Double Barrel comes to the Midwest

Ever heard of the Cane Creek Double Barrel? It's only the most adjustable, best-performing rear shock on the market. and it's coming to the Midwest! Shockspital is now a certified Double Barrel service and warranty center, joining just a handful of shops around the U.S. that are thus qualified.

And though the CCDB only comes in sizes 7.5" and bigger, any of you with a bike that can handle a long-travel shock should be excited about this product. Keep in mind that you'll need to devote some time to dialing it in to your preferences. While most rear shocks offer two or three types of damper adjustment, the CCDB offers four: high- and low-speed compression AND high- and low-speed rebound. And if you want the new Double Barrel CS, you also get a climb switch similar to the pedal platform option found on other companies' shocks.

For the more weigh-conscious rider, there is the Double Barrel Air, boasting all the same adjustability of the CCDB but using a lightweight air spring in place of the coil.

Of course this level of performance comes at a price--the Double Barrel is a bit of an investment. But fortunately for you prospective buyers out there, Shockspital is also an authorized Demo Center. This means you can try before you buy! Check out the Double Barrel website to see if your bike can handle this shock. If it can, give us a shout to line up a demo shock. We're still in the process of putting together our demo fleet, so contact us before it gets warm out to ensure we have the right size for your bike come spring.

Minnesotans/Wisconsinites in the audience should consider this the hands-down best choice of equipment for your Spirit Mountain bike. Hell yeah!

Double Barrel small part? Yes, we have that in stock.

Shockspital movement

Just a heads-up that Shockspital World HQ is now based out of the Freewheel Bike West Bank location. We still have a lab at the beloved Midtown location (and out at Freewheel-Eden Prairie), but local walk-in customers are now encouraged to stop by the West Bank, where there is actually parking (for your car)!

Improved access is but one of the reasons we decided to shift things around. Easier shipping/receiving for the benefit of our mail-in customers is another. Stop by our new Lab to see the rest!

Headshok upgrade double-header!

Shockspital-West Bank got a pair of Headshok Fatty Ultra forks in the other day, so Troy (from WB) and Tyson (from Shockspital's Midtown HQ) teamed up to get 'em running like new.

Unfortunately, both dampers were damaged to the point that they would no longer hold oil, even with fresh seals. Lucky for us (and the customer!), Cannondale offers a damper exchange program (with certain restrictions) that makes replacing the entire damper a financially viable option. Here's the guts of the old DLR80 damper:

As is typical with this type of failure, damper oil had run down through the bearings and completely flushed out all the grease. In these cases we like to do a full service on the telescope to get everything clean before applying fresh grease. Here's the telescope all taken apart:

When the protective boot covering the telescope gets saturated with damper oil it tends to harden up and crack, so we replace that, as well:

Here you can see the needle bearing retainers covered in grease and ready for reassembly:

Here's Troy coaxing the race retaining clip back into place:

...and in goes the brand-new damper....

....and the knobs go back on and we're done!

Both forks now have an up-to-date DLR damper (with new one-year warranty) and smooth bearings. Like new. Nice!

Cannondale VIPs

Pretty!

If you've been following our Facebook page, you know that Shockspital recently sent a couple of representatives out to Cannondale's assembly/tech facility in Bedford, PA to further refine our technique when it comes to Lefty service. Our hosts were two of the planet's foremost experts on Leftys: Headshok Product Manager Drew Hanna and Lefty Production Engineer Derrick Miller. With so much Lefty wisdom in the room we couldn't help but learn something.

Thumbs up for Lefty!

As part of our visit we got to see Cannondale bikes and Leftys being put together from the ground up. Except for my basement, I've never seen so many good-looking bikes in one room! The assembly floor was awash with new frames, forks and parts, and every corner of the building was a flurry of activity.

"Can I fit this under my jacket?"

In the Lefty assembly room, we saw telescopes going together faster than most people can open a bag of potato chips, and that includes the time it takes to size the bearing races for proper bearing preload! We later got to go through the process in detail back in the lab with Derrick and Drew, so you can now consider us experts. (The first thing I did when we got home was test my telescope technique on a fork which was heading straight out to Chequamegon--I've already heard back from the rider and the verdict is 100% success!)

