tie-up with Bajaj. As usual, pretty satisfied with the work done by Khivraj Triumph. The job was done in a day although I left the bike there a week earlier since I had no time later to drop the bike. Labour seems very reasonable overall considering they had changed the seals in both the forks. Oil was also topped up. The bike seems to have consumed ~500ml of oil in 5k kms since the last oil change. The remaining oil was returned to me. They also gave the bike a wash and polish which wasn’t charged.
They have offered to courier me the inner tube as well which I think will keep as a souvenir and reminder to keep it simple when it comes to protection next time. Overprotection is not a good protection I suppose.
Here’s what BHPian VijayAnand1 had to say on the matter:
Let me share my shilling’s worth. Fork protectors are completely different from fork seal protectors. By default, most of the European bikes are sold sans the seal protectors, i.e. the fork seals are exposed by default. Now, it’s pretty much a caveat emptor. Fork scoring (as in your case) happens primarily due to dust accumulation, minuscule rust cavitation and pitting, again all these will negatively impact a fork seal’s life and will predominantly be the cause for repeated fork oil leakage.
Now, there are two types of seal protectors, seal boots and seal sleeves. Boots (like the ones you see in Duke 390s) do an exceptional job of scraping the fine dust down the slider so that the grime doesn’t accumulate inside the main fork seal which was a nuisance in their earlier models of the Duke with repeated seal failures. KTM updated the forks with boots and fork protector (a plastic flap around the innards of the fork) which halved any seal failure. The KTM anecdote I’m sharing is aimed to bring more clarity so that it helps you better understand. So, they’ve used a fork protector and a seal protector.
Now fork sleeves. These neoprene elastic ones are great, look cool and are upmarket, but once they accumulate enough road muck, that’s when they turn sinister. These neoprene ones trap dirty wet fine muck inside and once dried they act as a grit paper on the slider of the fork because the elastic is tight enough to hug the slider well wound which is enough to cause these scoring marks. In other words, it is effectively a grit paper taped to the slider. A BIG NO.
These require frequent cleaning, especially on monsoons or when one’s ridden it enough on dirty sessions so that their integrity is maintained. And in that case, they do a very good job of protecting the fork from stone hits and whatnot. But once they get dirty enough or dusty enough to accumulate dust and not proper oversight, you can ruin your fork in no time.
Hope it helps, and good luck.
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