Back in the day, forks had anodised stanchions that were shiny and super smooth.  Now they are a dull finish, with tiny surface irregularities that hold onto the oil to make them smoother.

Anyone tried taking ultra fine wet n dry to shiny stanchions just to dull the finish?

(trying to outdo cynic-al in the crazy ideas stakes)

Just let pigeons roost on them for a few months, the pigeon shit will etch the stanchions. Then cycle them through full travel to spread the dried pigeon shit through the bushings. There will then be ample irregularities to spread the oil around.

Sounds like a pretty silly idea to me.

You could fill your camelback with fork oil and periodically take a mouthful and (accurately) spit it onto the fork stanchions?

Give it a few years and a marketing department will figure out how to sell you shiny stanchions again.

“Super slick smooth coated surface for ultimate oil reduction to reduce waste and improve smoothness” or some shit.

Sounds like a pretty silly idea to me.

Why?

Shiny surfaces aren’t always the most “slippery” – take guitar and bass neck finishes, for example. At one time they were always high gloss finished but now pretty much always satin. I take some fine wet or dry to my bass necks when the start to become too glossy through use, so in theory I don’t see why it couldn’t be done to fork stanchions to reduce stiction.

You could always try it on something not too valuable, I suppose?

Why?

The surface finishes are not just ‘roughed up’, they have more depth – so they’re as slippery, just not as smooth.