Telescope rebuild

In addition to sharing race-clip/clip-clip stories and comparing favorite bearing greases, we got the scoop on some damper tuning possibilities that I don't want to let out of the bag yet--we need to try them out in the Shockspital lab first. But stay tuned (sorry for the pun) if you have a current-generation PBR or XLR damper in your Lefty, as your options are about to broaden.

If you don't already have PBR/XLR, keep in mind that most Leftys since 2005 can be upgraded to these new dampers. And if you have an SPV Max, you can also drop some serious weight, as the new dampers use an air spring instead of the heavy coil that comes stock in those Leftys.

Checking race thickness

This was a great field trip for us, with equal parts new knowledge gained and, on the other hand, validation of our time-tested Lefty techniques. It didn't hurt that we had a 1-to-1 student/instructor ratio. And at this point it also doesn't hurt that we're the only Cannondale dealer in the Twin Cities. We sell Cannondale, we fix Cannondale. And we have Cannondale's full support.

Shockspital's new digs/New rental shop/Rental road bikes!

No, no, we (Shockspital) haven't moved again. We're just revamping our space in the Freewheel Midtown Bike Center. Until now we were tucked back in a corner with no great way to talk with our local customers when they stopped in. But now we have a counter! And retail parts displays! Check it out:

Super-pro suspension shop setup

It's hard to see in the photo, but we also reconfigured our benches to better harness the chi in the room. Next time you stop by, be sure to refer to our workspace as The Lab. It makes us feel smart(er).

In addition, Freewheel Midtown now has a New Bike Showroom, which is behind the camera in the above photo, where the public rental shop used to be. We actually have bikes for sale! We don't have as large a selection as West Bank and Eden Prairie (not enough room), but we have a dozen or so hand-picked steeds for your perusal.

But don't worry, the public shop is still here. We moved it into the big back room, which has been used for many things (Nice Ride service department, Free Bikes for Kids service department, Freewheel Winter Bike Expo), but is now lookin' sharp as the new home of the rental shop.

And, as a bonus side-note, Freewheel Midtown now has a fleet of rental Cannondale CAAD10 road bikes. These babies are hot!

...and they've been popular. Next time you want to rent a fast bike to take out on the Midtown Greenway Drag Strip, this is your rocket ship. Just make sure you slow down in front of our door--there's a lot of folks coming in and out of there who don't want to get run over.

We love Leftys....

...but here's an example of a first-generation Lefty that we can't really do much for. These early forks had a one-time press-fit adjuster knob that we can't replace, which means that we also can't replace the upper oil cap seal, which is one of the main culprits in damper failures. If your external adjuster knobs look like this:

...it's a bad start. The red rebound adjuster has no visible set screw (because there is no set screw), and when you pull it straight out you see this:

And then you can pull the lockout knob off and see this:

...which is a black plastic piece instead of a silver aluminum nut the same size. (If you remove the upper collar and pull that black nut off you can peer down into the fork and see the aluminum nut we can't replace.) These clues indicate that your Lefty is too old for us to fix.

Most of our customers who are still riding these forks will be faced with the tough choice of which modern Lefty to buy to replace their old fork. Which, if you divide the cost of a new Lefty over all the years they've been riding their old one, isn't as expensive as it first sounds.

Same sad story...

We here at Shockspital see this a lot: a fork comes in that hasn't been serviced in a while and doesn't get cleaned very often, and instead of wiping it down, installing new seals and fresh oil and sending it back out on the trail, we have to pick up the phone and say things like "strictly financial perspective" and "new fork."

Pictured at top left are a set of Enduro wipers that came off a Fox fork that required a bit of hosing down. Enduro does many things very well, but in our experience these fork wipers can cause more problems than they solve, and some people try use them as a substitute for regular service, which doesn't work. In fact, it often does just the opposite. You can plainly see the dirt that has collected under these, which through use and additional neglect result in stanchion damage like you see below.

This flat spot on the stanchion will allow dirt and oil to bypass the wipers, which completely negates their purpose, which is to keep the oil in your fork clean. Now, instead, dirt has turned the damper oil into a gravelly, nasty mess which is certainly doing bad things to the old TerraLogic damper in this fork. This is a sensitive damper on a good day, but with grit in the oil, you can pretty much forget about this working like it should.

