Rockshox fork stantion (Rantette)

Got a pair of SIDS, maybe 18 months old, clean the stations EVERY ride, get a clean tooth brush around the top seals to clean any muck build up as well. They have worn the coating off ever so slightly at the front of the stations causing the forks to be very stiff and seize up. I do ride maybe3 or 4 times a week but why not just have stations like motorbikes, chrome and no fancy coating?

Asked a few bike shops. They all say I need new forks.

New stations are about £ 230 plus fittng.

Why does no one have a solution to re coat the sanctions, apart from the small wear the forks are in perfect order, crown, steerer, legs and lock out all good. £ 400 quidish for a new pair FFS!!

Am I missing somert???

Am I missing somert???

Apart from the use of ‘somert’ you may have been missing the service intervals?. You need to do a lower leg service every wee while, seriously, it takes half an hour. Remove the foam seal, clean the wiper seals, soak and clean the foam, recommended oil level in each leg and bolt back together.

I guarantee if you do this now, they will feel fine.

do you clean them with wet&dry ?

stantion stations sanctions

No mention of servicing at all?

Drop the lowers off and you’ll be horrified at how much crap is round below the dust seal/foam ring

But…….. but……. this only happens to Fox forks. Everyone knows that.

KKF, you have my sympathy. Same here with Rebas. 9 months max then knackered stanchions. Two lower leg services in that period but didn’t prevent the inevitable.
RS seem just as bad as Fox, not fit for purpose.

Jason (Rebound) can do a single stanchion transplant if you ask him. Not an officially recommended thing and may leave some cosmetic damage to the crown where the big hammer and vice have been applied to get the old one out, but it works.

The only real answer is Marzocchi though.

Drop the lowers off and you’ll be horrified at how much crap is round below the dust seal/foam ring

This, tbh thjough you’ve been unlucky, my old recons were horribly abused for 3+ years, when I did finally service them, OMG The Horror! But stantions were mostly OK.

That was enough for me though, preventative maintanence all the way. I do share your pain, but if riding3/4 times a week, all year round, then a lowers service should have been done, maybe once every two months, less when conditions horrific. Manufacturer timings tend to be a bit over the top, but it is a job to do often, and once you’ve done it a few times, its a 30 minute job as above. Also a good way to ensure you examine your forks often, I know it seems like a ballache, but forks now are 600-1K, a little bit of TLC protects that investment.

From your description they don’t sound beyond salvage, unless the wear is really bad, do the lowers and keep an eye out on classified fleabay, for borked fork with decent stantions, and swap out.

get a clean tooth brush around the top seals to clean any muck build up as well

This could be your issue as much as anything – dirt is as likely to get pushed in past the wiper seal as much as it’s likely to be removed.

Better just to use a sponge & soapy water and give them a quick wipe after rides & pull the lowers off fairly regularly.

happened to my revelations. I’m running them into the ground.

This could be your issue as much as anything – dirt is as likely to get pushed in past the wiper seal as much as it’s likely to be removed.

That was my first thought, too. ‘Over’ cleaning is way worse than not cleaning.

Lower service every 30 to 50 hours on Rockshox, 30 for Sids as very little oil in the lowers.
Single stantion replacement sounds dodgy as hell TBH.

18 months- so do you ride on average 1.67 hours per month? Or have you missed quite a few services? Rockshox lowers service takes no time at all, less time than you’ve spent on overzealous cleaning probably.

Yes you could have steel chromed stanchions, but not unless you want a 2kg Sid. Course, motorbikes also lose their coatings.

<double post>

+1 to all of the above, particularly this:

Single stantion replacement sounds dodgy as hell TBH

😯

clean the stations EVERY ride,

See that’s your problem, washing interval is every 30 hours and they last forever 😉

I thought over cleaning as well. All I do to my forks is a quick wipe to remove surface mud, maybe compress them a couple of times to get the dirt away from the top of the seals.

Might be worth just doing an oil change and grease as that’ll probably free them up. Slight wear is not an issue in terms of noticeable performance. If they don’t leak oil or air then they are probably ok.

Why do you need new forks, if there is only very slight wear to the coating?

Is there any scratches/high areas that may mean the seals won’t seal completely?

I’d just give them a lower leg service and keep using them. And service the lowers more regularly from now on. As mentioned above, once you’ve done it a couple of times, it takes hardly any time to do.

A mate of mine has wear on the stanchions of his Revelations and they’ve been like that for perhaps 3 or 4 yrs. They are fine. They don’t leak and they still work fine. Just keep on top of the servicing.

Well after having the same issues with Fox twice and RockShox once I am not using their products if I can help it . Rather than spend £280 on new uppers for my Fox Forks I have bought a pair of X-Fusion for about the same money and have fitted a set of Lizard Skins Fork boots to them , hopefully they will last longer than a year and if the uppers do wear I can’t imagine they will be as expensive to repair as Fox . Watch this space .

Why do you need new forks, if there is only very slight wear to the coating?

This. It’s not like they are going to suddenly disintegrate.

drop the bottom off and see how much oil is in there. i bet not much.

give them a lower leg service and see how they feel. I bet with a bit of lube they will start moving as they should as at the moment they are probably bone dry.

I’m putting money on the lowers being full of soupy watery mud goop.

As already said by others – regular lower leg service is the answer. Easy to do and only a 10-20 min job.

Tooth brush will possibly push a little bit of dirt down into the seal each time you use it. Better to dribble a few drops of suitable lube (Triflow/fork juice) onto the seal/stanchion interface – then cycle the fork up + down a few times. This will pull any dirt out of the seal lip/top – then wipe dirt away.

andyl – Member

drop the bottom off and see how much oil is in there. i bet not much.

yep, almost certainly.

