It all depends on how many people get their forks serviced, the general masses as we all know don’t bother. Suppose loco can confirm the share of fox and rock shox he services and how many have sanction wear. From what I’ve seen, all forks will suffer with neglect, I’ve seen many stories of fox forks failing within a few months of use which is why they have such a bad reputation for it.

Also worth bearing in mind that although twice as many bikes came with fox forks in 2010, very few bikers replace their forks with fox, rockshox is pretty much always the way to go for great forks at great value!

I destroyed my Pike stanchions through neglect. It taught me forks must be looked after and need a regular bath / splash oil service.

After dropping the lowers and understanding how the bushes run on the stanchion it’s clear that as soon as the bath oil gets used up / old / dirty the stanchions are going to get worn. – Imagine running an engine with no oil.

I urged my mates (who have destroyed a fair few pairs of Fox stanchions between them) to start doing this lower leg service regularly. So far so good – no more knackered stanchions.

I bet the majority of bikers who own Fox / Rockshox think a ‘yearly service’ and a good clean and lube of the uppers is enough maintenance. And that’s why we unfortunately see so many of these threads.

Ah well- that looks so rigorous that poll.

regarding fox interval servicing loco :

what are the 30 hour proposals ? to replace the damping fluid or only the “bath” fluid in the lowers ? what about the FIT cartridge ???

the 15 hour seal service usually demands a wee [5ml] top up in each leg anyway doesn’t it ?

at Freeborn I used to see a lot of customers bikes in the workshop, running both Fox and RS forks with damaged stanchions from a complete lack of “lowers servicing”

a problem with suspension parts is that the performance degrades *slowly* over time

some times so slowly you will not notice unless an experienced friend (with suspension experience) gets on your bike and says “your forks feel like crap” or you start to see visual signs of wear and tear to the fork stanchions or shock shaft

after dealing with my customer’s problems due to lack of suspension servicing, I started really getting into this aspect and paying a lot more attention to proper cleaning and regular maintenance regimes on my Fox forks

never had any issues after that? bought some Fox Float fluid, suitable grease (RS Judy Butter) and suitable suspension fluid (Rock oil in relevant viscosities) and went from there..takes about 10-15 minutes with practise and typically done every 6-8 weeks when riding 3-4 times a week

Esher, I do the wiper service with float fluid, stendec sus grease and fork oil, but what is the 30 hour recommendation ?

30 hour for the bath oil service. Yearly for the FIT damper.
I don’t think it’s widely known that you can remove the FIT damper and send that to Mojo for servicing on its own. A fair bit cheaper too.
So look after the lowers yourself and send off the FIT damper yearly to be rebuilt and everything is good.

Foxy, it should be 15 hrs for seals, especially Talas forks even the older kind

I thought they’d upped this to 25 hours so you could actually do a 24 hour race an not void your warranty?

It’s a funny one Fox, I acknowledge the issues people have, but on the flip side I’ve got 32 Floats (08) and 32 Vanillas (09), I keep the the visible stanchion and seal area clean, use Brunox fork lube just on the external uppers and send them for a service once a year. I expect to be told they’re toast each time and they’re always fine.

Both have been put through 8, 12, 24 hour races in the past and the subsequent training for them in all conditions, so hardly a lack of use.

Ok to clarify the original comment about 15 hours for wiper/lower leg service and 30 for lower leg lubrication replacement came from a Mojo employee the other last week, in reference to a set of FIT forks.

I also offer the service as Entonox mentioned, of just servicing the FIT damper carts. which does make servcing cheaper, however it means that the lower leg bushing won’t get an inspection and adjustment.

All forks will wear if not looked after and over time the oil will degrade resulting in a reduction in performance, so even if the works are quoted as not needing to be serviced for 3 years, I’d still change the oil every 12 months to keep them feeling good.

@ loco :

so how much oil in each leg at 30 hours for 2010 float 32 rlc’s ?

fox’s website offers various quantities.

i’ll just slap 30ml in each when i drain down this weekend unless told otherwise…

always think the £100 service once a year is a sound investment against trashing a set of forks and replacing them at about £800 – £900. Dont forget to get your shock serviced as well 😉

After reading this thread yesterday I dropped my fork legs for a lube last night… and all is well. Thanks for the reminder 🙂

Heard of people using clear nail varnish and then wet and dry to repair this sort of damage. Talas are great especially with the Kashima upgrade. You can always just buy the upper assembly in kashima for £175 and fit it yourself.

