After two years of use (only one season hard use) I suspect my forks need servicing…

I have a hard tail with Manitou Slate forks. When I sit on the bike the fork hardly travels at all and most of the time it feels like they are locked out. If I really put some pressure on I can get it to compress about 2/3 length, and on a hard hill climb I do feel it traveling, but under normal use is seems to judder rather than travel smoothly as it used to. The seals still seem to be in good order, with no sign of leakage. Got the service manual from Manitou, but none of the troubleshooting areas seem to cover this..

Any ideas what's up – and is this something I can fix? – never taken a fork apart, but would like to learn unless I am going to cause more problems…

You waited 2 years?
Ian

Easy enough to diagnose – they're Manipoos…

Sorry, not very helpful but basically true – Manitou have never made any reliable forks IMO. Take them apart, clean everything, replace the oil, put it all back together see if that helps.

No – the forks worked fine 'til a few weeks ago… still kinda work, just not as well as they used to

Yes – I haven't serviced them for two years…

Thanks Clubber – have read a few bad reports about Manitous… these seem to have been OK though so far

Not an obvious component failure then?

You havn't had an oil leak have you? Or is your compression damping turned up too high?

normal use is seems to judder rather than travel smoothly

Typically that means that crap's got in and the bushes/stanchions aren't sliding smoothly against eachother. It could be something gone wrong in the damping but that's less likely given the riding time you've described with no servicing.

Thanks Andy – I took it into my local bike shop and the mechanic there had a look – wasn't experienced with Manitou's but said the seals looked in good nick and the compression settings appeared to be ok. Sprayed some teflon lube on whilst compressing the shocks to see if it was just the seals causing the sticking – may have helped a little, but not back to normal. Tried adjusting the compression to max setting both ways (just in case I had it wrong!) but hasn't fixed it…

I guess if I am going to take this apart, what should i get in before I start – and any tips?

Typically that means that crap's got in and the bushes/stanchions aren't sliding smoothly against eachother

So is a simple clean likely to fix this?

normal use is seems to judder rather than travel smoothly

Typically that means that crap's got in and the bushes/stanchions aren't sliding smoothly against eachother. It could be something gone wrong in the damping but that's less likely given the riding time you've described with no servicing.

Thanks for the advice – gave me the confidence to learn to take it apart rather than sending it off to be serviced. Yes the bushes/stanchions were very dry and in need of a lube – but also turned out to be a mechanical problem internally.

Big thanks to Chris at Petracycles in Oxted – who took the time to take the fork apart with me. Turned out that a rod on the left leg was rubbing on its way through the hole in the stanchion, leaving a pitted groove in the rod and a pile of metal shavings in the rubber grommet below the hole. Not sure how it got like that but sanded the rod down (and the hole which was not smooth…), greased it up, rebuilt the fork and it now works a treat! Great night ride and big smile back on my face.