ChangeForkOil
You supposedly need to change your fork oil every few years, for the same reasons you need to change engine oil:
It accumulates contaminants, and so stops working quite as well.
A nice webpage with some amount of pictures, is at the
It gives you directions on how to do it "the right way": by removing the forks completely and letting them drain. However, there are shortcut methods too: Remove the oil just by syphoning most of it out with tubes.
A note copied from the Front Springs page:
WARNING:: If you take the forks off for this, and at the time you are looking to put them back on the bike, you have problems with things "not lining up right", either when sliding the forks back into place between the two holders, OR when sliding the front wheel axle back into place and the bolt doesnt meet the other side dead-on: STOP ! 'Do Not' just bang/force things into place. This is a sign you need to make some adjustments. _Normally, these things all line up very easily_!
Note copied from spring change page:
Instead of a large syringe you can use the fork oil bottle depicted below. New oil came in a bottle with a handy 11cm extension tube (BTW you need 2 small 0.5L bottles like that for two forks). That tube helps to pour the oil in. I am not sure if other brands have that feature, sorry this is my first time doing forks. This bottle can be used to suck the old oil out. Just attach some tubing to extend the hose and reach all the way into the fork. After the old oil is removed use a shorter tube to form 140mm hose (that's the distance from top of the fork recommended by Progressive). Pour in the new oil and suck the excess out with this 140mm hose. Should work just fine and save you some time.
