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Cleaning Your Suspension

Forks

Materials needed:

  • Soft cloth
  • Lubricant suitable for fork stanchions (we use WPL ForkBoost) - see here
  • Cabletie or blunt plastic tool (NOT A METAL PICK)
  • Earbud

Having rinsed off your forks, the majority of mud and dirt should be removed. This guide assumes they are not still caked in mud! Use of Bike cleaner is fine here but DO NOT JETWASH directly into seals and make sure to thoroughly rinse the cleaning agent off. Our favourite lubricant for refreshing fork seals is WPL ForkBoost. Whatever you use, it should preferably not be an aerosol. Please don't use WD40, GT85 or any similar products! Instead of cleaning your seals, they will wash away the grease under the seals, letting dirt in much more easily– even if you're careful you will also risk contamination of brake rotors/pads and these products can also dry out seals.

First, take the lubricant and apply a few drops down the stanchions onto the wipers. Make sure you get it all the way around the seal. Wait a few seconds for it to soak into any dirt.

Cycle the fork (push it down and let it return), and most of the dirt should come off and stick to the stanchions. Use the soft cloth to wipe this dirt away. An earbud can allow you to reach the tricky area behind the fork brace. Once you are happy the seal and stanction is 100% clean you can use a cable tie to open the wiper a small amount and drop some more lube into the seal. This is made easier by removing the garter spring from its gland but be careful not to damage this spring when removing or re-fitting it to the seal.

 After lubing the seal and re fitting the garter spring (if removed) cycle the fork again and clean the excess lube off the seal/stanchion area.

 

This process can be done in between interim lower casting servicing to keep the fork running sweet but don't forget to do a full and lower service as per manufactures recommendations.

See our range of Lubes and Grease that we use every day.

Shock

Technique for this is much the same as the instructions for forks.

  • Drip some lubricant onto the damper body or shock shaft. You may need to invert the bike to get it to drip down onto the seal.
  • Wait a few seconds for the lubricant to soak into the dirt, then cycle the shock.
  • Gently wipe away the dirt which sticks to the damper body/shock shaft, and repeat until the lubricant comes up clean.
  • Buff any excess lubricant away.

See our range of Lubes and Grease that we use every day