How often should you get forks serviced. My Lyric select+ are now two years old and been on bike for 1200 miles. Should I get them serviced. 
Fork service
- Thread starter Hobo Mikey
- Start date
yes. rockshox recommends a lower leg service after 50 hours of ridding...
u can do it youself, it's well document and easy to do a lower leg service.
trailhead.rockshox.com
u can do it youself, it's well document and easy to do a lower leg service.
RockShox Setup Guide | SRAM
trailhead.rockshox.com
1200 miles != 1200 hours. unless he was clocking at 1mph
Anyhoo, to redeem myself, going by Strava, I generally knock off 20 miles in about 90 minutes. Working backwards, that's about 4.5 minutes per mile, so vaguely ballparky figures put 1200 miles in the neighbourhood of 90 hours, so yes it needs a lower leg service by Rockshox's stipulations. But only a lower leg one which is dead easy & most people can do in about 20-30 minutes with basic tools.
Last edited:
Tubby G
❤️🔥 Hot Stuff ❤️🔥
So I guess I should service my lyrics too, on around 2800 miles now, perhaps more!
militantmandy
Well-known member
Definitely! A lowers service is dead easy to do. I've never tried to do a damper service myself though.
Tubby G
❤️🔥 Hot Stuff ❤️🔥
I'm literally doing a charger damper service for the first time this afternoon. After glancing at a Youtube video or two, I think I know what I'm doing. Wish me luck.
I watched one for the FOX36 with GRIP2 and thought ‘f**k that!!’
good luck
Might have stripped the bike down if I hadn't thought to check first!
I haven't seen the video, but judging by your response, it was made by the people who think that you need to strip it down to individual parts and replace every seal and o-ring. The damper should be nice and clean inside. Dump it out, flush it with clean oil if you feel compelled to do so, then refill and purge the air. I'm of the opinion that it's fine to leave the damper alone, unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise. The o-rings and seals on the damper could last the life of the bike.
I did a full service on my lyrik select+ at 2 years.
it took me half a day but that did include making a tool for clamping the damper assembly in order to open it up at the top cap and replace the oil etc..
I also had to make a fork seal driver..
read the manual on how to do it, see if you would be comfortable taking it on, its ok as long as you have the right tools
it took me half a day but that did include making a tool for clamping the damper assembly in order to open it up at the top cap and replace the oil etc..
I also had to make a fork seal driver..
read the manual on how to do it, see if you would be comfortable taking it on, its ok as long as you have the right tools
Speaking of o-rings, if I turn my HSC knob, the LSC adjuster goes with it which I don't think should happen. There are no o-rings present & I think there should be like I see in replacement kits as below. Anyone nosey enough on here know what sizes they might be?
My Pike does the same thing. I suppose you could count the clicks on the LSC, then see if it changes as you move the HSC in or out.
I think this is pretty normal for any fork with HSC/LSC controls, and if so, it won't be impacting the LSC setting.
Yep, this isn't a showstopper, it's is a new to me used fork & I have no idea of its history, hence the 200 hour service but nothing I can't live with OTOH I do like things to be right & I have seen images of these with what looks like a thin glide ring separating the adjusters,so I guess at some point, someone has been into it & reassembled it with the classic why do I have bits left over afterwards thing!
Expidia
Well-known member
One would think this need for shock rebuilding after a certain amount of hours for e-bikes would technologicaly eventually and hopefully follow the way struts came about in European cars and eventually replaced regular shocks in cars. 50 hours of biking and then the need for service is kinda crazy IMO.
Example: Past 20 years I've only owned foreign (to the U.S. cars) and have never had to replace a strut. With "shocks" we had to replace those every so many miles or your car would be bouncing all over the place and cup your tires if you continued to drive on weak shocks.
Same thing happened with carbs which eventually followed Europe with their fuel injectors. Can't say how long it's been since I owned a car with a carb? Remember those days of freezing cold mornings and you would have to go out in your pajamas and stick a screwdriver into the butterfly of your wife's cars carb (so she could get to work) to get it to start
.
Being somewhat new to eMTBing seems to me the need of continued shock servicing is just another money grab to support the bike shops revenue stream, much like going tubeless is for the LBS. I'm not saying tubeless is bad (no such thing as tubes in cars now days). But why aren't all bikes coming tubeless already? I see it as just another money grab. Aren't these bikes expensive enough to ship tubeless?
Example, I recently paid $6,700 (with tax) from my Trek Powerfly. It came with tubeless ready rims. When I had my LBS change them over to tubeless he found the tires this bike came from Trek with are beaded and not of the tubeless type.
I cry bullsh*t on Trek . . . it cost me labor costs by the time they realized the bike did not come with tubeless tires and yes the LBS should have known they were not tubeless ready tires before attempting to seal the bead of a non tubeless tire
. . . This is why we need to do these jobs ourselves no matter what the initial investment of the correct tools and equipment needed.
