Forum menu
Just did an air shaft change on a Pike and the replacement has a small nick in the shaft which can be felt with a finger nail. Put it back together and it seems to work, but I'm not sure what the affect will be? Heard somewhere there will be a build up of air in the lowers, is this correct?
Bump.
I've run scratched stanchions before and it's been absolutely fine.
Thanks, just trying to figure out what affect a scratched air shaft will have if it was too compromise the seal.
Will be fine but watch for dirt ingress past the scratch, and make sure it isn’t bad enough to tear foam rings as if they split you will get savage and rapid stanchion wear . I wonder how I know that 😩
I had one (scratched air shaft) on some Reba's.
Basically they packed down, were harsh / ineffective in the early part of the travel and felt rough generally.
In my case the impact of the scratch was air leaking between positive and negative chambers.
Eventually it blew the wiper seal up the fork leg when I hit something hard with a shkwooosh noise and I felt a bit deflated.
It's not the stanchion, it's the air shaft itself.
I had one (scratched air shaft) on some Reba’s.
Basically they packed down, were harsh / ineffective in the early part of the travel and felt rough generally.
In my case the impact of the scratch was air leaking between positive and negative chambers.
Eventually it blew the wiper seal up the fork leg when I hit something hard with a shkwooosh noise and I felt a bit deflated.
Cheers, that's the info I was after, I'll keep an eye on them.
I've heard people using nail varnish on stanchions then very carefully sand with 1200 grit wet n dry so maybe it would work on the airshaft as well, there is a stanchion repair kit but probably the same price as a new air shaft, it's the sharp edge of a nick that does the damage to the seals, when a buy an air shaft the first thing I do is inspect the shaft for imperfections so I would've sent it back, but the nail varnish trick is your best bet.
Air shaft - INSIDE stanchion
By “air shaft” do you mean the inside of the stanchion or the shaft with the plunger on the top? The latter is what I would call an air shaft and can be easily replaced.
I sent my Pikes to Tftuned for their first professional service. They‘ve always felt very harsh and apparently there is a scratch on the inside of the stanchion. Their advice was just to run a bit more lsc and keep an eye on the pressures. If the air starts to migrate into the negative chamber then you should see it start to suck down into its travel.
To me the air shaft is the part that goes inside the stanchion, as in debonair shaft with the red bits, why are people getting so confused, know your parts peeps 🙂.
Google rockshox air shaft and tap on images if you're still unsure.
Whereabouts on the shaft is it? It could allow air to leak into the lowers from the -ve chamber.