Suspension Forks - Leaking

[Mr Scruff]

My Ellsworth has some 2002 Marzocci Bombers on it, I forget which but it's this bike:



They've done me amazingly well and have taken all the abuse that has been thrown at them over the years, and it's been a lot! This weekend they started to leak though.

I was going to drop the bike off at my lbs tomorrow to get them sorted and to have the rear shock serviced while I'm there, however I'm told that the forks will need to be sent away for repair.

Is it better to take the forks in alone, save money on the lbs removing them? Any idea how long these things take? Is it even worth getting them repaired as they're not the newest forks out there?

Cheers!

Edited by Mr Scruff on Tuesday 9th March 13:51

[Akers]

Your best bet will be to send them off to TF Tuned for servicing. Highly recommended.

[stu8975]

You will be looking at the best part of £200 for a fork and shock service inc. p&p from TF tuned. New seals/fluid will cost about £25 for the forks, its not a hard job to do.

[ratbane]

stu8975 said:

You will be looking at the best part of £200 for a fork and shock service inc. p&p from TF tuned. New seals/fluid will cost about £25 for the forks, its not a hard job to do.

My LBS has just serviced my Zocchis including seals and oil (obviously) for £30. I've done it myself in the past, but at that price it's a no brainer.

[Mr Scruff]

£200 is a LOT of money to spend on old forks. That's a significant proportion of the price I paid for the bike - 3 years ago!

While I'm competent enough around bikes (I'm happy to replace most things) I'm not sure I want to get involved in suspension forks unless there's a real 'dummies' guide out there. I've spoken to both my LBS's and neither can do the service on-site.

[ratbane]

Mr Scruff said:

£200 is a LOT of money to spend on old forks. That's a significant proportion of the price I paid for the bike - 3 years ago!

While I'm competent enough around bikes (I'm happy to replace most things) I'm not sure I want to get involved in suspension forks unless there's a real 'dummies' guide out there. I've spoken to both my LBS's and neither can do the service on-site.

Sorry, but they ain't much good then. There's a difference between a bike sales LBS and a bike repair LBS of course. Mine is run by an enthusiast who makes most of his cash from the repair angle.

They shouldn't need to be sent away, unless on warranty, and as these are too old for that. Have a ring round other bike shops in the area I would.

Good luck.

[snotrag]

Do the forks yourself.

Those are Old school, open opil bath bombers. They are the easiest fork to service in history.

Ring windwave up, buy a seal kit, and get them to email you the PDF for the service procedure. Then go to your local motorbike shop and buy the right oil (putoline is good, make sure it has no seal swelling additives), and DIY it.

The only thing to make sure of is that you use a good quality 6 point socket on the top caps as they are soft alloy and not very deep. About 32mm socket IIRC.

Cost to you ~ £30. Piece of piss.

[Nick_F]

The relevant 'how to' service guides for RockShox are available on the web - I'm sure it'll be the same for the others?

[stu8975]

The forks should be easy enough to do. £17.50 for a seal kit and prob £5 for fluid. Most modern forks are easy to do, I've done plenty of fox seal changes for people, takes about 20mins. eg http://www.mojo.co.uk/dustwiper.htm (except when he takes the foam rings out, take the seals out of the legs as well and replace).