Chap at work has just been gifted a bike after some tragic circumstances, he's asked me to give it the once over as in his words 'the c shaped bit you put the front wheel in has sorta peeled and bubbled away'
Initially i'd assumed it was a bit of paint that had chipped and was now slightly corroded but what i saw was a real shock.
the actual casting looks to have failed in chunks around the fork dropout, the 'lip' that would stop the wheel dropping out in the event the Qr came loose is non existant, as is a large proportion of the fork dropout.
The bike (not that it'll make a blind bit of difference) is a specialized hardrock with cable disc's approx 3 years old, it is immaculate and has the wear of a 3 week old bike, there is zero accident damage and looks to have been used a couple of times to the shop then put away ( which is whats actually happened)
Forks are marzocchi mz with chrome stanchions
The cruz of this post is has anyone heard of this happening and if yes how have they remedied it? ie windwave or spesh or replacement.
Cheers Al
Could have been fitted to a "remove front wheel" roof rack carrier and taken a knock.
thats a possibility i hadn't considered, sadly no way of confirming as the previous owner isn't around anymore. I'll look for some 'damage' to indicate some sorta impact. From the description the parents of the owner gave to my pal it was a 'shop errand' bike.
Have got some photos on my phone but not figured out my password to host them.
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That should show whats going on a bit better
its quite common on bikes used to commute on in winter due to the salt on the roads however it may not have been the riginal speced fork and has been swaped out by previos owner iirc mz's were made as far as 8 or so years back so might well be more abused than the frame
That's buggered. Take the forks off and throw them in the bin. Seriously.
Absolutely agree P.P, the bike is in my custody till they're fixed or replaced. I would be extremely surprised if these were not the original spec forks, aside from the dropout they are in very good condition.
Not really questioning if they're usable as I am adamant they're not, more after experience's of similar failure and whether to approach windwave, a spesh dealer or just 'suck it up princess' and get a new set of forks sorted
Are fork lowers cast?
were are you, ive got some marzocchi sliders free to pick up 🙂
Pitduck, I'm Hampshire though happy to arrange a courier if that works?
I'd be looking for a used set of Toras to replace them personally. Merlin have some bargain Recon Silver forks in their sale too right now.
Are both dropouts the same? One thought I had was that the bike had been stored with the wheel off and front end resting in water. If the damage was done then QR got tightened onto crumbly ally it could end up like that.
+1 for replacing with tora type forks.
hi lummox in manchester e mail me,we can sort something out.ps sorry it took so long been at work. martin 🙂
just swap the lowers..
or second hand mx comps..
"I would be extremely surprised if these were not the original spec forks"
Spesh site isn't showing any models fitted with that age MZ since 2005?
2006 and 2007 have MZ's but with later graphic styles?
I have some 2005 MZ's. I've never checked (I will be doing now) but I've not seen any corrosion on the lowers/dropouts. Certainly not chipped away anyhow. They've never been in a 'remove wheel' type bike carrier, nor used to commute on salty roads? (probably been on a salty road or two while on a ride but)
I think On-one have recon coil TK's for less, at £100. Not 100% sure on what discounts you can stack up on merlin atm
[url] http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FORSRETK/rockshox_recon_silver_tk_coil_100mm_fork_with_lockout [/url]
er i`ll keep them then,big thanks for letting me know 😐
Hi martin, apologies. Thought the thread had dropped off the radar and hadn't checked it since.
Email on it's way.
Al