I have a 2004 Trek 8000 mountain bike which has had fairly light use since new (one hour run once a fortnight in summer and one half to full day on red and blues at Glentress once per year on average). I tend to go out on my road bike more often. I know the manufacturer recommends at least annual servicing to the forks and LBS say they should be serviced annually but is this really nescessary for such light use. I would be interested to know how many people have their suspension forks serviced annually
The tolerances for service intervals are on the shock manual that came with the bike or can be found on the fox web and it normally states after x amount of hours riding that each component should be. An annual service is worth it for piece of mind rather than have a worn out shock fail on you whilst out on the trails...
Air sleeve servicing on shocks should be carried out at 10hr use intervals in dry and 8hrs in wet conditions. And an annual service is recommended, but for lighter use you couls get away with 2 yrs use before cavitation affected damper perormance.
The deterioration is very gradual so you won't notice the drop in performance until a service is carried out and optimum performance is restored.
It's not cheap though, and if you can live with the current performance you're getting you could choose to leave it for a while. If you get any strnge noises or notchy feel in the shock though, get it serviced ASAP as it'll cost you less in the long run.
Yes sorry, just re-read the title (I followed the gist of previous posters' referral to shock manuals). Forks should have an oil bath and seal change at 100hrs use. And annual servicing isn't as important if you follow this schedule, as it basicaly entails a damper strip down and clean, and bushing change.
It's still worth it for maximum perfromance, but I find most riders can get away with it for a second year if they change the oil regularly.
If you have Fox TALAS forks on that bike they recommend in the manual every 18 months, I left mine for 24 months or more and when I got them back from Mojo they were not noticeably any better or any different. So I probably could have left them longer. I'm out about twice a week all year round. Just look after the leg/stantion seals, clean regularly, so you don't get any oil/fluid weeping out. That's happening to my forks at the moment because I neglected them.
Thanks a lot for advice. I will probably get them serviced this summer as they are now 4 years old but at least now i dont feel i am making a big mistake by not getting them done every year as my use of the bike is quite light.
Service after 100 hours use seems to make more sense than annual service
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