Suspension Servicing

By

Steve

.

Your suspension does a lot of work while you’re riding. You rely on it not just to soak up the bumps (and hits!) but to constantly maintain traction in all conditions.

Suspension is the quiet achiever, and is often neglected. Regular suspension maintenance will maintain peak performance. Let’s take a look at basic suspension maintenance and answer some of the common questions.

Q: How often do I need to service my suspension?
You should have a basic fork service – what we call the ‘Lower Leg’ service – every 50 hours of riding. If you ride for 2 hours per week, this is every six months. You can also measure the interval based on kms travelled, using your average riding speed.

The ‘Major Service’ is recommended at 200 hours of riding. Cessnock is very sandy and gritty though and it’s tough on seals, so for many riders we do this at 100 hours, or once per year. This is for forks and shock.

Q: What’s in those services?
The lower leg service is a strip and clean of the lower fork leg assembly. We remove the forks from your bike before stripping them, so you also get a headset check. There are no parts involved in this service, but we check your seals when we remove and clean the foam rings. You can elect to have the seals changed during this service.
We reassemble the forks with fresh suspension fluid and reinflate. When they’re tested OK, they go back in the bike and we reset your headset tension.

The lower leg service restores small bump sensitivity, reduces friction and extends bushing lifespan. You can see from this photo that contaminants get into the fork and are caught by the foam rings. This contamination will damage your fork internals and reduce performance.

The major service is a full strip of lower leg and air spring assembly, with a full o-ring and fork seal replacement.

The Air Spring is a critical piece of your fork’s technology and requires a specific fluid type and volume to work correctly.
CBC always uses OEM fluids and lubricants during servicing. Don’t settle for a cheap alternative!

We strip and clean both upper and lower fork, replacing vital o-rings as we go, and we fit a new set of fork seals and foam rings. We reassemble the fork and refill both chambers with the correct fluids and reinflate. When the forks are back in your bike, they’ll perform like new again.

Servicing your forks will extend their life and maintain their performance. It’s an essential part of your regular bike maintenance schedule.

Next month: Shock servicing!