So now this customer faces a tough decision: have us put the fork back together and make it work as well as we can, but know that it won't work well for long. Or, cut their losses and buy a new fork, which is far more expensive but will be a more reliable piece of equipment provided they take care of the new one better than they did this one.

Save yourself the headache of this predicament by getting in the habit now of wiping off your fork after every ride and having it serviced once a year or so. With care like that, it could last decades! And with donor forks like this one, we're sure to have replacement parts for these old forks when something on yours breaks in 2025 (as long as you don't need replacement uppers or an inertia-valve damper).

It's Fox season!

Sorry for the long quiet period, in case you hadn't noticed, it's spring! We've been chained to our workbenches. And we just got our first big order of Fox parts in for the season.

It's a little hard to tell how huge that bag is. I guess you'll have to take my word for it. Here's a close-up of the contents:

Now come get 'em!

Got Ultra?

Long before Michelob Ultra became the world's leading sports/energy drink, aluminum in a slightly different shape prowled the streets of Awesomeville. Say hello to the Cannondale Headshok Fatty Ultra Rainbow:

Stop by or call the Shockspital today to get in on the fun.

How do I tell if my fork/shock needs service?

This is like asking a dentist how often you should brush your teeth. Most suspension manufacturers recommend having your components serviced once a year, minimum. For most people that's enough to ensure your fork/shock has a long life of solid performance.

Ruined fork stanchion. Don't wait this long!

But if you're the kind of person who waits until something is broken before you have it serviced, here's what to look for:

1) Does the fork/shock hold air? Rapid air loss is a sign that your air piston seals are damaged or worn. Or worse, that the metal sliding surfaces which those seals contact are damaged. Time to have it worked on.

2) Do your external adjustments make any difference? Turn your rebound adjuster all the way one direction, compress the fork and watch the speed of the rebound stroke. Now turn the adjuster all the way the other direction and do the same. There should be a noticeable difference. Try the same thing with your lockout or platform adjuster (see below for more on lockout issues). If you don't see a difference, either oil is sneaking past damaged seals or has broken down to the point where it can't do its job.

Scratched rebound shaft

3) Does it make any unusual noises? Grinding, clunking and slurping sounds are signs that you're way overdue for service. This is like waiting for your car to start smoking before you change the oil. In a rear shock, swishing or slurping (or in some cases squeaking or barking) means that the damper oil is cavitated (full of emulsified air), in which case it needs to be overhauled.

4) Does the lockout work? On some forks the first sign something is wrong is that the lockout gets soft or won't engage until part way into the travel. This is because of oil loss or degradation and is a good indication that the fork needs service.

5) Are you still getting full travel? If your damper seals or shafts get so worn out that oil is leaking out of the damper into the lowers, it will eventually be so full of oil that it can't compress all the way. This can feel like a metal-on-metal bottom-out. Typically this means your rebound shaft is scratched and needs to be replaced. In this case you should go back in time and have it serviced earlier. Or just have it serviced and expect to need to replace some parts.

So if your suspension is acting/sounding funny OR it's been over a year since your last service OR you've been riding at Cuyuna, give Shockspital a call or email and we'll figure out what you need.

Cannondale, Cannondale, Cannondale!

Our life of making your lives easier just got easier. Shockspital has always worked on Cannondale suspension components. Over the years we have managed to scrape together a decent collection of spare parts and o-rings for all the Leftys and Headshoks that you send us. Sometimes another shop will discover a big pile of Headshok parts in the back of their parts room and send it to us because they know we'll use it.

But as of this week, Shockspital is officially a Cannondale small parts dealer. This means that we now have direct access to the parts that we need to keep your Lefty/Headshok working like new and to get your Cannondale MTB back on the trail quicker.

So add Cannondale to the list of suspension companies (Manitou, RockShox) who are helping us provide the best service we can to you, the customer. And add Shockspital to the list of people who are breathing a sigh of relief. Man, was I tired of hand-knitting replacement Lefty boots...

If a grenade went off...

Shockspital/Freewheel helped make history this week, taking part in the first-ever gathering of suspension gurus from across the country.

Get a bigger truck!

SRAM Technical University (STU) pulled together a veritable who's-who of suspension service shops at their facility in Colorado Springs for a two-day master class in being awesome. Pick any legend in the MTB suspension service/tuning industry who isn't currently working for one of RockShox's competitors, they were probably there.

