You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / MTB Gear / Fork Maintenance
Fork Maintenance
Hi, what happens if you never maintain your front fork?
I have a 2006 Fox and all I have ever done is clean the metal surfaces of the upper stems after every (well, most) rides. To me it works still great. Should I be expecting any trouble out of this?
Cheers,
Volker
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Tags
After rides do you have any stains/mark/lines of oil in the upper legs? If so, probably you just need new seals and oil change. you can look on the fox site how to do it, also in youtube there is a lot of good videos.
I just did it last week to my front and rear suspension. (TALAS and RP23)
Cheers
The older open bath fox forks are the easiest ones that I have owned and serviced. Putting the correct amount of oil in is important so find out which model you have and how much oil it needs. Here are some instructions that I had bookmarked - http://service.foxracingshox.com/consumers/Conte...
No oil stains or marks!
How do you tell whether a fork needs servicing in the first place? I am not keen to do any work that I don't have to
!
Prefer to be on the trail over the workshop
!
Isn't it with RockShox SIDS when you don't get an oil residue on the stanchions you need a service
. I think a lot of fork/shocks are service every 30 hours or so.
I had my SIDS serviced a month ago after 8 months of use. Still to get out and test them though (bloody wet trails
)
"Hi, what happens if you never maintain your front fork?" the term 'Pogo sticks' comes to mind. Problem is the deterioration is gradual so you get used to the degraded performance. Whilst the service periods are probably too frequent, 5 years is a bit too long. Get them done and notice if any difference. Record any settings you have so you can reset them when you get em back or after you done them yourself.
The plus side of not maintaining forks/shocks is when you eventually replace your bike the new one always feels so good to ride
Always thankful for analogies
!
So, pogostick, let me try to understand what you are saying: the fork looses it's dampening capability and does becomes basically a spring, which in turn dows not make for a good ride?
... ah this opens a whole new universe of thinking, and I thought I was just a crap rider, now I start to understand it is just the forks
!
Any suggestions who you would trust in the Inner West with servicing a Fox fork? I remember when we came to Australia, I talked to the Clarence St Cyclery about it, and they said something along the lines of "We have to send it off for service, no clue how long that would take". From memory that is when I abandoned the idea of having the fork serviced in the first place
:-)!
I took my bike to the LBS a few months back questioning the oil ring on my fork and if it needed a seal change. They told me the oil ring is a good sign. If there is large puddles, streaks or no oil rings, then I need to worry.
You iz correct - you are a brilliant rider - its just your forks and shock that is forking you up resulting in shocking rides
My Rock shox brain S29 forks and shock with brain took a week - but there again I'm in Perth and we had to send it over to those foreigners in the east.
If you have minor oil residue on the staunchions this is a good sign, to lubricate and operate properly some oil must be on the staunchion.
If there is more than a slight residue your seals are stuffed and on a bad day it happens suddenly and oil runs down your fork and ruins your brake pads. Trust me this isn't fun on a speed check before a decent drop off.
In terms of riding on a fork that needs a service it is like riding a fork with too much high speed compression damping and you have no small bump compliance. This is because the lack of oil means your seals are now sticking a bit and doing what your state of the art damping cartridge is supposed to be doing.
I would say if you ride for more than 2 hours once every 6-8 weeks over 5 years you would need a service.
The thing about it is the drop in performance is gradual so you may not know how bad it is until you service it.
A well set up and maintained fork should allow you to fly through moderate rough stuff without the bike making much noise. If you get a lot of rattle and chatter either it's set up wrong or needs a service.
If you have also found you need to keep backing off your damping or particularly on a Fox TALAS drop your air spring pressures you definitely need a service. Both are symptoms of reducing small bump compliance.
The other problem is if it has run dry it also increases wear on bushings and other parts. These may also need to be replaced.
Some shops service in house, many send locally to Netti or Dirtworks. Note that if sent locally much of the time for the service and up to $100 of the cost can be courier and packaging charges and logistics time delays.
Some LBS if you plead poverty will set up the service order with these guys and let you be your own courier service which is great if you find you have more time than money. You will just need to pay the shop before picking the fork up from the service company as they don't normally deal directly with the public.
This works out cheaper and you are back on the bike quicker. There are at least two service agents in Sydney, one is about 15minutes by train from the CBD.
Hi All, thanks for the detailed comments!
@Simon, would you have like name or phone number of these service partners? I am struggling to find this information.
Cheers,
Volker
> If you have minor oil residue on the staunchions this is a good sign, to lubricate and operate properly some oil must be on the staunchion.
Nope. Pretty dry!
>If there is more than a slight residue your seals are stuffed and on a bad day it happens suddenly and oil runs down your fork and ruins your brake pads. Trust me this isn't fun on a speed check before a decent drop off.
I'll take your word for it!
>In terms of riding on a fork that needs a service it is like riding a fork with too much high speed compression damping and you have no small bump compliance.
! And I thought you just go up the hill and hope to come back down again in one piece 
!
I like it when you talk dirty to me
>I would say if you ride for more than 2 hours once every 6-8 weeks over 5 years you would need a service.
Yeah, well, I probably have well passed that bracket.
Ok, you have me convinced that somebody should take a look at the fork!
Cheers,
Volker
the Bike Shed at Mortdale. They service your fork while you wait & did a good job on mine before last year's Fling, definitely noticed the difference. Reasonably priced too.