I have a 2006 Specialized with an OEM Fox DHX3.0 rear shock. Had the bike since new as a frameset and its been constantly tweaked and upgraded over the years- and although the frame is now 11 years old-it hasn’t been ridden for all of that time and is in excellent mechanical order. however I’ve never had the shock serviced, having not had any problem with its performance. It has not become noisier, sloppier or erratic in its behaviour in what must be about 4/5 years of fairly consistent use over its life. Same cannot be said for the rider. A full strip and shock service is due to be done soon when funds allow next month, as I have convinced myself i have been taking a significant risk all this time.. but it made me think what the longest STW has gone without servicing of MTB components…?

Ha, I thought I was bad, I’ve just bought an air seal kit for the RP23 on my 2008 Five. I figured I’ll get round to doing it in the next year or two…

2004 Z1’s, first service was last year ! Oil was still pretty clean too… Double seals, it’s like they were designed for being ridden off road in muddy gritty conditions……….. 😉

The Vanilla rc on my ’05 Keewee hasn’t been serviced yet.
Really must get round to sending it off at some point.

2004 Z1’s, first service was last year ! Oil was still pretty clean too… Double seals, it’s like they were designed for being ridden off road in muddy gritty conditions………..

impressive!

When did you last get the shocks on your car serviced?

In 2007,I bought a Giant NRS.I ran it until 2015, in all conditions god knows how many hours of grit & mud,week after week year after year.When I finally parked it up all that was original were the frame,bars,brakes,shifters & shock.The shock has never been serviced & never gave any trouble despite the grit & mud.

Marz Z3 coils 100’s, been on a bike since 2001 I reckon, first my main MTB and now my dads. They’ve never been serviced and truth, I don’t think they ever will be. They still feel good, they still move well and the stanchions are still perfect.

With shocks, there’s a reasonable argument for just never servicing them, or with airshocks just doing diy seal services (dead easy), since the cost of full services soon adds up to more than the replacement cost. But there’s still the question of whether it works as well as it should. I mean really works, not just that we can’t tell, if a shock slowly goes off over years we’ll never notice, as long as it still basically works- we feel short term contrasts better than absolutes

2005 fox vanilla shock

Finally serviced this year, but only because the rebound damper knob had stopped working.

It has seen a huge amount of Peak District grit and alpine slop.

It was £100 to buy and £100 to service. If I could have bought a new ish or lightly used coil shock that would fit my frame I would have bought that instead.

Have had a few serviced because I thought I should but apart from a squelchy RP23 they all felt pretty much the same as when they went in. Van RC on the Voltage is probably the oldest zero-maintenance component on any bike my sweat has corroded the adjusters 🙂

my 1999 orange mr XC (which admittedly has spent most of the last decade not getting ridden) has never had a shock/fork service. Can anyone beat 18 years?

(to be fair, the rear shock is knocking chronically, I can’t decide whether to open it up or just bin it for a new one)

A friend asked me to service the Judy XL’s on their partner’s 2000 Gary Fisher. Managed to find a service manual, ordered some new seals and fresh oil only to pull them apart and find the air cartridge was completely shot / unserviceable

Only if it starts leaking or the rebound has blown

Only did my 2007 Fox 32’s this year, the RP2 of the same vintage just got a bit of float fluid in the air can to keep things lubed.

If I’d have got them professionally done every year that would be a large percentage of the price of a new bike!

2004 Z1’s, first service was last year ! Oil was still pretty clean too… Double seals, it’s like they were designed for being ridden off road in muddy gritty conditions………..

The good old days eh?

I never touched my old Bombers until the seals went and they started leaking. Bloody brilliant things.

The focus on weight has meant that people have reduced the amount of oil to the bare minimum which leads to work stanchions, short service intervals etc.

2001 Bombers on my SS Inbred. Not the most frequently used of bikes but the forks have never been serviced.

1999 (ish) Fox VanRC in use until very recently and never been touched.
Set ps 1998?? Bombers will be due service in 2018 going by previous regime.