I still need to buy a bead blaster type pump for another $165 for setting beads.
But unless one learns to do everything ourselves it gets crazy costly for using the LBS and lost biking time . . . it all seems to me like a routine maintainance is mostly a money grab. Including the shocks service kits from the manaufactuers. Bring your bike into a LBS and kit's can be in short supply or you lose your bike for a week or two for a fork service that can cost $150-200 from what I read.
Example: Past 20 years I've only owned foreign (to the U.S. cars) and have never had to replace a strut. With "shocks" we had to replace those every so many miles or your car would be bouncing all over the place and cup your tires if you continued to drive on weak shocks.
Same thing happened with carbs which eventually followed Europe with their fuel injectors. Can't say how long it's been since I owned a car with a carb? Remember those days of freezing cold mornings and you would have to go out in your pajamas and stick a screwdriver into the butterfly of your wife's cars carb (so she could get to work) to get it to start
.Being somewhat new to eMTBing seems to me the need of continued shock servicing is just another money grab to support the bike shops revenue stream, much like going tubeless is for the LBS. I'm not saying tubeless is bad (no such thing as tubes in cars now days). But why aren't all bikes coming tubeless already? I see it as just another money grab. Aren't these bikes expensive enough to ship tubeless?
Example, I recently paid $6,700 (with tax) from my Trek Powerfly. It came with tubeless ready rims. When I had my LBS change them over to tubeless he found the tires this bike came from Trek with are beaded and not of the tubeless type.
I cry bullsh*t on Trek . . . it cost me labor costs by the time they realized the bike did not come with tubeless tires and yes the LBS should have known they were not tubeless ready tires before attempting to seal the bead of a non tubeless tire
. . . This is why we need to do these jobs ourselves no matter what the initial investment of the correct tools and equipment needed.I still need to buy a bead blaster type pump for another $165 for setting beads.
But unless one learns to do everything ourselves it gets crazy costly for using the LBS and lost biking time . . . it all seems to me like a routine maintainance is mostly a money grab. Including the shocks service kits from the manaufactuers. Bring your bike into a LBS and kit's can be in short supply or you lose your bike for a week or two for a fork service that can cost $150-200 from what I read.
Last edited:
There's no one holding a gun to your head.
Don't service your fork.
Keep your tubes.
Don't do maintenance.
It's a choice.
Expidia
Well-known member
What I said if you actually "read my post" is we need to do this stuff ourselves otherwise its just a money grab for your local LBS. Where did I ever say "don't do maintenance? I said I wish they would come out with forks that are more like car struts, so we don't have to service them that often, if at all. Or to not use tubeless tires? I'll go tubeless when these OEM non tubelss tires wear out, but these expensive bikes should ship with tubeless in the first place. Or that I won't service my fork? I just prefer to learn how to do it myself as I can do it better. First accessory I bought was a Park repair stand!
I new someone that owned a transmission repair shop. He said when someone brought him a car with transmission issues . . . he would charge them for a full transimssion rebuilding kit and then he would only replace the bad parts and keep the rest of the new parts for his stock for future jobs.
I don't trust a LBS to have some kid replacing some of the parts in say a fork rebuild and have extra parts left over when he's finished.
Like I said, I prefer to do it myself.
Expidia
Well-known member
What I meant was I'm seeing these bike companies building in required maintenence schedules much like car companies do now a days. We can no longer work on many of the things that break down with newer cars. So even though they don't break down as frequently as they used too, but on my two cars the average repair is now in the area of $3,500.
An oil and filter change where we used to clip a coupon for like $19.95 only a few years ago and all of a sudden (even before a 40% jack up on everything from our 9%
inflation rate) an oil and filter change for my cars is like $135-150 each!I'm finding these bikes have an awful lot of "wear and maintenence scheduled items". From the chain, cassette, tires, brake pads, rotors, forks, rear shock, tires etc . . . Who knew??? I've owned my last two Trek road bikes and all I ever did was change the tires and brake pads
and both are still going strong.I purposely bought their best Trek Powerfly model because it already came with all of their higher end components . . . so I would not be continuely upgrading components. Worse part of upgrading IMO is you already paid for say a front suspension fork and now you upgrade to a better one. Nothing wrong with that except you already paid for the first one and unless you can sell it you have to add that into the cost of your new fork.
steve_sordy
Wedding Crasher
I have a 2 litre Audi A5, petrol engine. The EMS warning light came on and advised me in capital letters to proceed slowly to the nearest Audi service centre. The car felt OK, no other warning signs, so I carried on.
The following day at the Audi place, after a long wait I was told that it needed a new thermostat. "Phew" I said, "I thought it was going to be expensive!" He gave me a funny look and told me it would be over a thousand pounds!!!!! Like @Expidia I can remember when a new thermostat cost less than a pound and that included the gasket. Ten mins with a spanner and job done. Now it's a five-hour job to get to where the thermostat is, fit it and rebuild the engine. In addition, the thermostat was not cheap!
