I service suspension forks. Regularly.
Except I do it myself.
And I never buy a service kit, just take the old o rings and foam wipers out, clean them and put them back in again. I can't convince myself that (obv unless cracked) that they needed replacing. I mean, how bad can it be? £25 every 50 hours, for both shocks? £1 an hour charge to just ride the ****ing bike I already bought?
**** off, make a better product in the first place. How often do you rebuild a motorcycle suspension fork. Every 10,000 miles at best?
Totally agree with your sentiments.
Over £200 a year to get my fork n shock serviced, plus lower leg interim service. For the money these items cost they ought to last longer. Already had new CSU on my 36's under warranty now I've got another creak coming from them, FFS my motorbike forks have had one service in 11 years and still work fine.
adds continuity to to the list of who not to buy off from classifieds.
2/10 for effort
Just had a set of ten year old Fox Talas 36s serviced.
They've done a lot of riding in poor conditions.
Never serviced before.
Slight marking to the stantion inside and low done. Nothing to worry about.
**** off, make a better product in the first place.
Welcome to the bike industry, where ****erteering rules and good engineering practice is no where to be seen.
If I can’t service it myself, I won’t be buying it, the exception is rear shocks, although building an auto bleeder isn’t tricky, so might end up doing them in the future.
Sold my ohlins forks for the very reason above as they had a great feature of bleeding oil above the ifp, which couldn’t drain away.
50hrs for a fork service is bonkers when you look at other industries, but we want next to no friction for supplesness, yet we can’t seem to get the distance between he dropouts accurately controlled or the width of hubs to an acceptable tolerance, ohlins and fox have floating axles which sorts this, but others dont?
Creaking csu’s is pathetic, think he lyrkis on he geomtron are clicking, 8 months old and 1000 miles on them.
Bike industry should up its game and produce better quality stuff that lasts a bit longer, but they won’t as it’s all about the race to the bottom.
It's not just about how long things last but also the different life of each part. Changing everything at the same time is wasteful. My old Stumpjumper used to need occasional bearing changes, spesh would only sell kits of all the bearings but usually just one had started to go and the rest were as new. I just bought what needed changing from another supplier. Same for dropper posts, full service kit only. Back to the op, it's similar. If you clean forks inside and put in fresh oil the seals last ages but you do sometimes need to change one. Certainly no need to swap everything every time you open them up. Parts should be available individually and part numbers should be made available.
I mostly service my own suspension, forks get done twice a year.
This is because one set didn't get serviced for a year and wore the anodising off the leg.
My Marzocchi Z1 RC2 ETA Anniversary from 2007 are still going so strong I built a bike around them. They weigh 2.6kg and that is a penalty I'm happy to pay for open bath coil :-).
My MRP ribbon were absolutely spotless internally after 6 months in the grit. They do have a massive fender on all year round but I was very impressed with that.
I've probably spent £300 on suspension servicing in 20 years. No idea how much has gone on oil and consumables in that time.
More to the point I've no idea how long I've spent in the shed servicing the things and that's what people pay for.
I probably do basic lowers services- ie just a clean, lube and new oil, not seals- more often than most people, way I see it is that keeps the fork in decent shape for longer, avoids stanchion wear, etc. But I don't replace parts often, I reckon a cared for main seal lasts a long time. I guess the main thing is that this is the bit that trashes your fork if it's neglected, whereas dampers will usually be recoverable.
Dampers, hmm. TBH it depends how much of a pain in the arse the damper is to service. Thing is, I just had a fork upgraded with some new damper parts, and I know it hadn't been serviced for at least 4 years, probably 5- my main bike so not a quiet life. Anyway, we talked about what I wanted to get from the upgrade, and I asked whether they thought the damper was performing as it should, or was the "upgrade" I wanted partly going to be fixing it... And the answer was, the oil was tired but otherwise it was all working perfectly.
Full service or just a lower service?
No issue re using seals to a point, also if you regularly service you can inspect and monitor, also seals will not be used full of dry grease and grit etc.
Many people just ride things until they are broken, so it needs more than just a service.
If you dont replace seals in a service you do increase the chance of total seal failure at some point for example the damper seal head dumping all the damper oil into the lower.
Depends what the risk/cost/inconvenience/diy/enjoyment etc there is for you.
Motobike forks have a lot more oil in them, my current mtb forks have 10cc/side bath oil, my road motorbike has 500+cc/side. Motocross suspension service intervals are pretty short.
Some old Marzocchi forks seem to just keep going forever with just oil changes and lower seals as needed.
You are asking the wrong person. My forks and shock are 6 years old and have never been taken apart or serviced. Just a quick squirt of lube round the seals every now and again.
MX forks require an oil change every 20-25 hours to keep them working at optimum. Whilst I agree about the mtb forks and do my own there’s no point comparing them to motorbike forks used on the road. If we’re gonna do that then why don’t my mtb tyres last 20k miles like my car ones ?
Thing is, if you don't service them reasonably regularly, like the post above, they may be fine in terms of no wear or damage, but they'll be running like a pound of shite.
I don't change seals n rings much either, just LLS regularly, keeps them running nicely.
I've yet to send my forks off to be tuned up, lower leg servicing on a regular basis keeps them running good, I've only changed fork seals three times in twenty years, the only reason I'd send forks off is if the bushes went sloppy, not had that issue since DH judys and that was only £25 as my LBS was a rockshox tech centre and I'd stripped the fork down myself. Rear shocks are a different matter though with the nitrogen, ifp's and all that malarkey.
I reckon changing the foam rings regularly would be adequate. Once you've decanted the oil though, you might as well put new in. (Except at the mo, when everywhere has sold out!)
Are RockShox easy to service? Or do they not require as much attention as Fox?
I've not done mine in 4 years, shock or forks, but I keep the stanchions and seals meticulously clean and lubed with silicon. I never leave them dirty for the next ride, dust included.
but I keep the stanchions and seals meticulously clean and lubed with silicon.
Yeah the outside isn't the bit that matters.