I noticed on a friends 954 that the left fork leg has quite a bit of vertical scratching going on. The scratches range in length and are not even distances apart. We were thinkin maybe some grim got under the wiper but it is clean. Each mark is very consistant. What I mean by that is the marks begin at the wiper and fadeas they gofarther down the fork leg. So it is not like whatever is making the marks is shifting places. The marksare very visible but do not actually go deep into the fork leg. When I ran my fingernail acrossed it I could not feel it. It is really wierd looking!

The opinion I offered him was that the leg was possibly tweaked. I dont think that is possible do to the fact the bike shows no signs of being damaged in any way. Plus, he has had it from 1,500 miles or so. Any ideas?

 

It sounds like to me that you have a small rock or something that is stuck inbetween you fork slider and you actual fork pipe. Have you ever taken apart a fork before? If this were happening to my bike, I would remove the fork from the steering collar and disassemble the fork. Page 13-20 of the manual that is in the top of this forum shows a full schematics of the two front forks. This chapter is great help as it shows step by step what you need to do to disassemble and reassemble your fork. Check it out. Maybe it is something that you can do, maybe it is not. If you do not think you can do this just get your fork out and take it in to your nearest dealership or whoever works on you stuff. Let me know if this helps.

 

If you cant feel a 'score' or ridge in the fork, chances are you're ok. There's going to be some rubbing because two parts are moving against each other, and there is at least some line on line interference. The best bet if you're worried about it is to rip apart the forks and make sure to clean them and replace the dust cover. You could try to remove the dust cover and clean without taking them apart if you wanted, but I don't now how well that'll work. That's my 2 cents, but I've never taken a shock apart....