Jump to content

Fork stanchion guards


doctorchopper
 Share

Recommended Posts

 

I don't have any experience with either type on a trials bike, but I used to run neoprene covers to protect the fork seals on my enduro. I don't believe the neoprene covers would prevent a sharp rock from damaging the forks; neoprene is too easy to cut and rip. And I sometimes wondered if the neoprene trapped the grit and prevented it from being blown away to the point that it actually promoted wear on the forks. I'd think the plastic/kevlar guards would be a more effective protection from fork damage on a trials bike. Or simply don't crash. :) 

Edited by d2w
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
 
 

If you measure the travel of any modern fork I have worked on then it can be seen that the this brings the slider very close to the bottom yoke. That gap is much less than needed to accommodate a concertina'd gaiter.  Having always put gaiters on my bikes previously I was a bit annoyed, but not so much as to lose a good bit of the fork travel by fitting them.

I imagine the same applies to the neoprene tubes.

Edited by 2stroke4stroke
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
On 8/26/2019 at 4:49 AM, 2stroke4stroke said:

If you measure the travel of any modern fork I have worked on then it can be seen that the this brings the slider very close to the bottom yoke. That gap is much less than needed to accommodate a concertina'd gaiter.  Having always put gaiters on my bikes previously I was a bit annoyed, but not so much as to lose a good bit of the fork travel by fitting them.

I imagine the same applies to the neoprene tubes.

You will not loose any travel on forks with any. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
13 hours ago, cascao said:

You will not loose any travel on forks with any. 

As it is some years, and bikes, since I checked this and I happen to have a set of gaiters in the garage I thought I would measure my 4RT, which should be fairly representative of a typical modern bike.

Distance between top of slider and bottom of yoke 178mm.

Space taken up by a compressed gaiter of the type people fit to trials bikes is 60mm (but some seem to fit gaiters that are much longer than necessary so will take up even more space). I don't have access just now to my ratchet straps to measure fork travel to the last millimetre but Montesa claim 175mm so let's use that.

178 - 175 = 3mm.  Try and fit a 60mm piece of solid (compressed) rubber in to that and you have lost 57mm of travel. If you've just paid £6,000 for a bike with the latest in suspension then 30% is a significant amount to lose.

Now I don't go round using the modern riding techniques but the dirt tell tales indicate that even I use all but a few millimetres of the available travel.

Edited by 2stroke4stroke
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
 

I run some plastic guards on my GG.After replacing a tech tube in my 1st trials meet was cheap insurance. If I had to run alot of mud I would also use seal savers. I use them on my offroad bike and adv bike and keeps crap out of seals.I have found over 30 years offroad racing that a piece of dirt caused many fork leaks.plastic for hit protection and seal savers for dirt protection on seals.Have not had a seal go out in the last 4 years I have used seal savers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
 

A wise decision. I've been using the full length plastic covers on my Betas for years. The only time I didn't was riding a brand new bike. I let a friend try it for five minutes and within 60 seconds he slid the fork leg down the side of a rock. Wasn't even necessary, he just wasn't paying attention. Nice big scratches down the aluminum slider.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
  • Create New...