Rockshox fork oil equivalent

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Rockshox fork oil equivalent
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flag triplecork14
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Posted: Dec 19, 2022 at 19:50 Quote
Hello I'm trying to make sense of rockshox fork oil as in my experience fork oil is measured in weight for example 3wt, 5wt, 20wt. But my service manual says to use 0w30 to my understanding w stands for winter and the first number is todo with how much the oil thickens when cold so does that mean the second number is the weight so does 0w30 = 30wt?

And second question is in some spots it has an alternative oil which is maxima plush dynamic light or heavy
what is the wt of these oils it just says light or heavy?
flag kiranseligman
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Posted: Dec 20, 2022 at 4:58 Quote
triplecork14 wrote:
Hello I'm trying to make sense of rockshox fork oil as in my experience fork oil is measured in weight for example 3wt, 5wt, 20wt. But my service manual says to use 0w30 to my understanding w stands for winter and the first number is todo with how much the oil thickens when cold so does that mean the second number is the weight so does 0w30 = 30wt?

And second question is in some spots it has an alternative oil which is maxima plush dynamic light or heavy
what is the wt of these oils it just says light or heavy?

Rockshox sells oil in a 0w30 which is what they say to use. The maxima plush light according to maxima is 0w30, I’m not sure about the difference between the light and heavy though as it is not specified.


Link to rockshox 0w30 https://www.jensonusa.com/Rockshox-0W-30-Suspension-Oil-120Ml-Bottle-PikeLyrik-B1Yari-Lowers?loc=usa&gclid=Cj0KCQiA14WdBhD8ARIsANao07gb4D9037_rgzozDtPMEKjWmu75Emtb24GcQm3nwM9tdFJ43RbZU9AaAp7PEALw_wcB
flag aegiz
Posted: Dec 22, 2022 at 15:14 Quote
*W = winter*
*wt = weight*
*cSt = centistroke*

0W-30 denotes that the oil's viscosity (behaves like a):
0 weight @ 100*F
30 weight @ 210*F

If you're trying to understand the theory, then this ultimately isn't very useful information. This is because an oil's assigned weight does not explicitly indicate its actual viscosity.

Additionally, different manufacturers might label oils with different viscosity indexes as the same weight.
Ie, a RS oil that is 0 weight @ 100* maybe be more/less viscous than a Maxima oil that is also 0 weight @ 100*

It's important to remember that the assigned weight of an oil is unique to the manufacturer.

If you really want to understand this better, you'll want to look for the viscosity values with the cSt unit.

I believe the RS 0W-30 is approximately 47 cSt @ 40*C

Having poked around at the data sheet of the Maxima Plush lube, it appears that their 10wt oil is 46 cSt @ 40*C

If you don't care too much about the technicalities of all of this, just get a bottle of the Maxima Plush Dynamic Suspension Lube [Light]. This is the oil that has replaced the RS 0W-30.
flag triplecork14
O+
Posted: Dec 22, 2022 at 20:57 Quote
First off thanks aegiz for the write up.

I was having a hard time finding "Maxima PLUSH Dynamic Suspension Lube Light" in stock in Australia although a lot of the online shops have restocked recently.

I was also having a really hard time finding any info on Maximas "dynamic" oils after doing some digging it appears that the light is 7.5wt and the heavy is 30wt but I can't find any viscosity numbers.

At this point I will use the recommended oil

But it would be great if anyone has anymore info or alternatives to add to help others if there are stocking issues or to reduce oil clutter for people with multiple forks or for tuning and what not
flag aegiz
Posted: Dec 22, 2022 at 22:53 Quote
Aha! Found it!

https://maximausa.com/i-30498682-plush-dynamic-lube-liter-light.html?locale=en

Tech data sheet towards the bottom of the page

https://maximausa.com/files/datasheets/tds/plush-dynamic-lube-tds.pdf

The Light oil (as a direct replacement for the 0W-30) has a viscosity index of 49.2 cSt @ 40*C.
flag eshew
Posted: Dec 23, 2022 at 11:50 Quote
I've used Pennzoil platinum synthetic 5w-30. Works well enough.

Didn't really notice much of a difference if any between that and the rockshox oil.
flag johnovey
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Posted: Dec 23, 2022 at 17:17 Quote
eshew wrote:
I've used Pennzoil platinum synthetic 5w-30. Works well enough.

Didn't really notice much of a difference if any between that and the rockshox oil.
Agreed,I use any decent synthetic 0w-30 auto oil, works just fine for the lowers.
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