And this wasn't your average Chuck & Dave's Comedy Hour kind of STU (okay, yes it was, but...). Instead of the usual pair of instructors--who do fine job on their own--SRAM threw everything they had at us. In the room at any given time were product managers, lead technicians, race mechanics, engineers, marketing staff, the folks behind the technical documentation, you name it. At several points there were as many SRAM/RockShox employees in the room as there were "students." Clearly there was something special going on here.

The group gathers for knowledge absorption

And in many ways what RockShox was doing is unprecedented. Not only had the attendees never all been in the same room together, we had never been treated to such unguarded candor from a major manufacturer before. Typical tech trainings are informative but very by-the-book; we learn the official way of doing things and don't get to see behind the curtain, to hear about the product eccentricities that often we have already discovered for ourselves, but have had to develop our own techniques for dealing with. But at this event we were treated like trusted insiders. RockShox was more interested in knowing how they could make our lives easier as suspension techs rather than getting us to toe the line and promise never to take apart their dampers.

Come in close, kids! Don't want to miss anything...

Our time, as usual, was split between the classroom and the lab. But again where this STU session differed from the norm is that the classroom time was a big group discussion, with equal amounts of information coming from all corners of the room. And in the lab, taking apart Boxxers, Monarchs, Vivids and Reverbs under the tutelage of an impressive team of experts, we got into such detail that the STU instructors were asking questions along with us. We now know things about RockShox rear shocks that are so privileged that I'm not allowed to blog about them! But rest assured that it's information that helps us do our jobs better.

Our friend Luby expertly attends to a Monarch

The best part is that this wasn't a one-time deal. The idea is for this first meeting to develop into a long-term relationship between us and SRAM. This has the potential to benefit everyone involved, not least of whom is you, the customer!

And though the folks from SRAM treated us very, very well, and are clearly very serious about this venture, don't forget that the first company to bring us into their trusted circle was Manitou!

Have you been to Cuyuna yet?

Everybody is raving about the new Cuyuna trail system in northern Minnesota. I myself haven't made the trip yet, but identifying a bike that has spent time in the iron-ore-rich dirt up there is easy: just look for the coating of bright red dust.

Just a word of warning to anyone who has ridden up there: One of our Cuyuna-riding customers brought his fork to us for an overhaul the other day and it was just as red and dusty on the inside as it was on the outside. Take a look at these wipers and foam rings:


Here's a photo down into the lowers--notice the red dust on the bushings:


This fork was serviced early enough that there was no internal damage, but I can only imagine what kind of havoc this fine-grained iron ore dust could wreak if it was left in the fork for too long.

Moral of the story? Send us (or bring in) your Cuyuna'd forks before they Cuyuna apart!

Bring in your Fox FiT forks!

Here at Shockspital I finally got the chance last week to do a full overhaul on a Fox fork equipped with their new FiT cartridge damper. We haven't seen many of these come through for service yet because they're so new--Fox only starting putting FiT dampers in their 32mm forks in 2010. But if you're following Fox's recommended service intervals, those 2010 forks are due for some love.

But back to my story: At the Murphy Menace 50-mile MTB race that Freewheel sponsored at the end of August we gave away several fabulous door prizes. Among them were some gift certificates for a full suspension fork overhaul! One of these lucky winners brought in his Fox F-series FiT RLC for us to freshen up. Here is a shot of the FiT damper once we got everything apart:



The shorter gold rod on the left is the coupler that holds the bladder assembly together. Just to the right of that is the black bladder which allows for volume changes as the fork moves through its travel. Just under that is the compression piston and the shim stack which controls oil flow through said piston. On the right is a longer gold shaft which is part of the rebound assembly. But of course that's not all one big piece; here's the guts:



At the top right, sporting the pink glide ring, is the rebound piston. At top left is the adjuster which is the only part of this assembly which is visible from the outside of the fork (though typically it's mostly covered by the red rebound adjuster knob on the bottom of the fork leg). As you spin that knob it moves the threaded portion of the adjuster, which in turn pushes the small silver shaft up through the larger gold shaft. As you thread the adjuster further in it causes the needle on the opposite end of the shaft to close the central port of the rebound piston, which increases the rebound damping and causes the fork to rebound slower because of the restricted oil flow.

