Forum menu
As title, how often in real world time are you guys rebleeding your charge dampener?
Can I do it with the bleed kit and get away with not using crush washers? I don’t want it to leak.
Will it be really contaminated or should I leave it until it’s a problem?
I’d rather use some preventative maintenance.
Any advice?
Don’t touch it until you really need to - it won’t last as long between servicing after the first service.
I was told this by a World Cup team’s mechanic and it’s served me well.
JP
Can I do it with the bleed kit and get away with not using crush washers?
You can't tell till you remove the crush washers... grab a bag of 25 anyway they cost pennies each that way and you can then do as many lowers services as you like.
it won’t last as long between servicing after the first service.
Why?
My Pike developed a leak in the damper and it had a weird top out bump and ~5mm of initial travel without damping. It was obvious when you compressed the fork. So I replaced some of the damper seals and bled it. All good again. But it’s a right faff and decent chance of screwing it up - I definitely wouldn’t do it routinely. I suppose there could be an argument for refreshing the fluid every few years but it’s again not something I’d do.
I’ve probably done 40 lowers services on RS forks over the last 12 or so years and never once used replacement crush washers. This is probably the ‘wrong’ answer but I definitely don’t think they’re essential.
I change the oil in my charger damper yearly, easy enough job, doesn't take long and I do it when I'm servicing the lowers. You can reuse the crush washers but I bought a bag full of them so change them.