Posted elsewhere

What’s STW view on these fork boots (lizard skins type)?

Are they a waste of time/money? Or do they actually protect your suspension forks?

I think the consensus is they do more harm than good. They can protect from the initial spray of crud, but once they get dirty they just hold the muck against the stanchions.
Having said that, I use one on my rear shock and it does make a difference, but you need to make sure you take it off and clean it after riding.

I’d avoid them. You’ll only end up with crap getting underneath it and doing more damage then if you didn’t have a fork boot.

They hold all the moisture in and corrode your stanchions quicker than if you had nothing and just cleaned.

A bender fender probably does a better job of protection the stanchions. Plus is protects you from the crap as well, which is a bonus.

+1 for bender fender

Back in the day 90% of forks used to come with rubber boots.

The first thing we did was cut them off for the reasons above.

Unless you are riding in continuous torrential rain and can secure the boots in such a way as to keep the stanctions completely dry during the ride, then I’d avoid.

Completely aggree.
There has only ever been 1 fork boot I’m aware of that actually worked.
The lefty one.
And that’s because it has an extra air-bleed hole that the air goes through when compressing, and that has another runner boot over it and a foam filter in it to stop crap getting into the stantions.

So basically… avoid boots.
Dust wipers do a decent job if you clean them often enough.

Scar

Can the same be said for booting your dropper post? Whats the STW opinion?

I think a dropper post needs a mudguard rather than a boot. Anything in contact with the surface, even without mud, will start to wear away because of the constant vibration passing through the frame. Mud and grit makes this much worse. You could use an inner tube tied to the saddle and the clamp area, but it’s only going to reduce some of the spray, not eliminate it, and doesn’t have any additional benefits such as keeping your shorts dry!

GD’s come with a rubber boot, which does help keep the cr@p out of the mechanism. The boot has air holes in it and is generally loose fitting, so it’s quite useful, although mainly used to cover the ugly holes in the post I think! But generally subject to less spray than a stanchion, plus the post is much easier to service than a fork and the sliding post section is more readily replaced, so the application is slightly different. Don’t think I’d use one on any other dropper though.

I have home made boots on both my droppers – made from a length of inner tube, slid on from the bottom and zip tied just below the seat clamp.

Nothing gets in there.