Hi there, not posted for a while so being cheeky asking for a bit of advice on my first post back!

My Rockshox Reba Race forks (2010) are leaking out of the top on the damper unit (under the blue compression adjuster where the black rubber o-ring is). I store the bike with the fork legs horizontal and have done so with these and my other Rockshox for years without any leaks. So…

Would you expect the fluid to seep out from there?
Is it easy to top up the fluid in the damper?
Is this an early warning that the damper is about to fail? (the forks seem to be working better than ever after the service)
Have I just been lucky up to now and they are not supposed to be stored like that?

They’ve only done approx 20 hours riding (probably less) since a full service by TFT so they are not due for a service etc. but as I’m lucky enough to have a couple of bikes and I ride this the least it’s well outside the 30 days after service to send them back TFT.

Thank you in advance, Baldman.

Would you expect the fluid to seep out from there?

Yes sort of..’design feature’ of RS forks of that period (Rev, Pike, whatever…if it had the moco unit it could leak): oil leaks out of floodgate. It was a while back but I’m sure Loco sold me a couple of o-rings that would solve the problem.

Is it easy to top up the fluid in the damper?

Yes. 123ml of 5wt oil as per my RS service guide. Need a 24mm socket

Is this an early warning that the damper is about to fail? (the forks seem to be working better than ever after the service)

No, not really…If you lose too much oil then you won’t get compression dampening so for example if you set the compression adjuster to ‘lock’ position the forks will still move

Have I just been lucky up to now and they are not supposed to be stored like that?

For the foam rings/bushes it good to store upside down but then my old RS forks tended to suffer the problem you have if you do store them upside down!

Great, thank you Nuke. I guess I may have been lucky up to now, or the original seal may have better?

I’ll keep a check on the damping / lock out then and top up if needed. Will give loco a call in the week to see if he’s still selling those o-rings.

TFT suggested 110ml of 5wt after they’d set them up for me so I guess it may depend on how the forks are tuned/set up, though I guess 13ml isn’t going to make too much difference.