The following day at the Audi place, after a long wait I was told that it needed a new thermostat. "Phew" I said, "I thought it was going to be expensive!" He gave me a funny look and told me it would be over a thousand pounds!!!!! Like @Expidia I can remember when a new thermostat cost less than a pound and that included the gasket. Ten mins with a spanner and job done. Now it's a five-hour job to get to where the thermostat is, fit it and rebuild the engine. In addition, the thermostat was not cheap!
Expidia
Well-known member
Ha! Exactly what I was trying to point out. My wife's Audi needed front brakes re-newed a few months ago. Audi came out with there clip board and a "video" of underneath my car (this is their new thing the service video) and said it would be $2,700 as I needed rears too and a brake fluid change! So I took it over to Goodyear and they did the fronts for for $421 and even used the Akebono premium ceramic pads and Premium Napa rotors for the parts. They said I don't need the rears done yet.
I was very satisfied with their service and the next week I brought my BMW to them for premium rotors and pads front and rear plus an oil and filter change and the brake fluid change too for $1,100.
The only time one should use the dealer is when it's still under warranty IMO and it's a covered repair (pads & rotors are never covered). I will take it to the dealer to analyze what an issue is and pay them $150 for their diagnoisis and then take it elsewhere to do the actual work.
Working on my bikes is a labor of love. Working on my cars myself now a days is just a pain in the ass. I helped my son do his front brakes on his Toyota Highlander a few months back and it still came to over $200 for non premium parts and took us 2-3 times longer than we expected anyway.
Last edited:
steve_sordy
Wedding Crasher
It was an Audi & VW specialist I went to, not the main Audi dealer. I shudder to think what they would have charged. For example, the main dealer wanted £1400 to supply and fit a tow bar for my bike rack! The Audi guy admitted that it was an outrageous price. I went to a local specialist tow-bar company and they charged £430.
franciscoasismm
Active member
In 46,000 km on ebike, I never did maintenance on the fork, (I only clean the bars with silicone oil and check the pressure before each ride).
Every time it passes 200 hours, I save 80 euros in a metal jar, the day I want I can buy a new fork.
Every time it passes 200 hours, I save 80 euros in a metal jar, the day I want I can buy a new fork.
Same here Rear shock never been touched at all and works ok.
maynard
E*POWAH Elite World Champion
I enjoy working on my bikes And only take to bike store when no other choice . Same with my cars . Hey u don't need a charger to setup tubeless. I've done a few with a regular pump . I ended up getting a charger pump. But not needed really
Expidia
Well-known member
I found it also depends on the softeness of tire walls (seems they make them soft so they can be shipped folder in a small package and hang more on a display rack). The height of the inner edges of the tracks that hold the beads probably makes a difference too. My tubeless Trek rims have this fine edge on the inside of the bead track that I had to get the bead over to take the tire off. And it makes it just as hard to get the bead to pop over onto this track again when re-installing I found.
I also found going tubeless and doing it ourselves (with the help of the input from some members here) in many cases (like mine) was a big learning curve
I used to work at gas stations when I was a kid and used this strap that went around the circumference of the tire and than I inflated the strap which popped the edges onto the rim (made the tire look like a fat lady with a real tight belt on).
So when my LBS was trying to seat the bead and his high pressure compressor couldn't seat it he "pulled out a strap" that looked much like the ones I used to use on stubborn auto tires. I found one on Amazon ($18 pic below) to have on hand when my OEM Bontrager tires wear out I'll go to tubeless.
The reason he could not get one of the wheels to stop seeping air was because Trek ships these expensive bikes with tubeless ready rims and "tubed" tires. One would think this experienced LBS tech who does a lot of tubeless conversions would have known right off the bat that this particular wire bead model tire could not be mounted tubeless (but hey, everyone makes mistakes).
I was going to spring for the $165 Bontrager bead blaster floor pump, but he said he is not a fan of the blaster pumps. He said what actually is best to seat a bead is the "volume" of air that his compressor rushes out. He said most of those inexpensive blaster pumps can't put out enough volume and many of the 1 star Amazon reviews of these types of pumps echo his thoughts.
I can understand this about air volume as I'm sure narrower road type tubeless tires can be popped into place easy with a blaster style floor pump.
But MTB tires . . . (mine are almost 2.5 inches wide) may require a sudden blast of a lot of air volume in one shot, to set a stubborn bead YMMV.
I ordered this bead strap already incase I get too many flats I'll go right to new tubeless tires.
Last edited:
EMTB Forums
Latest articles
-
2025 M1 Sporttechnik EN 8.0 review
The M1 EN is one of four M1 models built on the same frame. Well, it’s... -
Bosch-powered Merida is here – the eOne-Sixty SL and eOne-Eighty intro and test
Merida has used Bosch-motors for years, but not on the emtbs. The full...- Knut Nes
- 10 min read
- Views: 5K
- Reaction score: 5
- Comments: 9