It’s so simple to do the basic foam ring lube service on fox forks.
That and cleaning and they will last as long as any other forks
I still have floats from 2003 that work fine and have the coating intact

thats completely normal for fox..

Happened to my fox floats too, non driveside like that too

After servicing my fox forks (2007 36 talas) on a regular basis, I have still got some wear to stanctions,I am now going to Marzochi, as the open bath coil spring seems better suited for reliability.I think Fox would do well to get this problem sorted even if it means adding a bit more weight its much better to have a reliable product at the prices they quote.

I’ve got 10 year old Manitou XVerts that have never been opened that look fine. No doubt the Fox forks are “better” to ride but really…..

had 08 float 100’s, repaetitive probs whatever i did, switched to RS, no probs!
Then had new Trek, no option but to have the Float 120’s, and no probs with these, other than some dipstick at the factory had confused various oil bath quantities and put nearly 40ml of oil in teh air chamber adn 5 in the right side oil bath! ) ( pre kashima)

Heard of other cases of people with one set of foxes bombproof and others less so.

same thing to my vans 180’s serviced every 15 hours stored upside down followed the manual to the letter still starting to wear think fox have wrong oil amount and there made of cheese, 5 friends with 36’s all the same problem, just about to go to mojo if no help im going to join the forums and never have fox again

get some small hypedermic needles…fill with 5wt oil and squeeze through the seals…..this lubes the lips on the seals and also fills the sponge with oil..

I have done this to a pair of 36’s for the last 8 months with riding almost every day in alpine terrain and amazingly…no wear.

It’s as simple as this, IF you buy Fox expect wear. You may be lucky or you may not, open bath will be better than the enclosed cartridge (FIT). Either way BOS, RS, and Marz et al are far better than Fox in the long run.

get some small hypedermic needles…fill with 5wt oil and squeeze through the seals…..this lubes the lips on the seals and also fills the sponge with oil..

Nasher showed me this trick a few weeks ago. A stroke of genius as it avoids the faff of dismantling the fork. Was slightly disturbing watching him wander around the bike garage with loaded needle and syringe!

Manged that sort of wear in 3 months.
Not a big Fox fan these days

Lots of daft comments as usual in this thread. Based on direct experience I’ve seen this happen to two sets of Rockshox forks (mine and a mate’s) and no sets of Fox forks.

That’s despite me not having ever serviced them myself. I do sometimes store them upside down and clean/spray them with Fork Juice fairly religiously though.

Either way BOS, RS, and Marz et al are far better than Fox in the long run.

I’d love to know what evidence this is based on. Didn’t LoCo say he had no higher failure rates with Fox than any other brand?

go to mojo if no help im going to join the forums and never have fox again

That’ll learn em.I suspect the are quite literally,quaking in their boots 😕

It’s easier to drop the legs and do what’s needed than to clean and degrease the whole drive.Probably quicker too. :O/

Did mojo still service them in this state or did they speak to you first out of interest

“common fault on the left hand side of fox forks, i’ve heard the cause is the disc brakes, every time you pull on the brakes, it moves the forks”

causing0 higher load/wear rates on the LHS upper bush. insufficicent oil coverage obviously a factor

I’ve seen this on rockshox too. Bush worn down to the metal edge
Once worn it drags muck in with topped up lowers oil and faster wear?

if you hear mice as your forks cycle through their travel while out on a ride.. you need to address your dry bushes.

dry bushes accelerate wear.

dry bushes with dirty oil kill forks.

keep your bushes wet (helped by keeping foam wipers soaked in oil) and you’ll be doing a good thing.
keep your oil clean and you’re doing the best you can.
Fox’s interval need not be 15 hours if you invert your forks to soak the foam rings, but if you always store your bike rubber side down, don’t keep those seals clean or think wd40 or gt85 is a good thing then expect the worst.

every brand will wear out, but if you do what you can to give clean oil chance to sit up top of your forks, then you will have a far happier set of forks.

granted UK muck is a unique thing, but we run a full season of guiding on 1 seal change on 32 stanchioned forks with zero wear and 4 seal/wiper changes on 40 stanchioned forks again with no wear.. and thats based on a logged 73 miles of vertical on Whistlers bike park with 40’s and iro 90 hours logged on 32’s technical XC riding

Either way BOS, RS, and Marz et al are far better than Fox in the long run.

I’d love to know what evidence this is based on. Didn’t LoCo say he had no higher failure rates with Fox than any other brand?

