[09_Blade]

I have an '09 that's my daily rider and the forks (w/ 30mm NIX cartridges) were chip free and perfectly fine until about 1000 miles ago when I replaced the brake pads with a "different" brand of HH sintered pads.

The front wheel fender has a cut-out so the spinning rotor is right next to the fork tube and the entire fork tube facing the rotor has literally hundreds of little chips. I attached a picture of just the outer part. It's much worse on the side directly facing the rotor and fork tube is unscathed on the side facing away from the rotor.

No it's not just debris when I try to wipe it off each little rust spot has a bit of missing chrome underneath.

Does anyone have any experience replacing just the fork tubes? I see some on eBay for $150 but it's some Chinese knockoff. It's an ABS bike so it's even harder to find a pair of OEM forks with the hole for the wheel speed sensor.

For the price of OEM fork tubes I figured I may as well sell the cartridges and get the Ohlins forks but they only have one for the 2012-2016 models. Since the wheel seems to be the same part number what exactly do I need to modify/swap out to get it working on the 2009?

 

[motorcycle01]

Shit pads, Complain to the manufacturer, looks like metal from pads coming off and hitting the forks. What was the issue with OEM pads?


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[09_Blade]

Shit pads, Complain to the manufacturer, looks like metal from pads coming off and hitting the forks. What was the issue with OEM pads?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Neither Honda OEM pads or Galfers ever gave me any issues. Only reason I changed pads to this new brand (won't mention name but 3 letters and first letter isn't E) is because I got a new set of calipers and the price was competitive.

 

[2015HRC]

Curious if you pulled the pads out and took a look at them for pitting/chipping.
That sucks brother, sorry to see that happen.
If they were stock forks I would suggest sending them out to one of the suspension companies and seeing if they can resurface the tubes or replace them and rebuild everything at the same time. Might still be worth it to contact Ohlin and see what they recommend.
LDH is a member here who is an authorized Ohlin dealer, definitely worth while to contact him as well

 

[09_Blade]

Curious if you pulled the pads out and took a look at them for pitting/chipping.
That sucks brother, sorry to see that happen.
If they were stock forks I would suggest sending them out to one of the suspension companies and seeing if they can resurface the tubes or replace them and rebuild everything at the same time. Might still be worth it to contact Ohlin and see what they recommend.
LDH is a member here who is an authorized Ohlin dealer, definitely worth while to contact him as well

I did pull the pads. They were barely worn after 1000 miles and there was no chipping or pitting, but what I saw was pad material packed into the wear indicator grooves, which would suggest material sloughing off.

 

[Bosston]

my two cents:

1- From what I can see, the damaged part of the fork is below the area that the upper part would travel on. Right?
so it doesn't have to be perfect. the upper part of the fork will never slide over it.
If the look bothers you, clean it up with some chrome polish?
I've seen people use chrome polish or rusty bumpers (on cars) with excellent results.

2- I don't think the root cause for damage is from the brake pads. From some 09 pictures on the web the stock front fender covers the forks. The coverage is there to deflect air flow and debris around the fork and prevent them from hitting the forks. Your fender doesn't seem to cover the forks.
So all the air and debris, would flow into the forks and hit them and cause damage.
Now why the inside and not the outside? Maybe that's how the air flows, into the radiator and intake.
maybe the flow goes between the forks more than it goes around.
Or maybe the dust from the pads are flung forward by the disk and then pushed back into the forks by air. But, they would be protected if the fender covered them.

Anyways, I think the root cause is the fender not covering the forks.

 

[2015HRC]

my two cents:

1- From what I can see, the damaged part of the fork is below the area that the upper part would travel on. Right?
so it doesn't have to be perfect. the upper part of the fork will never slide over it.
If the look bothers you, clean it up with some chrome polish?
I've seen people use chrome polish or rusty bumpers (on cars) with excellent results.

2- I don't think the root cause for damage is from the brake pads. From some 09 pictures on the web the stock front fender covers the forks. The coverage is there to deflect air flow and debris around the fork and prevent them from hitting the forks. Your fender doesn't seem to cover the forks.
So all the air and debris, would flow into the forks and hit them and cause damage.
Now why the inside and not the outside? Maybe that's how the air flows, into the radiator and intake.
maybe the flow goes between the forks more than it goes around.
Or maybe the dust from the pads are flung forward by the disk and then pushed back into the forks by air. But, they would be protected if the fender covered them.

Anyways, I think the root cause is the fender not covering the forks.

Haha he has the fender removed, or at least unbolted and lifted out of the way to take the picture of the damaged area of the fork tube which is under the fender when it is mounted
That area of the fork does/will/should have the dust seal ride over it which will cause a seal failure and an eventual leak.
The damage is almost certainly from the new brake pads installed recently which is why on the inside of the tube and not on the outside and the pitting looks pretty bad. I wouldn't risk it and get it fixed/replaced ASAP as the OP is trying to do. Chrome polish will do nothing to help

 

[09_Blade]

I was able to remove the fork tubes relatively easily with a bit of heat and have ordered replacement fork tubes at a reasonable cost.

For anyone who might be trying to do this, heat the fork tube to 250 degrees F (use IR thermometer to confirm) and aim the torch about 2 inches below the rim where the chrome tube screws in. Those threads are in there pretty deep and I couldn't get it off at first because I was aiming the flame too high up. There is an O-ring so don't get it too hot. On the later years (2012+) there is a set screw you have to take out but there isn't one on the 2008-2011. I was a bit worried at first seeing videos of people straining but it turned out to not require that much force once I knew where to aim the heat.

I did not have to buy any special tools and used a shower valve socket wrench (from Harbor Freight) to grip the inside of the chrome tube. Simply put the drop socket inside the chrome tube and insert a screwdriver through 2 of the 4 holes in the upper fork tube and hole in the socket then you can use another socket and extension bar to get good leverage on the tube.

Now have to wait for shipping from UK!

 

[bored&stroked]

The direction of the spinning wheel should throw all debris away from the fork tube not into it. That's really strange.
Racetech sells just fork tubes fyi.

 

[09_Blade]

The direction of the spinning wheel should throw all debris away from the fork tube not into it. That's really strange.
Racetech sells just fork tubes fyi.

If you mark a point on the rotor and roll the bike forward, the point first goes through the caliper then grazes the fork tube. There's also a curved part of the front fender that I think the particles are bouncing off of back onto the fork tube, because the front fender also had some paint chips in it in the curved region of the fender around the lower fork tube.

I ended up purchasing a pair of chrome tubes and got them installed no issues. I'm hoping it was just a set of bad pads that weren't sintered properly, but I will never use those pads again.