A tiny pin head nick, which I can feel with my fingernail. I’m guessing I just wait and see if it damages the seals and leaves oil about the place before I decide to pursue any or corrective action?

i woold do the nail varnish trick
FWIW my kids did this to my brand new Pikes scrapping them down a metal washing line post

3 years on and never seen any signs of dirt or damage to seals when i service them
It is sufficient I would have expected something bad to happen

Remember the hand is incredibly sensitive to what is in reality only a very small mark that is unlikely to trap dirt,stones, dust or mud to any real degree

In the bin, they’re ruined. Nah, I’ve got a couple of visible dinks in mine and I’ve not noticed any detriment to performance or sealing. They’ve been there for ages too.

What forks?

Fox F120 FIT – the good 2010/11 version hence I don’t want to write them off at all. FWIW it’s about 90mm up so won’t be hitting the seals all the time.

Can someone explain the nail varnish thing?

100% ruined. Can not be safely ridden again, you will fall off land on your face and die to death.

Luckily for you I am happy to safely dispose of them before a baby robins face comes to any harm. Just post them to me and then you will be able to sleep safely.

Get some wet and dry – the smoothest they do – 1200 iirc
Sand very gently – you want to no burrs that extrude.
Apply nail varnish – some use Hammerite
Leave to harden for 24 hours ish
Sand to smooth
Repeat if required

Did this to mine and seems to have held

What colour nail varnish, does it need to looks fabulous daarling?

Totally fubar-ed,

but I gave my forks a huge gash (3mm long, 1mm wide, 1/2mm deep) three years ago in the alps. A quick rub down with wet and dry (some that i found in the foot well of my car) and a blob of nail varnish (not mine) and there has been no leaking or damage to the seals. Regular lowers services show no signs of crap getting below either.

Have faith.

…………….something else to stress about, eh? 😉 From your description I really can’t see much to worry about.

did a kid climb on them?

toxicsoks – Member
…………….something else to stress about, eh?

Yes! Look at the state of it…

<img src=”http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3746/9601011920_ff40476968.jpg&#8221; width=”375″ height=”500″ alt=”Untitled”>

toxicsoks – Member
…………….something else to stress about, eh?

Yes! Look at the state of it…

Untitled

I put a small scratch in mine within first week of getting them. Had them for 3 yrs with no problems.
Did the nail varnish thing but it did wear off after not too long.

Araldite can be better than nail varnish ime (damaged 3 stanchions over the years), but less room for error, don’t leave much to smooth off otherwise you risk making it worse over a larger area. That’s a pretty minor mark, I’d leave it for now and only worry if it damages the seal over time.

Wow. I’m impressed you noticed.. mine look much worse with limited ill effect currently.

Your worried about that?

Do you think people are talking about you when you walk into a room?
😉

Actually I do SSS…. 😉

Bearing in mind junkyards finger sensitivety comment, is anyone able to judge whether I should take the emery cloth to it? I don’t want to if I don’t have to.

Equally I’d like to ride tomorrow but don’t want to damaged seals…

Best advice??

😉

EDIT: In response to your actual question however, no advice available I’m afraid. Have a bump on me. 🙂

If you can only just feel it with a fingernail, then it should be only around 0.1mm deep, or thereabouts. I wouldn’t rub that down tbh, but others might.

Is this the singletrack version of breaking a nail?

I’d just rub any high spots down with a piece of 1200 wet or dry wrapped around a flat piece of wood – like an ice lolly stick.
Then I’d just use them and not worry about it.

OP I think I need to get my eyes tested… what damage where?… couple of years ago some numpty dropped his bike against mine queueing to get onto a lift, it left a chip in the stanchion… after 2 years no ill effects at all no leaks or contamination.. as above have said .. it will be fine mate…

as long as there’s no raised area then I’d not worry – worse that will happen is a little extra oil will come past the seal as it slides over the scratch.

I don’t like adding to your crisis, but that Velcro strapping holding the mudguard on is going to gently wear out the coating on the front of the fork stanchion when it gets muddy, and you’ll not notice until it’s far too late…

wwaswas – this is my thinking. Its my first experience with a scratched stantion so I’m being uber cautious.

I’d I start seeing oil it’ll be a good time to learn a DIY Fox Fork service I guess…

he’s right about that strap, too – any grit on it is going to really give you something to worry about 🙁

crikey – Member
I don’t like adding to your crisis, but that Velcro strapping holding the mudguard on is going to gently wear out the coating on the front of the fork stanchion when it gets muddy, and you’ll not notice until it’s far too late…

By the time that happens, I’ll be riding an SB75. Maybe.

It’s fine. Ride it. Don’t worry about it. In the massively unlikely event that it does damage the seal, replace the seal. But it won’t, so you won’t have to, so it’s fine. Just ride it.

Oh I see what you mean crikety/WWW. Thats a trick of the light, there’s about a 4mm gap between that velcro and the stantion. Nevertheless I may go and trim the excess just in case….

Just bloody leave it and ride the bloody thing.
Anything you do will make them look crap.
It’s fine, it will be fine and as long as you service them they should do until you sell them.

@Kryton you’ll have to post a picture with the area of damage highlighted – I cannot see anything !

I’ve put various small scratches on my forks over 6 years worth of crashes and bike falling over plus a larger gash in a sadly brand new rear shock during air transport – I’ve suffered no ill effects, IME the seals seem to deal with this sort of stuff

Perhaps a better picture, that highlights the velco issue too. Surely this is the same way other people secure their MuckyNuts Fenders?

That’s nothing to worry about. Really. It’s like a spot, the more you rub or fiddle with it the worse it’s likely to get. Wet and dry can go through a thin coating fast so if you’ve not done it before, avoid that cold-sweat oh-sht moment when you realise you can’t put back what you’ve just ‘smoothed’ off… Don’t rub the area with wet and dry if there’s no burrs (looks like a chip with no raised edges to me), just keep an eye on it and fill it with epoxy resin or something similarly hard, carefully, if it leaks oil.

Wet and dry can go through a thin coating fast so if you’ve not done it before

That is exactly what I’m worried about – I am a hamfisted DIY-er.

I think I’ll leave it alone…

All my forks look worse than that, they all work fine. But yours are Fox so they’ll probably explode 😉 I’d leave it alone personally.

Get the dremel out (after the dictionary) and put a similar mark on the other stanchion to prevent the inevitable differential damping issues this scratch will cause if not so treated.

Just leave it, there’s no air or oil under pressure in that leg of that fork anyway.