Can happen to any fork if dirt gets in or there isn’t enough oil. That’s why I prefered the old style RockShox seals with the oil seal underneath like Marzocchi also used (might still do?).

Enduro have a similar system, I use those now. Oil always completely clean when servicing, even after a few months of use through the winter. Bit more stiction, but seems worth it for the reliability.

I have bought a pair of X-Fusion for about the same money and have fitted a set of Lizard Skins Fork boots to them

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have bought a pair of X-Fusion for about the same money and have fitted a set of Lizard Skins Fork boots to them
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+1 – quite possibly the worst thing to put on forks – trap all the nasty grinding mud paste in it’s own little damp cocoon.

I see forks that are less than 3 months old wi knackered stantions in the shop on a regular basis, despite constantly telling folk that they need the lowers dropped/seals cleaned and checked/oil change every 30 hrs or so of use which may be every fortnight for some riders or monthly/bi monthly dependant on riding conditions etc for others, either learn to do it yourselves or find a local trusted bike shop to do it for you – we only charge £35 to do a basic service on all forks and offer the first service FOC and folk are more than welcome to watch us do it so they can attempt it themselves in future but to be honest very few ever bother, going by the inability of folk to even oil their chains it’s no surprise that we have an ever increasing large display of knackered fork stantions hanging on our wall of shame.

You put them on the wall?, weigh them in for scrap 😉 Jaffa cake fund 😀

The other thing is, I’m still to see a Rockshox that went out with the recommended amount of oil in it… Not a problem if you service them on time but it’s got to cut into the abuse-margins if you don’t.

somafunk – Member

I see forks that are less than 3 months old wi knackered stantions in the shop on a regular basis, despite constantly telling folk that they need the lowers dropped/seals cleaned and checked/oil change every 30 hrs or so of use which may be every fortnight for some riders or monthly/bi monthly dependant on riding conditions etc for others, either learn to do it yourselves or find a local trusted bike shop to do it for you – we only charge £35 to do a basic service on all forks and offer the first service FOC and folk are more than welcome to watch us do it so they can attempt it themselves in future but to be honest very few ever bother, going by the inability of folk to even oil their chains it’s no surprise that we have an ever increasing large display of knackered fork stantions hanging on our wall of shame.
Posted 11 minutes ago # Report-Post

To me that level of servicing = not fit for purpose .If you don’t want to , or can’t do it yourself then the forks are costing you £1 per hour in basic servicing plus annual major service and still no 100% guarantee of not wearing the stanchions .

Go rigid then and stop whining. You can’t ride around in mud and shite and not expect to service them. And it only costs you about a tenner for a big bottle of oil, and 30 minutes of your time. If you can’t handle either doing a bit of maintenance, or getting someone to do it for you, then maybe MTBing in the UK isn’t for you.

Oh, and check the service intervals on your new forks, 25 hours fwiw.

To me that level of servicing = not fit for purpose

It takes me more time to thoroughly clean and relube a drivechain than it does to do a basic service on a Rockshox fork. Are drivechains also not fit for purpose, you’d be lucky to get 30 hours before it needs a good going over?

I’d heard that teflon lubes like fork juice were actually not that great as they just made a nice litle grinding paste. Any thoughts?

Go rigid then and stop whining. You can’t ride around in mud and shite and not expect to service them. And it only costs you about a tenner for a big bottle of oil, and 30 minutes of your time. If you can’t handle either doing a bit of maintenance, or getting someone to do it for you, then maybe MTBing in the UK isn’t for you.

Just because my point does not agree with yours does not mean I’m whining
so no need to be all hostile . Marzocchi manage a 3year warranty with no service intervals so it can be done but if you’re happy to service your forks every 30hrs that’s your choice . Oh and by the way I have been mountainbiking in the UK since the late eighties so I think it may just be for me .

Why not buy marz then? Instead of a relative newcomer to forks? I’m not being hostile, but you did come across, perhaps accidentally, a little whiny. There is no such thing as a fit and forget fork in our riding conditions, despite marzocchis claims.

You can’t ride around in mud and shite and not expect to service them

‘zocchis don’t appear to struggle with this.
Lowers off about once a year for oil change. Still running original seals at approaching 3 years old. No issues.

Previously both Fox and RS both managed only 6-9 months in same conditions before wearing through the coating (with the lowers off about every 3 months)

Does anyone actually follow the service routines incidentally? I have no idea when I’ve done 30 hours of riding, I just do it every so often when it seems like a good idea and I’m bored. My revs were bought well used, so far they’ve been serviced 3 times in 3 years and they’re still bang on- I just couldn’t complain if they died.

Ramsey Neil – Member

Marzocchi manage a 3year warranty with no service intervals so it can be done

Just had a wee look some Marzocchi manuals and they all seem to specify 25/50 hour service intervals (that was 55s and Marathons but it looks like a pretty generic manual). There’s also other tradeoffs- for the OP, what’s Marzocchi’s SID competitor? They don’t really seem to have one, the Marathon is almost as heavy as a Revelation.

Go rigid then and stop whining. You can’t ride around in mud and shite and not expect to service them. And it only costs you about a tenner for a big bottle of oil, and 30 minutes of your time. If you can’t handle either doing a bit of maintenance, or getting someone to do it for you, then maybe MTBing in the UK isn’t for you.

Didn’t get Marzocchi because they weren’t available so I thought I would give somebody else a try . If the stanchions wear quickly or anything else goes wrong with them then I will be on here whining 🙂

doublepost