Pricy, but if you took them your bike and they had to spend time removing the forks from the bike as well the price is probably not far off.
I checked pricing from two suspension shops I have used in the past and they were both around $210-240 for complete service not including parts.(Canadian dollars) But this is you taking forks off bike. If I was going to pay someone I would send my stuff to a reputable suspension shop not a dealer. Preferably a shop who's primary work is on road race bikes. They will be quicker and you will know they are doing a full strip and refresh for a better price than a dealer who is likely just doing a dump and fill. Nothing wrong with a dump and fill, but I don't expect to pay the same as a full service.
Put bike on centre stand and find a way to get the front wheel off the ground. A tie down to a rafter in the garage will work or a block of wood under the engine. I have used a step ladder over the bike with a couple of tie downs attached to the handlebars in the past, but I now have a triple clamp stand which makes the job very easy. Whatever works.
Make note of your compression and rebound clicker settings so you can put them back when we are done, then turn both to fully open position.(counter clockwise)
Remove wheel, brakes and then loosen top triple clamp bolts only. (lower triple clamp still tight.) Make note of fork height in the triple so you put it back to same height when you reinstall. The seam where the cap meets the fork is usually level with the top of the triple.
Using socket, cresent wrench or adjustable wrench loosen fork cap. You may want to put a rag over the nut if you are anal about possible scratches.
After cap is loose,(1/2 turn) loosen the lower triple bolts and remove the forks from the bike.
Get a clean container to collect the used oil and something to accurately measure the volume of the oil you remove. I usually use a white ice cream container and then transfer oil to a ratio rite or other calibrated container to measure the volume. This can get messy so take it slow and try not to lose any oil. If you are doing a dump and fill you will probably put back what you remove so volume is important. I like to setup the container such that I can hang my forks over them to allow them to drain for a long period of time.
A bungee cord through the axle hole to a nail above my bench is what I do. That way I can walk away and let it drip.
The better method to determining oil volume is to set the oil height in the fork, but this requires removing the cap. This requires having a fork compressor. They can be made easy enough, but this discussion is about a quick easy way to service your forks with minimal tools so I won't go there.
Holding the fork vertical loosen the cap fully. You will feel a slight click when the threads are fully off. Pull gold outer fork tube down a couple of inches to expose the inner workings. Turn upside down over your container. Let it drain a while, cycle the gold outer up and down a few times to help expel the oil that is between the inner and outer tubes. Hanging from ceiling makes this easy.
After it has stopped turn forks right side up and place bottom of fork on the ground. There will still be oil in the cartridge, so now you are going to try and get this out. With both hands push down on forks firmly and try to compress forks as much as possible. Do this 3-4 times. Pumping the forks will push the remaining oil in the cartridge to the outer chamber and then it can be removed by dumping into your container.
Invert fork and hang over your container again.
Repeat this 3 or 4 times until you are no longer getting any more oil out of forks. Cycle the gold outer up and down a few times each as well.
Your forks now empty. There will be still a little oil in the forks so the longer they hang the more you can get out. Sometimes I hand mine overnight if I am not busy.
Measure the amount of oil you have removed. I always measure each fork separately. Compare to factory spec, compare one fork to the other as well. Hopefully both of your forks are similar in volume and close to the factory spec.
Factory spec is 150mm oil height, volume 485ml/fork. It is perfectly fine to run slightly more or less oil than spec. More height(more oil) will decrease air gap and create a bit more air spring when nearing full compression.
When I did mine last each of the forks had 450ml of oil. Assuming there was probably a few ml still in the forks and I probably spilled a bit they were not too far off spec. I decided I would go with 465ml .
My fork oil was not very dirty. If it was I would have removed the cap and did a full strip and then set my oil by height not volume, but for this time I felt a dump and fill was sufficient.
Turn fork right side up and pull gold outer up to approx 4 inches from the cap. Lean the fork 20-45 degrees and slowly pour the measured amount of oil back into the fork. I find by leaning the fork slightly I can pour the oil on the fork spring and it is less likely to drip all over the outer tube. Go slow.
When all the oil is in put the fork on the ground. Do not screw cap to the gold outer just yet. Slowly pump the fork cap up/down. The cartridge is still full of air and we need to get it out. This is where having the comp/rebound adjusters open fully helps in bleeding the air out of the fork. You will feel the fork has no resistance to compression at first. After a few pumps it will start to develop resistance as the air is removed and oil takes it's place. You will know when you are done. Usually 10-20 slow full strokes will remove all the air. At this point pull the gold outer up and screw the cap back onto the tube. I like to put a small amount of grease on the threads and the o-ring on the cap. Hand tighten.
Again pump fork hard several times it should feel firm with no gaps in damping. Even if there was air left in the cartridge it will come out quickly.
Put fork back on machine setting fork height like it was before. Tighten/torque lower triple clamp then tighten the fork cap fully. It only needs to be snug. There is no reason to over tighten the cap, the o-ring seals the fork. After cap is snug go ahead and tighten the upper triple clamp bolts.
Reset your comp/rebound settings and you are done.
