Hi,

Can anyone help me understand how broken my forks are please?! I noticed the below at the end of a ride yesterday.. The forks are getting quite long in the tooth, although they were serviced (with a new harder spring as well) by TF in 2012 or 2013.. can’t quite remember. They’ve had only moderate use since then and performance doesn’t seem to have dropped off in any noticeable way.

In the second photo are some scratches that I picked up when a small stone got stuck between the stanchions and the brace over a year ago. I’m guessing this is why the forks have eventually started leaking some sort of fluid? I think there’s just a spring in that side so I’m considering just running the fork into the ground and then buying some new ones when they completely break.. with a new stanchion required and a service I’m guessing they may be beyond economic repair..

Any advice/guidance/witty comments would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Nick

[url=https://flic.kr/p/MZxkFd]IMG_3650[/url] by VeeeDubStar, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/MZxiUY]IMG_3651[/url] by VeeeDubStar, on Flickr

I think there’s just a spring in that side

You’re right. Theys really bugger all that can really go wrong in the spring side. Not much oil on that side either. Id just drop the lowers and see whats going on behind the seals…very easy job. Any knocking from the bushings?

No knocking at all. Seem to be running sweet as a nut in spite of the red leaking fluid!

Does dropping the lowers require any specialist tooling/knowledge? I do most stuff myself other than forks/shocks.

5min job. Something to catch the oil if there is any left.

Yup, hex keys and a mallet and off you go! TBH though, I’d be getting some seals ordered and switching them out at the same time anyway

Nice one, cheers. Think I’ll get some seals ordered and have a pop at a DIY fix (bodge!)

Something about fork servicing that I like is that it is very difficult to actually bodge anything to do with it. As it is a relatively precision (in an MTB sense) piece of kit, you can’t really bodge anything. It either goes back together perfectly or not at all.

It is for this reason that servicing forks is one of the jobs I actually don’t mind doing due to its non-subjective outcomes(!)

Just take your time and you’ll be grand. If the lowers haven’t been off in a while, don’t underestimate how hard you might need to whack the partially undone footnuts – the more damaging mistake is to assume you have broken the seal when you haven’t – don’t resort to pulling too hard on the lowers – put the nuts back in and re-hit.