Surviving Philly wrote on 06/20/24 at 16:33:41:Annoying as the front forks are to work on (at least for me on the sidewalk with my bike repeatedly falling off of my stands and literally into traffic on the street) I would be inclined to fix the leak for safety -- two reasons. One is that the leak can get onto the caliper and totally nullify the front brake. The other is my intense fear of tank slappers. Just food for thought. I was able to replace my seals effectively with that jury rigged long bolt thingy -- there's a thread on it in here that brakes down the whole job.
I would fix it if I was riding the bike, but with my other bikes the humble Savage at this point isn't getting much seat time from me. I live in NYC, so right now it serves as a parking space saver for me - I park it strategically in front of my house so that if anyone parks behind it, they would block my driveway. This way I always have a spot right in front of my house, which is a huge convenience in NYC.
If I ever ride it, I'm not taking it on the highway at this point, it may just be a quick trip around town. The fork did not leak onto the caliper, but I'll be keeping an eye on it, and this is why I did the paper towel "fix" - to keep the oil from leaking down the fork and getting onto the caliper.
If I do ever fix it, I will probably have to get a whole new fork, because clearly there is something wrong with mine causing the leak. I don't see any obvious scratches, so it may be just deformed.
The bike also sat all winter with no leaks, and it only started leaking once the weather got hotter.