I’ve been discussing this with a friend who is adamant its better to run without the foam rings in my RS Revs. His theory behind it is that if dirt/grit does get behind the fork seal itself then its better for the grit to go into the oil in the lower leg rather than sticking in the foam ring and possibly causing wear/scratches to the visable part of the stanction.

He runs enduro seals and no foam rings and changes them on brand new forks to this way too.

Whats the views and theories from the STW massive?

better for the grit to go into the oil in the lower leg

but it doesn’t, it sucked up into damper internals and run through seals and shim stacks and stuff.

as long as the foam rings are kept oiled and serviced then the best bet is to keep them there to filter out any crap that gets past the seals, which is what they are there for.

My 2nd hand, but relatively new, f120s had noticeable wear on the spring side stanchion when I got them.
I therefore serviced them and discovered they didn’t have any foam rings (and thus dry upper bushing and seal).
I installed new foam rings and the wear hasn’t got any worse in a year since….

Dry v.s. Wet seals

The foam rings on rockshox live above the oil seal* so its intent is not to lube the bushings, I suspect it’s for the wipers.

As you say Enduros don’t include them, and in my experience the foam rings get stretched/snagged much earlier than the wipers/seals have worn at all and give el-crappo amounts of friction, even when sodden with oil.

(*where it is included, and this seems to be random)

but it doesn’t, it sucked up into damper internals and run through seals and shim stacks and stuff.

I hope not – on my Revs at least the damper system is isolated from the lower leg oil.

I’ve never found anything nasty embedded in my foam rings, just fine dirt, for the sake of keeping the seals lubed I would keep them in place. I considered the Enduro seals but found lots of horror stories of them ruining stanchions albeit on Fox fork,s.

As an aside can you replace the foam rings without removing and refitting the wipers?

I’d have thought so.

Ditto re oil from the wiper not getting into the damping cartiridge LOL

yes you can replace them without removing the seals, though mine were glued in so had to be careful removing them.

Thanks guys, I’ve a pair that I took the spacers out of to use them at 120 and found that the foam rings were not sitting in properly. It was the first time they’d been apart so I assume they were like it from new. It doesn’t seem to be detrimental to performance but if i can change them without removing the wipers then so much the better.

Dave Garland of Stendec Suspension (also CRC DH Team head mechanic) has many times when buying fork oil and other service bits, told me to discard the foam rings and fill space with his Super Fine Easy Glide Fork and Pivot Grease 😉