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When do you need suspension service?

Mar 9, 2021 at 18:27
by Ryan McIntyre  
How do you know when you need suspension service? Some people just wanna take the edge off of bumps and some people wanna catch big air and feel like they’re landing on a cloud, so naturally, opinions will vary.

Broadly speaking, suspension service falls into two categories: basic maintenance and full rebuild. Full rebuild is what it sounds like. The fork or shock is taken more or less completely apart and all the fluids and soft parts like O-rings get replaced. Basic service is well...basic. On forks it usually consists of regreasing the dust wiper seals and replacing the “bath” oil in the bottom of the fork legs. Basic service (often called “air can service”) on a shock is somewhat similar. The seals that keep the air pressure in the can get replaced along with the spoonful of oil that they need to keep things sliding smoothly. Most manufacturers are going to recommend basic service every 50 hours. In my personal opinion, once a year is fine.

As for full rebuilds… reasonable people could disagree on the necessity for doing them and when. On forks, 1 year/200 hours is what a lot of manufacturers recommend. My personal take: Do a full fork rebuild when your damper feels like it’s not working (boingy, diving under braking) or when the fork can’t maintain air spring pressure. Rear shocks are a somewhat different story because the dampers in rear shocks are more complicated and unlike a fork, the oil is under pressure from a compressed air or gas charge. The gas charge slowly leaks down, causing damper issues, The oil gets hot, breaks down and over time it gets contaminated with air bubbles that ALSO degrade damper performance. If you’re the “I just need it to go squish” type, don’t worry about this stuff, just get an air can service once a year and you’ll stay happy. If you notice things like “shock feels fine at the top but starts bottoming out as you go down the mountain” you should probably be getting a full rebuild or at least an air can service and a damper oil change once a year. Short take: shocks are usually fussier and want deep maintenance more than forks do.

So that’s my sermon on “when you need suspension service”. Do basic service front and rear annually, full rebuilds as needed. Go forth and shred at the level you feel most comfortable.

Author Info:
RunsWithScissors avatar

Member since Dec 10, 2014
19 articles

4 Comments
  • 1 0
 If it isn't broken - don't fix it.
  • 1 0
 Does that also mean "don't service until it stops working completely"? I have customers that follow that path, and some that are totally the opposite and regularly drop a bike off for fresh oil. To me, basic service, once a year is the happy medium.
  • 1 0
 @RunsWithScissors: I guess I don't ride that hard or I have been lucky, or both. but I have been riding the same bike for 3 years and never a problem or performance decrease, everything seems to be working just like new?
  • 1 0
 @60ndown: There's multiple factors that feed into when/if you need suspension service. Riders in extremely dusty or muddy environments tend to need more service, especially if they seldom or never wash the bike. HIgh mileage riders will need service more often than occasional riders. Riders who make frequent damper adjustments will wear the o-rings sealing the damper controls more than "set it and forget it" types resulting in oil leaks on a shorter time scale. There's also two common issues in air shocks that help each other "hide": Over time, air can lube turns to silty sludge that inhibits travel, but you don't notice because the damper is so full of bubbles that it doesn't work much anyway and the two sort of cancel each other out. Ultimately, whether or when you need service comes down to how much performance you're looking for and how long you're wanting your parts to last.







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