I'm not going to go into the procedure necessary to get this entire assembly back together with no air bubbles in it. I'm sure you can imagine. But that's one of the benefits of this closed-cartridge system: it's much better than an open-bath system at resisting cavitation and contamination, both of which affect the performance and longevity of your suspension components.

One important point here is that this fork was still performing fairly well. The damper was still in good shape and the oil was pretty clear. But now with fresh oil and new seals this fork should run smoothly all through next season, too. And by having his fork serviced before any major problems manifest, this customer is helping ensure that it will perform at its best for many seasons to come.

Fun project bonanza!

I've been saving up photos for the past few weeks to compile into one big blog post about fun repairs, so hang on tight...

First, let's reach back a few decades to the Golden Age of two- and three-speed internal hubs. A customer came in with a Bendix two-speed kick-back coaster hub (Yellow Band!) that wasn't behaving itself, even after a couple attempts to service it. So I pulled it apart for diagnosis:

In the foreground notice the Bendix wrench; yes, that one end is a 47/64". After cleaning everything I was able to find the problem--a broken coupler:

Notice the missing section in the foreground, which should be a closed rectangle like the hole on the opposite side (also notice the Sutherland's manual on the bench--trade secret!).

Unfortunately, though we have lots of old Bendix parts, we have long since run out of the fragile bits, so barring some lucky Ebay searches, this wheel will have to be retired.

Next up is a suspension fork that we don't see too often around here, Fox's 36 TALAS, their big-hit, travel-adjust fork. There's all sorts of fun stuff in this fork, including the granddaddy of today's 32 FiT damper forks, the big RC2 damper cartridge. Here's everything laid out:

Lots of stuff going on there! Notice the black rubber bladder in the lower right--Fox was using their FiT dampers in the big downhill forks for years before they finally came out with a smaller, cross-country version for their 32mm forks in 2010. Both FiT systems are designed to reduce weight by minimizing oil volume. Here's a look in the end of the damper cartridge just before the bladder is installed:

Our final stop in Taking Things Apart Funland is an overhaul on an Avid Juicy Ultimate hydraulic brake lever. This brake was exhibiting all sorts of undesirable behavior, including occasionally going all the way to the handlebar without engaging the brake AND pumping up to the point that there was no lever movement. I suspected the master cylinder piston seals, as both of those symptoms suggested oil was getting around the seals. It was also leaking brake fluid from under the reservoir cap, which suggested that the rubber parts in the lever were getting tired. Here's everything exposed to the light of day:

Notice the two threaded pieces on the right--the red part threads against the worm gear below it to provide freestroke adjustment (the point in lever throw where the pads contact the rotor). This is different than reach adjustment, which sets the starting point of lever throw. Though it's becoming more and more common, typically this kind of adjustment is only seen on higher-end brakes, as it adds a lot of moving parts to the system (equals more expensive).

Well, that's all I've got for now. See you out on the trail for the Murphy Time Trial Series!

Counterpoint: Rock Shox XX Review

Earlier this summer we had the privilege of sitting in on some Rock Shox suspension training with a few fellows from Marzocchi. No--Rock Shox. Yes, that's it. Anyways, I had endured a few bad experiences with Rock Shox suspension back in the day (a leaky, fragile first-generation SID) and had pretty much written them off as a bunch of snake-oil selling Hessians (no offense to any Hessians in the wide scope of Golden Wrench readership). My junk-o-meter was set to stun when they began to tear apart the demo fork for our learning. I scrutinized every piece they passed around, expecting a bunch of spindly ribbons of tortured aluminum, doohickeys, religious totems, ventricles, and Clif bar wrappers to come out of the damping side. Nope, just a couple of assemblies! I was surprised by the simplicity of their damping system, and especially by their platform: it's a plastic spring that controls a blowoff port. Everything in these forks is modular: they are a breeze to work on.

