e rockshox monarch on our Boardman Team FS is losing pressure, it goes from 225psi to under 100 during a ride.

The bike is 1.5 years old and I was led to believe the shock would have a 2yr warranty.

Halfords say it is wear and tear and so not covered by warranty, is this right? Anyone had a similar experience?

have you had it serviced in those 1.5 years? its probably just the seals that need replaced. as such they do fall under wear and tear and you’d be hard pressed to convince otherwise unless the bike has hardly been ridden.

dunno about warranty but the seals on my new one were less than impressive compared to fox Ive had in the past

I was led to believe the shock would have a 2yr warranty

Who by? Components are usually 1 year

Who by? Components are usually 1 year

RS themselves give a 2 year warranty – the seals aren’t part of that 2 year warranty though.

Seals on a Monarch are a servicable wear part.

They tend to wear quite quickly – 20 to 50 hours for an air can. My shock as done 200 hours on 2 sets of seals though.

An air can seal kit costs £15 and can be done DIY. RS service manuals are very good. A shop will charge more, of course.

DIY service to rule out air seals sounds good. Are there any better quality aftermarket seals available?

Monarch had dodgy valves at one point. It could be your seals or it could be the valve.

The shock certainly doesn’t sound like its failed.

Pump it up and hold it under water to see where it’s loosing air.

I doubt it’s leaking from the wiper seals but more than likely it’s the movable valve, early ones tightened down with a small spanner but would come loose over time, the new valve is tightened down with an Allan key so much better, as already said it’s doubtful you’ll get it on warranty but it shouldn’t cost to much and should have been done ages ago.

Get yourself over to a proper bike shop “so not Halfords” and they should be able to get you the right bits, as you will need a service kit for the wiper seals and another kit for the valve.

If it’s had no attention since new I’d just send it off to one of the service companies and get it ‘sorted’. They’ll address any issues and replace the seals at the same time.