Do fork seal cleaners work? 

Thats just the dust cover , that needs sliding up and the fork seal is just below , the tool wont be pentetrating beyond the fork seal spring therefore not cleaning the seal !

Honestly, I’d be nervous with the poking that down around the rubber. My hands are more “hulk smashy” than “finessey”.

Given the roads and conditions I ride under went with fork gaiters instead also adds to blacked out look of the bike so luckily this chore is not required on mine.

I've had mixed results with these too, try pulling the dust cover off before using it next time (small flat head to leverage it off, look at a parts schematic to see how easy it is). Removing the dust cover will give you better (and deeper) access to the seal itself, right now you may only be getting half way down into the seal surface and not clearing all the grime. Do be careful though, repeated use of these tools can start to stretch or even nick the seals surface, making a leak worse. One instance I had a tiny rock chip/pebble stuck in my dirt bike forks, pulled it out and oil gushed from the inverted forks... next time it was just dust and grime build up and the cleaner worked a treat, still no issues and going riding today! If you want to replace the seals - hit me up, I may have all the tools you need and can teach you how. If not, $100 worth of professional grade tools and $100 worth of parts gets the job done in one afternoon... WAY cheaper than the typical $300-600 a shop will charge. Being standard (not inverted) forks, they are even easier to do than what I'm used to doing!

I made my own out of a plastic jug and it stopped the seals leaking on my speed triple. Long enough to do the job properly.

I had no idea there was such a thing.

Wrong.. Take the damn dust cap off first, then clean the seal underneath. That was a waste of all of our time. How can there be riders that know so little about their machines?