What really intrigued me was the X-Loc feature found on the XX forks. We had done a piece for the MORC newsletter on how to bleed and set up the X-Loc, and it's a pretty thoughtful design. No cable drag or huge spring tension to overcome cable drag: just liquid-smooth hydraulic goodness. On, off, adjustable floodgate. The simple-minded can call it witchcraft: I think Bernoulli and Newton would be proud of its simplicity and effectiveness. Furthermore, I can't wait for a rear-shock counterpart, or one hydraulic switch that will control both front and rear! Or an electronic damping system that responds to my feelings as long as I don't ride too close to a microwave tower or drain the battery! Oh wait--K2 already did that back in the day.

Anyways, I sent off for a Rock Shox SID XX with an aluminum crown. About 8 hours later, it arrived from QBP, complete with the fork itself, an enormous cardboard box decorated in a fetching shade of blue, several layers of plastic bags, a shock pump, ONLY ONE BLASTED STICKER AND NOT THE SWEET DECAL KIT (!??!?!!??!?!?!!!??!?!), and a manual. Also included was a travel reducer to shorten the stroke down to 80mm, which will probably never see the light of day after it was deposited in my junk drawer. Initial impressions were positive: it's a modern and attractive white color with gray graphics; it's smooth (better be, right?); it's not horribly heavy; and that lockout is the cat's pajamas.

After a few weeks spent scaring up the funds to actually pay the thing off, I still was able to ride the fork for at least four weeks before some other guy at the shop had heard anything besides "Stop calling us, man, or it will take longer, man" from a certain company out west. That company will remain anonymous, but the clever among us will recognize that it is named after a scavenging mammal that gains its sustenance by raiding the nests of game fowl.

I slapped the fork onto my trusty old Gunnar Ruffian (having crashed and bent the previous fork at the Murphy TT), filled it full of air, mounted the lockout on the left side, and tried it out. The front wheel was doing things I was not accustomed to, such as tracking straight through rough terrain and holding a line in rough corners. I would lock the fork out on the road and when climbing out of the saddle, but then I would forget to unlock it. That's OK, because in addition to about 3/4" of super-progressive travel (even with it locked out) you can adjust the "gate" feature and make the blowoff ports open sooner. After a couple of forgetful episodes, I dialed down the gate so the fork would open up sooner, sparing my pore ole wrists. It's a platform, yay!

After some test riding (which included the Border Battle race, as good a test ride as one will find), I moved the lockout to the right side, under the bar. Single speed, no shifters, plenty of room. Since the lockout button was in the place that a RapidFire shifter would be, I referred to it as my "climbing gear." Soon I was hitting the lockout every time I got out of the saddle at all, and my "climbing gear" became a "road gear," a "sprint gear," a "trackstand gear," and a "flat, smooth trail gear." That lockout gets a workout and hasn't leaked, slipped, cried, gurgled, cheated on its taxes, pestered my dog, or written any bad poetry since I bought it. Not yet anyways.

Nowadays, the Gunnar is doing cyclocross duty and the Rock Shox XX is on my old Trek Fuel, AKA "Mister Sloppy." Changed that bike around, I tell you what! It came with a Pure DeLite SID that was flexy and noisy and gross, but with the XX old Mister Sloppy rides like a KX 125. It took a few rides to get used to the handling, going from 80mm to 100mm of travel, but after flipping the stem and messing with spacers, Mister Sloppy descends with some confidence.

Objection: Yes, and OK, you mister guy, but wouldn't it be better to ride a platform fork that locks out for you?

Answer: Sometimes I'd rather not have to wonder if my fork is locked out, such as when I'm going to bunnyhop over a log. Or, if I'm in competition and sprinting on rough ground, I want the front to feel rigid, even at the potential expense of some shock absorption. As for the lockout learning curve, I hit it without even really thinking about it: If the trail is smooth, I lock it out. If not, I unlock it. So convenient! Sometimes I even hit the lockout in the air for a cushy landing when I jump over things!

Objection: Yes, and OK, mister guy, but haven't you had to mess with it a bunch since you bought it?

Answer: Not really. As far as setup is concerned, the factory recommendations have been fine for me. I initially ran the air pressure on the high side of things, but now that I use the lockout so much, I'm running it softer. I've had to add air to the positive spring one time since August. I've never touched the damping dial: it's about 1/4 of the way from full rabbit.

If you're in the market for a new fork, definitely give the Rock Shox line a look. They're not winning the OEM game these days (russet-colored scavengers), but they still produce some fine performers for Minnesota-type riding.

