85 gs700es fork tubes- what is this madness?

[Davek1661]

I'm resurrecting my brother's 1985 GS700ES, and I'm at the fork rebuild point in the process. I find these fork tubes are like nothing I've seen before. First you see a valve type of assembly on the front of the lower fork leg that appears to be connected to the front brakes. Why would anyone connect the fork tubes to the brake calipers? What is in these fork for oil- brake fluid?
Second, there's no cap on the top of the fork tube. It's sealed. So how do you service the cartridge? How do you refill the fork oil? Has anyone worked on these? I'm really up against it with this thing...

[BigD_83]

Some of the 16V series GSes came with anti-dive forks. Sounds like yours did, too.

The rust all over the cap is hiding a circlip that needs to be removed to service the fork. Part #19 here:

https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/su...s/front-damper

[Nessism]

Take an old screwdriver, place the point in the dimple on that cap, press down hard to depress the spring and reveal the spring-clip, dig out clip using small screwdriver, slowly release screwdriver holding cap and it will pop up and out of the fork tube.

Your forks came with anti-dive brakes. Get yourself a manual and read up. You need to educate yourself about the features of your own bike.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/