the fish oil myth is only partly a myth. I forget the name of the oil that was actually used but the front forks would be shipped with a vey light non caustic non hydrophilic (or is it hydroscopic) oil that would keep the seals in good shape. I believe it was called fish oil because it smelled like dead rotting fish. The point of this oil was to keep the seals in good shape and to keep condensation from ruining the inside of a shipped bike. When the bikes were prepped by the dealer for sale, the fish oil was drained out and filled with the recommended honda fork oil (which was still pretty light). There have been urban legends that some dealers did not bother with this step as part of the bike's prep and would relase the bike with this light bad smelling oil in it. I suspect these are legends because old fork oil smells realy bad too. This does not apply to the rear shocks which were setup and sealed from the factory, however the rear stock shocks tend to be a little weak overall as compared to a new bike.
I prepped a lot of new Hondas in the early 70s and don't recall smelling anything fishy, are you having us on 
Sam. 
I always thought it smelled like WD-40, which really IS fish oil, in part. I once asked a Japanese Honda rep what that oil was, and he said, "something smelly". Very astute.
When I started working at Brown's Honda, Pekin branch (1970), they were simply adding the recommended oil to the forks as they uncrated the bikes. This often led to leaking seals at the required 500 mile (or 1000 mile) first-service interval. I was dumbfounded to find it out, and they were dumbfounded to have me show them, on my second day on the job, that the setup manual from Honda clearly outlined "drain the fronk shocks and install the recommended type and weight of oil...".
Some people's kids....
So this blind man was walking past the fish market when he turned and said, "Good morning Ladies"........... 
Eau de Pacific?
