Sub,
Brave? Nah. Taking apart my Ducati engine to check the cam timing a month after I got it because stopped running when the adjustable cams came loose, that took guts!
I took apart more than I needed for just the oil change just to make sure it was all clean. Lots of stuff seems to find its way into weird places on these bikes. Yeah, I figure a few pics would be off. I'll fix them soon. You've got the link to everything. I didn't paste them inline because there are only so many you can put in one post and then it would take even longer to put this together.
Yes, why not a simple drain and fill plug? Especially when you're supposed to check the oil every few thousand miles, at least according to the manual. I've been chatting with SSR and Gorilla. We think you could easily drill and tap the top cap to add a fill bolt. Better yet, I bet you could just drill it out and let the big chrome screw and o-ring seal it like on the G5. I'm not sure why they didn't do that in the first place. For a drain, a bolt on the back of the fork leg between the lowest and middle fender bolts is in just the right spot to intersect the bottom of the chamber. Usually drains are on the side but there's much more metal on the back to tap into. If you want to do it, that's the place for it. Gorilla's thinking about it. I'm usually in there changing springs and setting preload so it doesn't help me much.
Hoggy,
RE recommends 10w30 engine oil. I used 10w Bel-Ray fork oil. I also put in 195ml, the recommended amount. I took out 150 and 165 from the two legs. 10w is definitely thicker and the fork moves a little slower, doesn't dive as fast. With the right amount of oil the air space is smaller and the fork doesn't dive as far either. Even without those attributes it just feels much better in general riding. More solid, more planted. Don't go adding oil to make it dive less. I heard the reason it's now 195 is that at 200 they were blowing too many seals.
I put the stock springs and spacers back in but did find out that we have 0.7kg/mm springs. The calculators I checked said I should be running 0.9-0.95 for my weight. That seems a little stiff to me, it was on my Ducati when I put 0.95s in there. And this is a lazier easy riding bike. I think I may step up to 0.85 when money allows and probably drop to 7w oil then too. I might go 0.9 or 0.95 when I add the side car.
Scott