Annual fork service. Annual fork service. Annual fork service.

Guess what my topic is today? That's right! Annual fork service. Annual suspension service, really. In all my work with suspension components, I occasionally see horrible, terrible, preventable things like this:

...and it breaks my heart. This fork is essentially ruined, simply from neglect. Just look at all that dirt on the wipers and foam rings! And see how that dirt put huge scratches in the stanchions!

The job of those gray wipers (which you can see on your fork where the upper legs, or stanchions, disappear into the lowers) is to keep the dirt out and the oil in. But they can only do so much, and over time dirt works its way past them into your fork internals. If left there long enough, it can cause damage to the stanchions themselves, as seen above. Even with new wipers and a lot of cleaning, this fork will leak oil and ingest dirt at an accelerated rate because the wipers can no longer form a tight seal against the stanchions. Had this fork received regular maintenance (annual service!) it would be full of fresh oil and back out on the trail already. Instead it's going in the scrap heap.

So please, people, bring me your forks (and shocks) so this doesn't happen to you. Different manufacturers recommend different service intervals, but let's go with something simple: have your suspension components serviced once a year. They will last a long time and work like they're supposed to. And it will be good.

Speaking of which, the other week I got the chance to work on a fork that you don't see a lot of around here. One of our customers brought in a Rock Shox Lyrik complete with Mission Control damping and 2-step (travel-adjust) air spring! With the twist of a knob this big boy goes from 160mm of travel (for descending) to 115mm (for climbing), and back. Think of it as Rock Shox's version of the Fox TALAS fork. Check it out:

...and that's just the air-spring side! On the damper side we have separate low- and high-speed compression adjustment and position-sensitive rebound damping. Fun stuff.

So remember: Annual service. Annual service. Annual service.

Technical feature!? What technical feature? You mean that slightly rough section back there?

Suspension has been taking up a lot of my time lately. Riding it, working on it, trying to save money to acquire it...

For the last few years I've been riding a couple versions of Rock Shox's venerable Duke fork (30mm stanchions, outdated damping, miniscule travel). Back in the early part of this century this was a ground-breaking fork, but we're a decade into the 00's, and I was in need of an upgrade.

So back in July I pushed all my money into a pile in the living room and figured it looked like enough for a new fork.

But it couldn't be just any fork. The problem (and fun!) with working on everybody else's suspension components is that I get to see all the insides. I see the fancy stuff, I see the entry-level stuff, I see the ideas that didn't really work, I see the brilliant engineering solutions for complex problems. And I see the stuff coming out of Watsonville, California. I'm talking about Fox Racing Shox here.

Lots of people have lots of good ideas about how to make suspension forks that get the job done, and there are plenty of forks out there that will perform great on the trail for way less money than a Fox. But if what you're looking for is the silkiest, plushest, most ground-hugging, most fine-tuneable suspension on the market, Fox is it.

But I'm not the only person who thinks this. So if you're in the market for a Fox fork, be prepared to wait. I did. I waited two agonizing months. That's most of our riding season around here! And yes, Fox's stuff is expensive. But back up a couple paragraphs and you'll find that I already explained that. And let me tell you from first hand experience that my new fork was worth every second of waiting and every penny I spent.

My weapon of choice was the 2011 F100 Terralogic fork with a 15QR thru-axle. I was taking a gamble here--Fox reintroduced their Terralogic damper just this year, after pulling it from production in 2007 because the earlier versions weren't performing to expectations. But I had a feeling, similar to the one I had back when I bought a Burton Alpine and a season pass to a local hill before I'd even once ridden a snowboard--I just knew it was going to be awesome. And I was right both times.

Let me stop for a minute and explain what Terralogic is: Most of you are familiar with the ability of suspension forks to "lock out," usually by spinning a knob on the top of the right fork leg (some of you even have handlebar-mounted remote levers for this). This prevents the fork from compressing while sprinting or climbing, minimizing pedal bob and allowing for maximum acceleration. When you want the fork to go back to soaking up bumps, you spin the knob back to the "off" position.

This is a great feature to have, but here in the Midwest there aren't many places with sustained climbs. Most of my favorite trails have constant minor elevation changes and are more like a roller coaster than a luge track. That's an awful lot of knob-fiddling to turn the lockout on and off every 30 yards. And this is why Fox's Terralogic system is a miracle.