Loco: so does that mean a Fox warranty is voided by doing a 24 hour race then?

My old 36 Talas did exactly the same. Took them apart and found the foam ring dry and full of gunge. Was quoted £250 for a replacement stantion/crown set up. The wear issue with fox is totally unacceptable imo and I won’t get another set until they sort it out.

Replaced them with some Merlin Revs. Beware as mine were not as ‘new’ as I thought. The original set + the replacements had marks on the stantions so both went back.

Got some DT Swiss now which are ace. Can’t comment on durability though as I’ve not had them long enough but I think they ride better then the Fox + RS.

Ok to clarify the original comment about 15 hours for wiper/lower leg service and 30 for lower leg lubrication replacement came from a Mojo employee the other last week, in reference to a set of FIT forks

That’s nuts if true and I don’t doubt what you’re saying loco, you know forks much better than I do. But that’d mean for me a weekly to fortnightly wiper+lower service on average and a lower leg re-lube every 2-3 weeks, based on having one bike and riding 10-12hrs a week minimum, 20+hrs sometimes in the summer.

There’s no doubt they’re a quality product performance-wise, but high performance forks from a company that makes off-road truck suspension must be less needy than that?

Fox could easily remedy this situation with a good old fashioned scratchcard lottery – simply scrape the gold coating away (in a newsagents, of course) to reveal 3 special Fox logos and you’ve won a replacement set of stanchions!

Don’t you mean as the gold stanchion gets worn away it reveals the logo? You want to get that suggestion off to Fox. Could be a good marketing tool. Every 1 (in a 1000) a winner.

Loco: so does that mean a Fox warranty is voided by doing a 24 hour race then?

Be hard to prove though – Trouble is I expect if your upper wore in a 24hr race by chance then they wouldn’t warranty them anyway?

Have Mojo/Fox or anyone every warrantied a worn set of uppers just out of interest?

There’s no doubt they’re a quality product performance-wise, but high performance forks from a company that makes off-road truck suspension must be less needy than that?

Dropping the lowers is a 15 minute job really, you’d have no quarms about spending that time cleaning your drivetrain, and if you left it for a year without cleaning and relubing, you’d not wonder why it was sucking like mad and falling to bits – so why not a fork?

Is it just the fact that you can leave your forks for 2 years and they’ll look fine, but you’ll probably upgrade them in that time, so don’t ever see the need to service them?

Or is it that you can’t see inside them? So you clean the outside, and the tops of the seals and think it’s all good then?

After spending time with LoCo I’ve learnt the benefits of taking care of your forks, the amount of damage i’ve seen in his brokens box is bonkers.

To add a bit to this, my missus destroyed the uppers on her Float 100s in just one race at Thetford. That, in the wet = money down the drain. They’ll be upgraded to Kashima uppers before the race season starts.

Foxy: I doubt they would warranty a set of uppers for wear, unless they had a manufacturing defect; how can you prove you’ve not done more than 15 hours on them, even if you take them back the next day?

Unless I am mistaken, 15 hour service intervals (or 30 hour) are a thing of the past, maybe Kashima coating has changed things. I have the 2012 Trek DRCV forks, and this is the online manual.

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_tech_center/owners_manuals/09/custprod/index.html
(Click service intervals)

No mention of 15/30 hours lower leg service, just Change Lower Leg Oil every 100 hours, and 200 hours for FIT cartridge !

I will be doing mine more often though, but I enjoy tinkering (luckily).

Yes keep the bike upside down between rides to lube the upper bushes and foam rings as well as flushing them of any soilds that have got past the seals.

It’s all very well saying that but it’s another thing actually DOING it.

Now, I’ve got a big garage, but I have 3 bikes with suspension forks in it, and another 3 without. I also have a bench, tools, shelves, racks, a bin, a mower…. oh, and 2 motorbikes in there. I have to move 2 bikes around as it is to work in there, and I simply don’t have the room to store 3 upside down. Not possible.

Also, for that flippin price, why the fek should I have to?

I shouldn’t. So that’s one reason why I don’t buy Fox forks.

As always, as I have said many times before, the generally accepted cure for Fox stanchion wear is called “RockShox”…. you might have heard of it…….