Bumbling along today I heard a little “pop” noise.

A little further on…hmmmmm I seem to have an unusually ass up riding position.

It seems that the seal at the top of the lower legs had popped out. Bye bye air!

A couple of moments with a plastic tyre lever and the seal is back in. Shock pump goes on and it’s holding air.

In fact the next three miles back to the car are the best the fork has ever worked. It’s always had a horrible stiff notchy feel in the early stroke.

So introductory ramble done…

(1) do I need to do anything special to make sure the seal is in and stays in?
(2) anyone got any bright ideas what’s possibly gone on in my fork? I’m guessing some kind of issue between positive and negative spring chambers.

Reba Solo Airs 2015 vintage.

Do you mean the wiper seal popped off?

If so, it sounds like you had a build up of air in thr lowers.

If that’s the case, removing that air is a good thing and will make the fork feel much better.

My worry would be why you had enough air in the lowers to blow the wiper seal off.

Could be a degraded air seal in the air spring.

Pop a tiny cable tie down the wiper seal tonight, if you have air come out, youve got a blow seal somewhere in the air spring assy.

Do you mean the wiper seal popped off?

Wiper seal was indeed what I meant and could not find the word for.

I shall try the zip tie thing. Thanks.

I have had my suspicions that these forks were not 100% right for a while but too many hours worked this year, not enough riding or time to go and show the shop how crap the forks were being means I’ve probably missed the warranty boat. Bother.

Maybe time to punt them (and rear shock) off for service/professional fettling and spend a couple of weeks riding my hardtail and super reliable Fox Vanilla’s from about 2006!

Just checked the schematic for the fork.
I can see how they work now (big coil fan before these/this bike) and I reckon you are spot on. I can see how air getting round the lower seal and building up would give the ratchet like feeling ive been getting.

Build up of air in the lowers. Did the seal go on the air side rather than the rebound damper side?

These forks are prone to failure this way (been through 4 on warranty myself). Bad design.

Devash, yep air side.
Maybe it’s less time for a service more buy something else. I’ve heard many a horror story of solo airs.

My Rebas do this too, once the wiper has popped off a couple of times it happens very easily. Air leaking out negative chamber, seal kit should sort it for a bit.

Are all the solo air forks susceptible to this?

I don’t get enough riding time to have rides ruined by a common fault and I’m trying to get into solo night riding this winter.

If this is an endemic thing with the Reba/RockShox I’d rather throw some money at a fork that’s not going to leave me wondering if it’ll get me home/not leave me in the poop somewhere on a cold winter night.

Air side service can be done at home if you’re not feeling flush. You just need a seal kit, bit of oil and grease, a big socket and some circlip pliers. There are plenty of videos online showing how. While you’re at it you can stick a bottomless token or two in. My 120s are so much better with one token in.

Thanks Martinhutch.

I like taking things to bits and fixing. I think my concern is more should I just flog them as spares or repair and move on to something else. Thinking out loud it’s probably worth a seal kit and service first.

Don’t let me get in the way of new shiny things. 😀

If you decide to service yourself, ensure the indent 2″ up inside air stanchion is debris free. Use the minimum of grease to lube the air shaft & maybe add 1ml of oil in the top. Old / an excess of grease used to lube the air shaft can block the indent causing a harsh fork with trapped air.

+1 on that – the official Rockshox service manual shows big blobs of grease in that area, but use the minimum.

Great thanks. Best get on with day job for a bit now. 🙁