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Did I break my forks?
A penguin takes his car to a mechanic to get it looked over. Mechanic says it will take about an hour.
So, to kill some time the penguin goes across to road to get an ice cream. You know how much penguins love ice cream.
But the little guy's got no thumbs and can't hold it properly and ends up getting the soft serve all over his face.
Anyway, he heads back to the mechanic to get his car. Mechanic says "Looks like you blew a seal"
Penguin responds "Oh no, thats just a little ice cream"
Some of you may have read my post on wanting to upgrade my suspension...
Had a particularly hard and front heavy landing last night. Didn't think too much of it until i looked down and saw this...
http://all.global-riders.net/files/imagefield_th...
I know from motorbike riding that landing a wheelie hard can blow fork seals etc (tho i have never had the misfortune).
Have i blown or damaged the fork seals or just forced a little oil past?
Do i need to do anything?
Had another hour to ride after this, and the forks felt ok and no more oil came out (and its only on the LHS)
Im thinking it should be fine, but just wanna check since I'm still a little new to MTB.
Thanks guys.
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The oil seepage seems ok as you said no more is coming out. Just clean it and keep an eye next ride.
What makes me nervous in the crack like thing at 5 o'clock in the lowers near the seal. I'd have it checked at your LBS.
I think that's called a sticker
I reckon I'm getting old and my eyes are not what they used to be anymore.
If this is just a sticker, then all good, just ride.
I know a fair bit about suspension, having worked for a pro team for 10 years, and looks like you will have to change your seals.
This is something normal, the seals wear out due to the friction between the rubber of the seal and the stanchion (fork leg) the sharp edge of the rubber wears off and this reduces the sealing capacity, hence with a bit of dust or some heavy impacts the internal pressure pushes the oil past the sealing lip. These forks have about 20 to 40ml of oil on the left leg which is for lubrication only, if you loose a little each time you ride, eventually it will stop leaking becuase there is none left to leak! this is bad for your fork because now the bearings are dry. The seals are not very expensive to replace and can be done by you at home with minimal tools see this link for details http://service.foxracingshox.com/consumers/FOXDi...
You just have to flip over your bike and pull the lowers off, pop the seals out with a screwdriver, clean everything, and put it all back together with new seals and 40cc of oil and a bit of grease on the seals and you will be good for another 500 hours!
Good luck!