Clear information on the differences between shock and fork oil is hard to find. Maxima does post specs on their shock and fork oils, but figuring out what to do with what you see, that's harder.

I was mostly interested in a range of viscosities that I could compare. Maxima is readily available to me, and in the fork oil they had the range I wanted to play with. They don't have that range in the shock oils.

Some of the lore regarding shock oils is that they are more stable at higher temperatures. That may actually be. I've certainly gotten shocks burning hot before on some vehicles under certain driving conditions. On the Harley, I've never gotten them warm. With motorcycles in particular, I've yet to see how my shocks would build up more heat than my forks would. It's not as if only one end of the bike moves going over bumps.

 

I'm 320 lbs. Do you feel like the air shocks give you a pretty nice and smooth ride?