- How often should my rear shock be serviced?
- What work is done on a full shock service?
- What can Custom Valving of my rear shock achieve?
- Some SID rear shocks are not fully serviceable, which ones?
How often should my rear shock be serviced?
Most rear shocks should be serviced annually but if you're a DH racer you might notice performance advantages of two to three services per year. This is due to the relatively extreme conditions a bicycle shock has to operate in... Mud, wet, cold, hot & all this with as little as 50 ml of oil (that's 10 teaspoons to you & me). So the oil has to deal with some pretty harsh conditions & even the best oils will begin to lose their lubrication abilities & viscosity (thickness). This can result in wear of shafts/bodies and also a reduction in damping (speed control) of the shock. An annual service costing around £60 is much cheaper than a repair or replacement of a trashed shock after 18 months.
What work is done on a full shock service?
Before any service work is carried out the shock is cleaned & hand dyno'd to check it's operation. It's then stripped & all oil seals/o-rings are removed prior to cleaning the individual parts in a chemical bath. Once cleaned & dried the parts are inspected before fitting new genuine RockShox seals/o-rings. Then we assemble everything in accordance with the factory/TFT procedures, put oil in the important places & charge the shock with nitrogen. On SID shox we pop the air can on with some liquid grease & pump her up to match your weight/bike. Next we do a leak test for nitrogen (& air on SID shox) before popping it on the hand dyno to check all the adjusters do what they're meant to do. Next we check the shock bushes & replace where necessary (as part of the service cost), install the mounting hardware/reducers, pop a small TF Tuned sticker on it & send it back.
What can Custom Valving of my rear shock achieve?
The oil flow through the piston of the rear shock is controlled by port volume (size of holes) of the piston, the amount & configuration of shims (very thin washers that bend under the pressure of oil) & the position of the rebound control needle. By balancing all these elements you can change the characteristics of the shock to help match how YOU want your bike to ride. You may want to have more low & mid speed compression damping to help reduce pedal bob, or perhaps you've been down the pub a little too much (put on weight) & need to up the compression throughout the range. Whatever improvement you want, it can usually be achieved or if it can't I'll tell you. RockShox rear shocks have great scope for improvement on most bikes.
Some SID rear shocks are not fully serviceable, which ones?
Many SID rear shock damper units are not serviceable. '01/'02 SID XC/XC Adjust & XC Lockout plus all BAR shocks have non serviceable dampers. If your SID has a 2mm allen screw at the end of the body as the lefthand picture below shows then we can service & custom tune the damper. If your SID doesn't have any screw then I'm sorry but we can only service the air can. So if the rebound is too slow/fast or the compression is too soft/hard we can't fix it. Similarly, if there is wear on the damper body (black anodizing worn through to the silver alloy below - see RH pic below) then it's time to think about a new shock as it will not hold negative air & it's uneconomical to repair it.
Give us a call & we can advise on suitable replacements.|
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