I’m still riding my Marin East Peak FRS that I bought new in 1998. The rear shock was serviced for the first time in 2007 after I hit a root in Thetford forrest really hard and blew the rebound damper. In the service report from TFtuned they noted what great condition the shock was in despite its age, it hasn’t been serviced since, thats 10 years!

2004 MX Pro… I had a problem with the lock down fixed in the first year but hasn’t seen the inside of a workshop since. It does creak a little though, and a couple of years ago it developed the habit of losing all it’s air overnight but it’s since healed itself.

And a 2005 TALAS RLC, never serviced, gets cleaned occasionally, still works like new.

2002 fox float that still gets regular use. have once removed the aircan in all that time. Just to have a look.

Bookmarks thread as “people to avoid in classifieds” 😀

I’d never sell it.

’94 RS Quadra 10 here (still in regular use!). Opened it up once to have a look inside but never serviced (probably not a lot to be serviced, anyway).

Do I win?

nickhit3 – Member

I have a 2006 Specialized with an OEM Fox DHX3.0 rear shock.

Is it the Air version? I know a few places have stopped servicing those.

My 2006 DHX Air was the only shock I ever had any problems with, it sort of stopped having any sort of rebound damping, which admittedly made mu jumping skills a million times better, if a little uncontrollable – I connected my shock pump to it because I was told by some fool that you could fix any shock issue by removing the air, compressing it to full compression and then pumping it up again – as I turned the last thread on the pump BAM – the end of my shock pump let go and oil sprayed all over my kitchen wall.

I gave my Float X CTD an air can service the other day, so obviously I’m now a total expert on all things suspension – IMHO for shit to get into the damping unit it would have to completely ruin the spring part, so as long as the seals are good (so it damps properly) it’s probably alright. The oil may degrade a bit and the seals will wear eventually – but I’d say the performance drop would be negligible. I’d say clean and lube the air can twice a year and have it services if/when it starts playing up.

The thing is you can’t really service a 1999 Fox Van RC rear shock at home. Not even sure if anybody would do it. It works well and is only off the bike to save weight.
The 3 sets of Bombers I have need very little attention work fine and are worthless.

My modern shocks/forks get far more attention due to potential cost from lack of maintenance.

Got some ’97 Z1 BAM, serviced in about 2000 as thought it was the sort of thing you should do. Not touched since as been no need.
Fox I’ve had were about 3 times a year and old Pikes were continually having the MoCo damper rebuilt.

2008 Magura Thors. Bought 2nd hand from Ebay (I think, though might have been here) in 2011. So unlikely they’d been serviced when I bought them, and I’ve never serviced them either!
Been on a variety of bikes since I’ve owned them, and had some heavy winter use too.
They seem to work as well as they ever did. Lockout/travel drop works, and there’s no scoring or wear marks on the stantions.
I like to think it’s good German engineering in action, and that they’ll keep on going for ever!

Is it the Air version? I know a few places have stopped servicing those.

No, its the coil with piggyback. it only has rebound adjustment and a factory set pro-pedal platform. Its nearest modern equivalent would be the Vanilla I guess.

Also thanks for the replies, don’t feel quite as guilty now.. interesting that there’s a feeling that rear shocks of a certain vintage seem to require very little work. Ignorance is bliss lol

If bike forks had fixed rebound and compression, no lockout, 200+ ccs of oil, huge dirt sheilds and were built into a system that isolated them from torsional and bending loads and weighed 10 kilos. Then i’d leave them as long as my car shocks. (about 10 years before replacement with normal driving IIRC)

On the other hand, my colleagues track car gets it’s shocks rebuilt a couple of times a year.

My record is about 10 years for forks and 11 years for a rear shock.
Only reason the forks are only 10 years is thanks to a recall…….

Speeder – Member

When did you last get the shocks on your car serviced?

Never serviced but I did throw mine in the bin and fit new ones, because if you sat on the boot lip you could get seasick. Serviced the ohlins in the mosickle as they’re actually pretty annoyingly highly strung- 10000 mile interval iirc on the factory parts.

*laughing at crashtestmonkey’s comment*