More than a couple of times now I have seen people saying things like "Fox forks need serviced every 15 hours or the warranty is void" and, as I recently bought a pair, I hought I'd look it up to see .. then I ended up looking up the RS ones and it all went a bit mad. I thought you might find the results interesting enough , given that probably 80% of us are riding Fox or RS forks...
[b]Fox[/b] state, for 32 mm Forks (FLOAT, F-SERIES, TALAS, VANILLA, F29), fiddling / service intervals as follows
[b]When new[/b]
- set sag
- set damping adjustments
[b]Every ride/race[/b]
- clean exterior of fork with mild soap and water
[b]Every 15 hours[/b]
- clean and inspect dust wipers
[b]Every 100 hours[/b]
- inspect dropout thickness
- inspect bushings
- change oil
- change FLOAT fluid in air chamber
(FLOAT & F-Series models only)
the cleaning and inspecting of the dust wipers looks like 10-20 mins work, and does seem a bit onerous for *every 15 hours* although I severely doubt that fox would challenge this (they don't state that this needs to be done by a service centre as far as I can tell) unless you really had neglected the fork
of note to distance buyers (this little excercise came out of curiosity after a Q about buying forks off fleabay); Fox also state that, although you do need the original receipt for warranty service, the process for returning a fork for warranty is to go to "any authorised service centre" to obtain a return authorisation to send the fork to Fox, which suggests that they will accept direct returns although they are not clear (no mention) on country boundries (although they say that the warranty is 2 years for EU and 1 year outside).
I'd be interested to hear people's experiences of warranty returns to fox (or indeed RS)
To be fair I also looked up the SRAM/RS warranty and noticed that they list Stantions as a Wear and Tear part not covered by warranty, which I thought was cheeky. Their service intervals are not too different as it happends
[b]From RS manual;[/b]
[b]Every Ride[/b]
- Inspect carbon crown-steerer
- Clean dirt and debris from upper tubes
- Check air pressure (air forks only)
- Inspect upper tubes for scratches
- Lubricate dust seals and upper tubes
[b]Every 25 hours[/b]
- Change Speed Lube oil bath
- Check front suspension fasteners for proper torque
- Clean and lubricate remote lockout cable and housing
[b]Every 50 hours[/b]
- Remove lowers, clean/inspect bushings and change oil bath (if applicable)
- Clean and lubricate air spring assembly
[b]Every 100 hours[/b]
- Change oil in damping system (including hydraulic
lockout)
Clean and lubricate coil spring assembly (coil forks only)
so a legs off service every 10 rides or so, actually that sounds more onerous than the fox recommendations. Not to mention dropping he fork off *every ride* to inspect the steerer if you have a carbon one!