Just do a quick search on here for “fox wear” “rockshox wear” or “BOS wear” etc and see which comes out worst. It’s the same on most other bike / mtb forums too, basing evidence of fork wear rates on throughput of 1 service centre that will probably account for less than 1% of all fork servicing is plainly daft.

I’ve been to LoCo Tuning and seen with my own eyes the boxes of worn FOX CSU’s and 40 Stantions. Oddly enough there were no BOS or Marz, and there were probably 5 or 6 of RS CSU’s.

Just do a quick search on here for “fox wear” “rockshox wear” or “BOS wear” etc and see which comes out worst. It’s the same on most other bike / mtb forums too

http://skepdic.com/confirmbias.html

basing evidence of fork wear rates on throughput of 1 service centre that will probably account for less than 1% of all fork servicing is plainly daft.
I’ve been to LoCo Tuning and seen with my own eyes the boxes of worn FOX CSU’s and 40 Stantions. Oddly enough there were no BOS or Marz, and there were probably 5 or 6 of RS CSU’s.

Whereas basing ‘evidence’ on a selective interpretation of what you reckon more people have said on Internet forums is much better? As I said my direct first-hand evidence shows a Rockshox stanchion wear rate of 100%, and a Fox failure rate of 0%. No BOS or Marz, hmmm – nothing to do with them being far, far less common in the first place then. 😕

I’m not suggesting there is no issue whatsoever, but it’s massively overplayed IMO.

Thats pretty much par for the course for fox if you don’t regularly drop lowers/lift seals.

I totally disagree. I ran Fox 36 Float Rs for almost two years in the Peaks. The ONLY thing I washed on the bike were the chain/cassette and ran oil down/rag around the seals/stanchions- then cycled the forks at the end of every ride.

Peaks has gritstone- evil stuff.

I’ve been to LoCo Tuning and seen with my own eyes the boxes of worn FOX CSU’s and 40 Stantions. Oddly enough there were no BOS or Marz, and there were probably 5 or 6 of RS CSU’s

Amazing powers of deduction there, based on the fact that Loco don’t even service BOS stuff (officially). Not to mention they are sold on factor of probably a thousand to one.

I’ve seen just as many RS stanchions worn as Fox. FWIW, i’ve never personally had an issue with either.

I just looked up my post from last time I replied to one of these threads (1 year ago)…

just to throw in more personal experience…all of these forks are still in regular use either by me, my girlfriend or on the front of friends bikes as loaners.

2003 Vanilla 125 – never serviced, sold in 2006, new owner changed oil once, bushings now sloppy but still working ok.

2004? Vanilla 130 – dropped the lowers off about 3 years ago, were perfect then, still work perfect now although slightly weepy seal on one side so might change that soon.

2005 36 TALAS – bought 2nd hand in 2008, no idea about previous owner services, I was going to service them this year but cracked the lowers so had new lowers fitted, apparently uppers were fine when the shop swapped them for me.

2009 36 TALAS – bought 2nd hand in 2010, no idea about previous owner services, no *visible* signs of wear but then I’ve never taken the lowers off these forks yet so who knows…. feel peachy though

2007 36 Floats – bought 2nd hand this year, no idea about previous services, lowers dropped off last week and no signs of wear, will keep riding and recheck in the spring.

2006 Coil Recons – weepy seal, other than that no wear that i could see when i dropped the lowers yesterday aftnoon.

1999 Marzocchi Z1 – changed the oil about 5 years ago, still perfect

1999 Marzocchi Z2 – never touched them, still work fine, no leaks yet…

FWIW, I rarely if ever actually clean my bikes (ask my mates, they will vouch for that…), I wipe off the big clumps from the whirly bits and the bouncy bits, apply a little lube and other than that i just wait for the bumps and puddles to rattle/splash the rest off.

So going on my personal experience, pretty much all forks are reliable for me, I ruined a few pairs of judys in the 90’s but I dont really count them, they were awful.

All the above are still true (have removed forks I have sold, but anything sold was also had no wear), no visible wear.

Should also now add 2 pairs of Rebas to the list, a 2008 that was beginning to show tiny wear marks when I got them, changed seals, ran for ~6 months keeping an eye on them and no noticeable degradation, then sold them.

The other is a pair of 2011 Rebas which I’ve used for about 3 months, don’t really like them so have been in the loft for about 6 months so I doubt they have any wear!

The only fork to have died a horribly-worn-stanchiony-death in our riding group has been an early Rock Shox Pike.

