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My fox 34s did 8000km with out a service. Still looking like new on the stanchions.
Why is it that car shocks can do so much without stantion wear or internal services ?
Different function.. car shocks dont create any structural stiffness like bike forks do.
Force is applied to the car shock in teh set direction of resulting wheel travel dictated by the wishbones, trailing arms etc etc.. forks have to deal with and resist forces in every direction.
Closest thing I can equate that to is the 'suspension strut' it this fork
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All my fox forks have been well behaved with minimal help from me. All my rockshox have exploded or leaked and although I do love marzochis they are the only fork where I have had stantion wear. It made no difference to their performance which was superb.
"Orange Crush - I dont think its that fair to compare them with mototcycle forks. The forks on my motorcycles are chromed, thickly coated, heavier and can put up with tougher seals.
The ones on mountainbikes are expected to have no stiction, weigh bugger all and still work.
You ride a KTM by any chance ?"
No, currently a 10 year old Beta (with perfect forks) and a 35 year old TY (with only slight chip marks, no wear).
I don't think it is an unfair comparison. The expected criteria you quote are the same though I concede the slightly higher weight of a trials bike will overcome more stiction. The usual problem is damage caused by landing on a rock and the user not taking steps to protect the bare metal resulting so the chrome starts disappearing.
A thicker coating on a mountain bike fork would weigh a lot less than what most folk carry needlessly in their bag or pocket and so not be noticeable. The extended life might be noticed. Proper seals should provide a good enough action too.
Having said that, my five year old Foxes are fine, this week.
Fox 36s 4lower services and a full service in 10months by a pro mechanic not me still worn stanchions. Yet my 2010 Marz 44s have a3 year no service warranty ?