Fork oil is for cowards.

[lingeringstin...]

So in lieu of ever finding a suitably priced springer/girder front end for my bike I went with some old Suzuki GS750 forks with BMW springs, mainly to give my bike an extra inch in length due to where the axle went in front of the stanchions as opposed to at the bottom like on most forks. My bike had always been twitchy because I used the shortest MZ TS250 frame (it's all I had) so the extra length did wonders for the handling.

However, in the beginning I stupidly used fork oil and it was almost as bad as the time I was running water in my bog standard MZ forks and it froze one winter's day so I had stiff forks. With no rear suspension either that was a pretty hairy ride into London that day on snow encrusted roads I can tell you. Sorted that out by putting antifreeze in with my fork water, but I digress.

These days I just use diesel. MUCH better handling and feedback than when they have fork oil or ATF in them. I can't remember if I've drilled the holes out bigger in the fork damping rod things (I usually do to increase the response time) but the diesel works brilliantly..

[stinkwheel]

I'd imagine the risk of some of it aerosolising in the air gap then being compressed enough to detonate is a very small but non-zero number.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Easy-X]

[Nobby the Bastard]

I would imagine that once it was at 200 psi it'll be quite toasty already.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[stinkwheel]

An air rifle can "diesel" oil vapour. And forks can get pretty damned hot. I've had the ones on my VFR too hot to touch before today (which explained where all the damping went).
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[lingeringstin...]

[quote="stinkwheel"]An air rifle can "diesel" oil vapour. And forks can get pretty damned hot. I've had the ones on my VFR too hot to touch before today (which explained where all the damping went).[/quote]

I used to worry about the potential for detonation but after researching it I figured the pressures in my forks were probably too low to make diesel volatile (under normal riding circumstances).

However, I suppose if I was trying to do an Evel Knievel and leap the bike off of high places or if I was to hit one of the UK's finest potholes at high speed then maybe there could be some detonation, which would probably result in blowing the bottoms of the forks off with the wheel and the next step would be an almighty ass-over-tit down the road.