[roger027]

Is there any way to easily reset my bearings without hauling my Scalpel down to the LBS every month. I'm not that big (150 lbs), and don't ride extremely rought terrain, so I can not figure out what's wrong with this fork.
The mechanics, who do work on lefty's, have even recommended swapping out the lefty for another fork - ie. Reba, Manitou Black SPV, etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[MendonCycleSmith]

Is there any way to easily reset my bearings without hauling my Scalpel down to the LBS every month. I'm not that big (150 lbs), and don't ride extremely rought terrain, so I can not figure out what's wrong with this fork.
The mechanics, who do work on lefty's, have even recommended swapping out the lefty for another fork - ie. Reba, Manitou Black SPV, etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Wow, sounds like a pretty sour shop! What year and model are we talking about? If what you say is true, re: weight, terrain, riding style, I would be surprised if it needed it more than every 6 months or so, at the most. Do you run it really soft, and bottom out frequently in the course of a ride? That will accelerate the issue. If it's more frequent, you may want to have the fork re-toleranced, a thousandth thicker shim, will make a big difference in bearing preload, which is the determining factor in how fast this happens. If your shop has dealt with you several times and has not offered this information to you, you may wish to ask, you may now know more than they do. Cannondale can do this, any good dealer SHOULD be able to do this, and I can too! Good luck!

 

[CSPRINGS]

Contact Cannondale

HI,
I have heard from reputable source that C'dale is aware of the problem and has a fix. My friend had to send his fork back to Cannondale for them to make the correction and finally resolve the migraton of undocumented bearing migration.If your LBS can't figure out how to correct, contact Cannondale. Hope this helps.

Good Luck

 

[MendonCycleSmith]

HI,
I have heard from reputable source that C'dale is aware of the problem and has a fix. My friend had to send his fork back to Cannondale for them to make the correction and finally resolve the migraton of undocumented bearing migration.If your LBS can't figure out how to correct, contact Cannondale. Hope this helps.

Good Luck

With all due respect, what reputable source? My reason for asking, is that you talk about "undocumented migration" as though it's something that's in the closet. It's out, and most folks know of it's existence, have for a while actually, either through their shop, through here or many other sources.. There is no fix that keeps it from happening, and if there were, Cannondale would not be hiding it, I can assure you!= More than likely you pal had his sent back, and the re-toleranced the bearing preload. Sometimes they come through a little loose, and they migrate very quickly, bump up a thousandth in race thickness, and the problem goes away. Cannondale has so embraced it, that the forks are now super easy to reset yourself in about 3 minutes. Not knocking what you say, just wondering if you, or I are the one behind the knowledge curve= Ride hard!

 

[roger027]

Additional info

Wow, sounds like a pretty sour shop! What year and model are we talking about? If what you say is true, re: weight, terrain, riding style, I would be surprised if it needed it more than every 6 months or so, at the most. Do you run it really soft, and bottom out frequently in the course of a ride? That will accelerate the issue. If it's more frequent, you may want to have the fork re-toleranced, a thousandth thicker shim, will make a big difference in bearing preload, which is the determining factor in how fast this happens. If your shop has dealt with you several times and has not offered this information to you, you may wish to ask, you may now know more than they do. Cannondale can do this, any good dealer SHOULD be able to do this, and I can too! Good luck!

The Lefty is a 2004 DLR and I run the air pressure at 112 psi. This pressure seems to work for this area (MD/VA/NC) and keeps the fork from diving when going over logs. The shop sent the fork back to Cannondale in August to have some seals replaced since the fork was losing air during the course of a 2 hour ride. At that same time, the bearings were reset. I then went on a 3 day mtb vacation and by the end of the trip the bearings appeared to be in need of resetting, again (audible top clunk). I have had the fork in the shop twice since then.

 

[MendonCycleSmith]

The Lefty is a 2004 DLR and I run the air pressure at 112 psi. This pressure seems to work for this area (MD/VA/NC) and keeps the fork from diving when going over logs. The shop sent the fork back to Cannondale in August to have some seals replaced since the fork was losing air during the course of a 2 hour ride. At that same time, the bearings were reset. I then went on a 3 day mtb vacation and by the end of the trip the bearings appeared to be in need of resetting, again (audible top clunk). I have had the fork in the shop twice since then.

Hey, so when it went back to Cannondale, they fixed a problem with the air piston. You had 1 seal, they frequently leaked. They put a 2 seal piston in, reset the migration, and sent her packing. Bing bang boom, done in about 10 minutes, onto the next one.Ask your shop if all they did was reset the bearings when you were in, or did they take the fork apart, and put in races that were thicker? If that has not been done, that's your next step, and what I was indicating previously, as what you need to have done. It makes the bearings a little "stickier" in the races, and it happens less often. Need more information? [email protected] Ride hard.

 

[Dwayne]

Cannondale has so embraced it, that the forks are now super easy to reset yourself in about 3 minutes. Not knocking what you say, just wondering if you, or I are the one behind the knowledge curve= Ride hard!

Just wanted to agree with you.

Cannondale is definitely not trying to hide anything. If you download the manual for the current Leftys, it actually shows you how to reset the bearings yourself. This is why the disassembly is so easy and only requires a hollowtech bottom bracket tool. Resetting the bearings doesn't take me more than five minutes, and I do it every other month (I'm ~180-190lbs depending on time of year, and love the rough stuff). This is an acceptable tradeoff given the excellent qualities of the fork otherwise.

I would definitely have your bearings retoleranced by a competent shop or Cannondale directly.