Hey y'all,  I would like some input please.... Right fork seal on my 98 Shadow 1100 is leaking.... It was a slow leak last fall, just a drip when I had the bike on the trailer and strapped down. Now there is a puddle just beside the wheel,  of course the cold, cold weather accelerated the seal deterioration I'm sure.  About what should it cost to get the seals replaced? I know when some mechanics see a female with a bike they see dollar signs at the same time.... LOL....  My mechanic is not like that (usually), but I'd still like an idea before I drop it off to be fixed.....
Thanks in advance.......

Carrie, I know that feeling. I am always scared to briong my bike to the shop alone because I don't know all that much about the mechanics of the bike and they could tell me it is 4 hours labor to do a half hour job, and I wouldn't know any different.

I'm sure someone here can at least tell you how much labor should be involved.

Good Luck!

Thanks Dianne! That's exactly why I threw this out here......

This might be your opportunity to be a complete biker. Buy the service manual for your bike and the seal at the dealership. Study the section in your new book and see if it's something you can do yourself. If its over your abilty at least you will know what it takes.

Or just take it to the shop. A fork seal is probably about 2 hours labor. So probably about $120 plus the $5 seals and $10 in new fork oil. Don't ride it like that. And my guess is that it was the tie downs that blew out your fork seal...

You also might have damaged the seals on your forks when you were pulling down on your bars with your tiedowns.If you trailor your bike alot you might want to look into getting something that will block your forks from being pulled down so far. Several people I know have damaged their forks when they pull down to far on their tie down straps to keep the bike from moving around.

We do fork seals at my work for around 160 bucks..I can do them in about 45 minutes to an hour whilst finishing a beer or two..Fork seals are a big problem down here after heavy rain when heaps of shit is getting thrown up onto the forks..Get a stand for tying your bike down coz thats sure as shit the quickest way to blow them out..I dont think it would be economical for you to bring your bike to me to do so good luck with that..CHEERS BOOF

But Boof,,, that could be your next excuse to come over here.... LOL......
I knew y'all would step in and help me out with this.....
I actually have a really nice wheel chock on my trailer and use the front tiedowns to reduce side to side motion. The rear tiedowns are the tight ones... afterall I don't want her "butt" sashaying and bouncing around.   The males just couldn't handle it! 
Ok, so what I'm hearing is it shouldn't take forever for me to do it.  I'm game.....   Afterall, I can handle a chainsaw, change a tire, change the oil in my truck, and I even got my old clothes dryer out of the cellar and put the new dryer down in there all by myself!  So will I need any special tools???

Carrie, You've got a point there you may have missed. I had an uncle who gave his jewelry wholesale business to his daughter and then when he died his daughter moved it to Florida. One of the things he taught her and me was if you dont know your diamonds then you better know your jeweler. The same is true for all mechanics, especially motorcycle mechanics. Get with my profile and comments and you'll get to know more about mechanics.

Now then, U have a seal problem. Not familiar with your year and model bike, however, some bikes have external drain plugs and some have plugs in the center of the lower leg requiring the axle to be removed. there is a sealing washer at that point and this could be your problem if your getting a puddle on the floor. If your leak is coming from the other end, blowing by the tube wiper, then undoubtably you need seals and wipers and an entire front end rebuild may also be helpful. It depends on the # of miles and, if done before, what parts were put in the forks. On my bike Honda used 10W fork oil and weak springs, soft everything and I rebuilt the entire front end. With OEM parts I got 23K out of it and with my current rebuild I'm now over 90K. Nope, sorry, whether or not you strapped your front end down so far that you bottomed out the forks, that is not what causes seals to leak. The valves in the fork tubes permit the fluid to pass thru and there is only so much fluid in the tubes. Unless you took it to a hack for service there is the correct amount of fluid in them.

I hesitate to say too much online in that every kid is a mechanic and the official, authorized certified "technos" out of the nearest "technos" school just may try to do it and end up screwing it up so you'd have no choice other than to bring it to me or keep your bike in the shop until your friendly, smiling OEM franchisee has enough work to keep me busy for 10 flat rate hours in 8 clock hours or to take it to a shop run by another real mechanic. What I will say is that new seals, tube wipers, springs, fluid and a few "O" rings including labor should cost you about $250 in a real shop run by a real mechanic OR about the same price in a "tehcno" OEM sales organization if they're capable of doing it, and in and around DFW, one of them may not even do it, never the less, charge you for it and tell you it was done. There are some competent OEM shops around the country that really can do Honda machines well. Get with me and I'll give you their names and locations.
Get with me on my private email site, you'll find it on my business profile here at CycleFish.