I am convinced that the majority of forks with bad stanchion wear have either been run dry, sometimes from the factory, had totally buggered seals leading to dirt ingress, or been subjected to some kind of cleaning product which has got past the seals and done things it shouldn’t.

get some small hypedermic needles…fill with 5wt oil and squeeze through the seals…..this lubes the lips on the seals and also fills the sponge with oil..

I have done this to a pair of 36’s for the last 8 months with riding almost every day in alpine terrain and amazingly…no wear.

why don’t you just do this ? 😕

why don’t you just do this ?

maybe because that still requires lifting the seals, cutting tape, etc and is messier than “poke and squirt” ?

obviously its not a substitute for a proper lowers drop and clean, but if it helps him keep his forks lubed in between services and is quick then why not?

I’d recommend removing the lowers for seal and foam ring maintainace, screw driver and lifting method is a bit risky tbh.

screw driver and lifting method is a bit risky tbh.

how so ?

screw driver and lifting method is a bit risky tbh.

+1

As there’s a great chance of slipping and scratching the uppers even with a screwdriver tip covered with electrical tape – plus I don’t think it’s necessarily any quicker than dropping the lowers

as above slipping and scratching stantions, also dropping dirt into the lowers along with reseating the seals properly and possible distorsion of them. You can’t get to the inside surface of the seal either

Forks upsidedown and pull lowers off = alot easier.

As there’s a great chance of slipping and scratching the uppers even with a screwdriver tip covered with electrical tape – plus I don’t think it’s necessarily any quicker than dropping the lowers

don’t see it, if you use a large flat screwdriver place under the lip and twist, easy as and very little chance of slipping and scratching the stanchions.

Just a recommendation along with the other factors 😀

don’t see it, if you use a large flat screwdriver place under the lip and twist, easy as and very little chance of slipping and scratching the stanchions.

> Stubbon/tight seals quite often need more than a little twist
> Which can result in cracked/chipped paint on the lowers where the seal sites if you really have to give it some.
> Not everyone is as careful as you may be
> Harder to re-seat seals properly this way due to clearance
> No chance of Screwdriver slipping if you don’t do it 😉

If it works for you then fine, but a lot of folks are happier dropping the lowers for various reasons.

Thing about recommending/unrecommending the screwdriver thing is that you’ve got to consider the audience. It’s something I’d happily do myself but as general advice to all Fox forks users? Nah, that’d be madness, considering the range of mechanical abilities out there. Scratched stanchions wouldn’t be the worst of it, it’d only be a matter of time before someone stabs themselves through the heart with the screwdriver.

Yep, #next time it could be a childs face!# Etc etc etc 😉

Pff, I’d rather stab a child’s face than a fork stanchion.

😆 Kashima are they? 😉

Thing about recommending/unrecommending the screwdriver thing is that you’ve got to consider the audience. It’s something I’d happily do myself but as general advice to all Fox forks users? Nah, that’d be madness, considering the range of mechanical abilities out there. Scratched stanchions wouldn’t be the worst of it, it’d only be a matter of time before someone stabs themselves through the heart with the screwdriver.

using the same logic dropping the lowers in no walk in the park, there have been a few “oh shit I’ve sheared off the end of the damper how much is it going to cost me” threads on hear along with the sister thread “I can’t tighten the end bolt, it just keeps spinning around”
🙂

LoCo – Member

Kashima are they?

You can’t kashima coat a child’s face!

Can you? Becuase if you can, send me a price asap.

There seems to be 2 polarised opinions/experiences on fox stanchion wear. One being fox are rubbish & unless you service as per guidelines, stanchion wear happens.
Two, being that people have owned fox forks for years, with no service and experienced no stanchion wear (my experience).I never had my forks serviced or lifted and lubed seals but did always make sure stanchions clean and sometimes lubed the external stanchions.
Do fox have more inconsistency issues with quality/tolerences than other manufacturers?

This above. Had some great , some not so despite the same care. Became quite OCD with the one pair to no avail.

I bought two brand new pairs of fork about two years ago, 32 talas 150 fit and 180 talas rc2 kashima, used and abused both sets of forks, done the lifting of oil seals, clean out and grease thing, and added oil through the top at the same time. The bikes are turned upside down for half our before every ride and when checking over, lubing the chain etc – i know its not as recomended but ….

Had both pairs in pieces last week, the 32/150’s are like new internally, no wear – perfect, the 180’s are shot, worn out and scored quiet badly

Given the internal workings are different, I’m now convinced its the amount of oil and how it lubes the bushes in use