Fettling with a file increases your fork life

The upper legs –  stanchion tubes – on suspension forks are prone to scratches, be it from flying trail debris; your bike rubbing up against another or general wear and tear.

Whilst stanchion scratches can lead to a minor amount of oil or air leaking on some forks, it’s burrs that do the damage as they wreck your seals too.

As with other moving parts you should inspect your fork stanchions when you clean your bike, and address problems as they come up. Remember – a scratch is the surface is better than a sharp burr that will continue causing damage, but if it’s a severe scratch then unfortunately it can be a costly repair. If you’re not sure contact someone like TF Tuned who’ll be able to offer further advice.

For this job you’ll need the following:

• ultra fine emery paper
• a small, fine file
• brake cleaner
• clean rags
• metal polish

Locate the scratch, and identify how bad it is. Also inspect the fork seals to see if they are damaged from the scratch – and replace if necessary.

Get the finest emery paper possible, and a compact file with a fine pattern so you can work on small areas of the fork stanchion.

Carefully remove the sharp edges of the bur, but be careful not to damage other areas of the stanchion. Remember it’s better to have a slight indent on the fork leg, than a sharp protruding burr.

Gently smooth the stanchion scratch out with emery paper, and use brake cleaner to keep the area clean and polished.

Make sure you have a quality metal polish. The crew at TF Tuned recommend Autosol metal polish – though have a far more charming name they use to describe it…

Apply some metal polish with a clean cloth, and polish out the scratched area as best as you can.

Inspect the fork, and check you’ve not missed any other stanchion scratches. Cycle the fork through the travel a few times to make sure everything is working OK.

Thank you to the whole team at TF Tuned for helping us out – especially Greg for taking the time to take us through the process. If you’re looking for advice on suspension set up, or are looking for service details or performance tuning – drop them a line for friendly, expert advice.

Comments

comments

TAGS