I was told that suspension forks need a service every 50 hours of use.

Surely most people on this forum are doing more than 50 hours each month, so are people actually servicing their forks that often? 12 times in a year? Haven’t noticed many being done in the local lbs.

I do forks and shock myself but maybe not every month. Every 2-3 months, yes.

All the regular service is is an oil change – and yes I do it. take a few minutes and couple of quids worth of oil

reminds me its about time I did a couple of pairs again

I doubt 50 hours is a month for most folk on here.

Surely most people on this forum are doing more than 50 hours each month

😆

50 hours use doesn’t include all the time we spend standing around talking rubbish and eating haribos. Looking at “time moving” stats on a GPS vs total time made me feel less bad about the irregularity of my fork servicing.

50 hours a week here…

…online! WTFOMGJOKECOPTERSONEELEVEN

I know what you mean. I’ve done trips of over 50 hours riding time and I certainly didn’t service my folks during that!

I do forks and shock myself but maybe not every month. Every 2-3 months, yes.

I do forks and shock myself but maybe not every year. Every 2-3 years, yes.

Easy as…

“Good Job!”

It’s just a guide. I probably do it about that often – mainly because it makes the forks feel really nice again afterwards.

^^What Shifter said^^

But then again, I use Marzocchi, not Fox.

yep every couple of months. takes 20 mins to clean up, re-oil, clean then soak the foam washers and add a wee bit of stendec suspension grease around the seals.

i’m too good though – clean and regrease headset and BB regularly and service my hubs regularly too…

brakes never need owt other than new pads generally.

like to tweak the shift indexing every week too, just to keep it running spot on…..

i have O.C.D…………

well worth it.

A few times a year.

Before “winter” to make sure they are running ok with plenty of oil. After winter to give them a good clean. The last few years I have done them after long races too. My shock after the Glentress 7 and the forks after Kielder 100. I check the bikes at these times too and often strip and rebuild/replace parts as needed.

Do ’em myself. Maybe once a year or maybe more like what shifter said?

Don’t use fox though – judging by the amount of oil that is on the average set of Fox stanchions they need a top up half way round a ride!

I bought a couple of dead forks for spares last year and both were dead due to dirt getting bellow the top seal .The seals were like brittle plastic with a ring of dirt were the grease should have been and the inside of the lowers were covered in white frothy slime from water getting in and mixing with the oil.
I drop the lowers and change the oil a bit more often now Ive seen what happens when you dont !
£600 odd quid of fork mullard for the sake of a quick service doesnt make much sence realy !!

I completely stripped and serviced my Reba’s recently and TBH it was a piece of piss, even doing it for the first time. Just taking the lowers off to clean and change the splash bath oil will be very easy so I don’t see a problem doing this every 50 hours riding. I’ve noted on Strava when I did the service under “front shock” so know I’ve ridden 206km which is approx 10 hours ridding time, the next service should be due the end of June then.

Lower leg service on RS forks are pretty easy and did it last week.

Slightly O/T but has anyone bought the cheaper o-ring sets off ebay for an air service. Any good or is it worthwhile buying official?

I do a lower leg service on my pikes, will probably start to do the uppers as well though.

How easy is it to service an air shock? manitou swinger 3 way to be exact. ( i will be changing it for a fox one at soem point though).

In all honesty I’m probably riding ( actually moving) maybe 30 hours a month in winter and closer to 70 in summer. I have only one bike and it does hardly any road work at all. My fork ( simple and agricultural Tora solo air) get serviced at the same time as I tape bars and frame etc. up for fitting lights and mudguard and “winterise” it ( horrid cliche), about when the clocks go back and when I take all the winter crap off again, oddly enough when they go forward again.

Slightly O/T but has anyone bought the cheaper o-ring sets off ebay for an air service. Any good or is it worthwhile buying official?

Yep and it works perfectly, the o-rings will be the same as in the official set so no point spending 3 times as much on it.

JonBurns – Yes I bought a cheap set of o-rings from ebay, enough to do the MoCo damper and dual air side, plus crush washers and even a stanchion o ring to measure sag. All for £8. Can’t fault them really.

I’ve done a couple of sets of Rebas with the ebay kits, they’ve been fine….

once a year, something like that. or if it starts feeling “funny”. Rockshox reba. pretty reliable. I don’t ride much though.

I do the basic lowers service on my fox floats every month or two. No way i’d doing it every 15 hrs they want me to though.
Havn’t touched the shock in 6 months though but it works fine so I dont touch it.

I do it the weekend clocks move
The s=use is spread between three bikes though so if i just had one I guess i would do it every 2-3 mths
Easy enough job

I far prefer servicing the shock to a fork. Just dropped the lowers off the new Fox’s, it’s all pretty simple – and if it goes wrong I’ll just nip them up to LoCo to sort them out and tell me i’m an idiot 🙂

Hijack sorry,any of you guys no who services Suntour shocks?

Suntour forks are usually pretty cheap so it may not be cost effective paying someone to service them. You could contact TFtuned or LoCo or try your local bike shop, alternatively undo the foot nuts to remove the lowers so you can clean them and put some oil in each leg before reassembling.

I can hand on heart say I’ve never serviced my rigid forks.

🙂

If they are Fox and you don’t look after them the stanchions will need replacing. For me, once a year will do.

My forks go for an annual service (currently Magura), but I also clean/inspect/oil etc them regularly.

They are expensive and the ride is far better when they are working.

Thanks guys, I have 2 pairs of revelations in the garage I’d like to get back up and running.

Fox F32 forks, 2 years almost daily use, serviced only twice in that time 😳
Both times seals/foams were almost spotless, no marks on stanchions.

I do spray them with “magic stuff” after every ride or so, and a fender bender keeps nearly all the skank away from them……

…..so even if the do spontaneously self destruct now, after 2 years use it’ll work out at far less than £1/day so I’m far from bothered 😆

Servicing ?? nah i run zocchis 😉

Yes its easy enough to do.

No I don’t do it often enough but that was when they went away for a warranty claim. The Pikes have been done once, when the o-ring went and they hydro locked these are 3 years old. The Recons have only had a small oil top up when changing the spring, these are 6 years old. I have never had my Monarch+ apart.

Normally service annually just after winte period.

50 hours!!!!…..it’s 20 for fox 😐

generally the sektors get a service every 2 months or so.
If they get a week of riding or a paticularly grubby day out then i bring forward the lower service

This seems to keep things sweet.

just about to get a seal kit for my U-turn revs (ebay one). How often do people change the wiper seals? How do you tell when you need to?

Annually or so for my old Pikes and annually for my 36’s that only really get ridden in the Alps generally for a week a year.

Easy enough job, both forks got new enduro seals last year too.