The lowers on my 3 month old Revs had very limited oil in either leg - approx 3ml at most. Is this how Rock Shox ship them? If so - not very good is it!
One leg in mine had 10ml the other had a very small amount(2 drops),This was from new,I did a lower leg service before using them.
Think it should be 15ml in each lower just as a lube.
IMO it's always worth having a look. 10ml of any weight oil will do the trick.
its a nice trick to encourage wear i reckon 🙂
15ml of 15wt in each leg now
i put 30 in , worn stanchions are pricey
They say 15W but I'm not convinced it matters at all tbh.
Spock surely that limits travel
Well at 200 quid for a new uppers set up I'll be putting in exactly what they state and when.
Always check when you get a new set of these, that's why all the sets of forks I sell are stripped, inspected with bushes and fluid levels being adjusted as necessary.
I thought it was only Fox Forks that suffered from worn stanchions? 😈
Haha, here we go!
I'd recommend fully synthetic motor oil rather than damping oil for the lowers, since it's actually designed for lubricating sliding metal parts. IRC, manitou used to recommend this for their 'semi-bath' forks.
Damping oil isn't designed for lubricating of course, it's just a stable fluid medium to pass through the damper, and has anti-foaming agents etc for this purpose.
I've a pair of rebas that have been used with proper lubricating oil in the lowers for 4 years, with no apparent wear at all. 🙂
This thread has made me wonder whether I should run a service on my 2010 revelations. I've been searching the internet for a how to service guide and the best I can find is by bikeradar. Can anyone recommend me a link that will help me service a air u-turn fork? I've looked on the rockshox site and it doesn't seem to cover the 2010 range
look on youtube, has videos of what you'll need to know. Removing lowers and relubing them should be a PoP.
any amount of oil in the bottom of th elowers is not going to lube bushings or seals Shirley?
LoCo - MemberAlways check when you get a new set of these, that's why all the sets of forks I sell are stripped, inspected with bushes and fluid levels being adjusted as necessary.
So as I bought my Revs from you can I stop worrying too much about what horrors I'll find when I open them after approx 6 months' use??
Thats why you perodically inver them al. Plus the oil is thin enough to slosh around the legs when you're battering them going downhill.
Would putting synthetic oil in the lowers do any harm to seals or bushings as glenp suggested? Only I have some leftover mobil 1 that would do the trick nicely.
Mr Mills, all the levels were checked and adjusted, I can't stop the seals wearing and letting in dirt/oil out though 🙂
"spock - Member
its a nice trick to encourage wear i reckon"
FWIW I just opened up my older set of Revs, 2007 vintage 426s... They had no oil at all in one leg and very little in the other, maybe it had leaked but I suspect they had none from new (never been serviced before). But the seals and stanchions were still absolutely mint. Obviously more oil would be better but it doesn't turn them into wrecks.
Mine were like this too!! Opened them when i got them to change the travel from 150 to 130mm. Topped the oil up when i did it.
no limited travel travel putting 30ml in , paranoid previous owner of fox 32's
Thought I'd ressurect this to see if what I've experienced is normal. Took the lowers off and there didn't seem to be anywhere close to 15ml in eachleg so I filled with 15ml of 15W engine oil in each leg. I took them out for a ride today and found I was needing less pressure than previously and they weren't going through the travel as much. From what I learnt when I dismantled the lowers I can see no reason for this effect, am I wrong? is this a normal thing when the forks have the correct amount of oil?
Are you comparing previous performance before this cold snap?
Yeah I am comparing to conditions that were somewhat warmer however the viscosity curve of the oil shouldn't be so steep that it creates an obvious difference in performance over a 10 degree temperature difference
The oil eventually comes out, well it does in mine. I have started to take off the upper and do a regular service. It only takes a few minutes to lubricate and put in new oil.
Have you got the pressures the same? I know when I serviced mine I put in the pressure I had written down for last time I checked. I think they must lose air slowly as they felt harder once I put them back to what I recorded.
I topped my Pikes up yesterday as there was but a dribble in each leg.
Do you guys clean them out properly when adding more oil? I just let them sit for 10 mins dripping the old red stuff out, quick wipe with a tissue and then 15mls of 15wt.
They probably needed less pressure as theres less air space in the lowers after you top them up with oil, theres usualy very little empty space in the bottom of the forks so that when they bottom out the pressure forces oil up the lowers towards the bushings.
I used motor oil in my manitous and it did something to the seals, clearly not all oils are created equal. Since then I've just used suspension oils.
If it was mineral based or a semi-synthetic blend, it would have damaged your seals.
Fully synthetic motor oil won't swell your seals. I've been using it in Manitous, Fox and Rockshox for the last 5 years, for both forks and shocks.
IME you'll find better fork movement using a true lubricating oil.
Don't want to confuse matters, but 2010 service manual from SRAM website says 5ml in lower legs for 2010 models. There is a load in the upper leg mind you, 123mls !
Mine needed a different pressure after a service too. i think some oil got into the pump itself and upset the gauge when i let the air out with the bleed valve.