Do you reckon you could use the likes of car oil, olive oil, baby oil (lol) or motorbike fork oil in place of bike specific fork oil like what can be obtained on crc?

motocycle fork oil is a replacement I believe, its cheaper than bicycle branded stuff, although I havent bought any for years as I usually change the bike before it needs a service.

I use motorbike fork oil in mine and have done for years.

Motorbike fork oil is literally the same thing- Fox’s red oil is a bottle of Silkolene motorbike 10W oil with a different sticker on it (apparently the Fox sticker is pretty expensive; RSF is £10 a litre, red oil is £20 a litre). The green oil is torco medium, which isn’t so easy to find in the UK now.

When you’re using alternatives, the major issue is that no 2 products are exactly alike; you might think you could use any other 10W fork oil but they vary a lot. There’s a comparison here:

http://www.peterverdone.com/wiki/index.php?title=Suspension_Fluid

Though o’course, it doesn’t follow that what’s in there now is what you’ll like the most; I use a thicker oil in my revs to firm up the damping a little. There’s also other things like additives, seal swellers etc which i don’t know much about.

Lubricant baths are less picky; I’ve used diesel engine oil in mine, without any apparent drawback. But tbh with the quantities you use for a fork, it’s not really a big saving

First three…no, of course not. There’s more to damping oil than viscosity (the ‘w’ number).

Motorbike fork oil…yes, depending on the bike.

My local Ducati service-centre sells Motorex 7.5W Fork Racing Oil as they use it for high-end motorbike suspension. And it’s also what DT Swiss recommend for their forks, which is why I shop there (I don’t own a Ducati !).

cheers chaps, motorbike fork oil it is.

My local Ducati service-centre sells Motorex 7.5W Fork Racing Oil as they use it for high-end motorbike suspension. And it’s also what DT Swiss recommend for their forks, which is why I shop there (I don’t own a Ducati !).

Also a Ducati (dealer) user here. Always have a full range of weights in stock and tend to be really good on price too.

I’m working on a couple of old Manitou forks. The service manual says to use 5 wt Maxima oil in the damper. I just ordered a pint of it from the LMS (local motorcycle shop) for about $7. 🙂

I stromgly suspect that Rock Shox is Maxima as well since they use the same container (with the Maxima logo molded into it).

I’ve used motorbike fork oil from Rock Oil for years for mountain bike suspension servicing

Rock Oil is UK based and manufacture 20 million litres a year for many known “brands”

Used Rock Oil (as above) but new bike and Fox warranty (whatever a Fox warranty is, anyway…) meant buying a bottle of Fox oil. Think it’ll last years.

Another rock oil user here..for years

Use motorbike stuff.
Motrax or Silkolene preferably. Avoid Motul stuff though, it stinks horribly and you will smell of it afterwards!