Built into the damper cartridge is an inertia valve (a large-ish piece of brass) which in smooth conditions keeps the compression circuit closed, so the fork is locked out. When you hit a bump, the BrassMass opens (an object at rest...), allowing the fork to compress like a non-locked-out fork. When the trail smooths out, the mass settles back into its closed position, and you once again have a locked-out fork.

I had my doubts in the parking lot, when it felt like I had two different forks on the bike depending on whether I was riding in the flat or hitting the speed bumps. But once I got out to the trail, the fork disappeared (I mean this in a good way) and I was riding faster than I ever have before.

Braking bumps disappeared, obstacles got smaller, corners got stickier, skinnies got wider and getting out of the saddle to hammer on the pedals no longer caused the front end to bounce and wallow. The transition between open and locked-out (and vice versa) was seamless and instant. No lag, no initial harshness, no confusion. Solid. Amazing. Miraculous.

Part of the improvement is definitely due to the 15mm thru-axle, which reduces front-end flex and make steering more stable and precise. Part of it is the extra 20mm of travel over my old fork, giving me more cushion to soak up the rough stuff (I was worried the extra travel would make my steering slower because of the slacker headtube angle, but for some magical reason this isn't an issue). Part of it is Fox's FiT damper, which is supple beyond belief. Oh, and don't forget the new super-slippery Kashima coat on the fork stanchions, which improves small-bump compliance and supposedly also improves durability.

In short: Awesome. Amazing. Worth the wait. The only downside is that I have to try harder to push the fork to its limits, meaning I have to ride faster, meaning I have to pedal more, meaning I'm a little sore today. And tired. But happy.

...this is all a long way of saying that we're currently offering a special on all suspension labor through the end of October. So stop by and give your fork and/or shock the love it needs (annual service!) while it's cheap.

We Don't Mean to Nag, But...

Cue the creepy, minor-key music: you may be killing your suspension fork with your JRA behavior. Now, I speak (or type, more properly) as one who forsook suspension for several years in favor of a rigid carbon fork on my mountain bike. Incidentally, my wrists declared that decision to be unwise this spring with some spectacular flashes of pain, but those seem to have resolved since I restored my relationship with the old Manitou Skareb I had been using for spider habitat under my workbench.

What never resolves, however, is the subtle effects of riding dusty trails all summer.

Here in Minnesota, it's a lot like training camp for high desert racing. The trails are either closed or dusty, so we spend a lot of time drifting corners that are made of powdered adobe. Although the dust at, say, Theo Wirth is about the consistency of baby powder, each of those little particles of dust looks like a tiny porcupine under a microscope. And to those particles, the anodizing on your fork uppers looks like an axe handle. If you know anything about porcupines, you probably know that their favorite food (after corned beef and goulash) is axe handles, about which they frequently rhapsodize in grunts and squeaks. So then, while you're roosting through powdered terrain at Theo, those clouds of porcupine-shaped dust particles are attracted to your fork uppers by an innate sense of hunger that they can't control.

They begin by chewing away at your upper seals, where oil from the semi-bath reservoir found in all major fork systems gathers dust at an alarming rate, turning it into that brown goop we affectionately call "brown goop." Not only is the brown goop unsightly, it is abrasive: do not brush your teeth with it! After the dust particles breach the upper seals, they mosey or saunter down into the oil ring and the upper bushings where the real fun begins. It's like a microscopic axe handle buffet down there! When they've been at it for a few months, it looks like this:

Axe Handle

Porcupines

Where the Porcupines Hang Out

Oh No, More Porcupines

As you can see, there are lots of nooks and crannies where the porcupines can hide to chew on your fork uppers. Fork manufacturers recommend having the porcupines evicted every forty hours of riding, but if you get it done once a season, you'll save a lot of wear and tear on your equipment. Believe it or not, those upper seals, that foam ring, and even the damping oil itself are all things that wear out and get yicky. Additionally, there are o-rings inside that wear down over time, allowing oil and air to go where they ain't sposta. So it isn't just porcupines chewing axe handles, it's also saber-toothed tree mackerels committing larceny with respect to your o-rings. That's frowned upon by more than one publicly-funded advocacy group!