[Skeletor]

I was getting ready for a race last night. During the normal pre-race/ride prep of my bike I decided to bleed a few PSI off my Lefty. I hooked up the shock pump to the shrader valve at the bottom of the fork leg and proceeded to attempt to bleed off some pressure. It wasn't working right, so I disconnected and reconnected the hose and tried it again. I kept hitting the bleed off button on the shock pump and nothing was happening. After about a minute of this, a bunch of brown (mud-colored) thick goop came out of the bottom of my fork. Since the bike was upright, I did not see where it came from. It was more than a couple cc's of this "goop". I called my LBS and the owner said it was probably just mud. I asked him "why would mud be coming from the bottom of my shock?" He said, "they ain't waterproof! You been riding it outside, right!" He told me to ride it and not worry about it, so I did. I didn't have any problems in the race. But I'm still concerned about it.

The problem is that my LBS that I race for is 90 minutes away. There are a couple of C-dale dealers here in town, but I doubt it's anything they could handle if the Lefty needs servicing. I imagine it would have to be sent off to Cannondale for any repairs.

Just wondering if anyone else had ever heard of anything like this or seen something similar.

 

[oilerfan30]

No experience in this.. sorry. But since nobody else has replied, I'll suggest this.
How much do you trust the guy you called? If you deal with him lot, and trust the stuff he says, then save your worrying for now, and wait and see what other MTBRers have to say in this thread.

 

[fritzlovesmary]

hi, i had the same issue a few weeks ago and asked mendon cyclesmith about it - and as we all know he is the man to ask. this is what he wrote back:

yep, air that sucker up, or down, as needed! As for the oil, as long as your lockout is complete, you have no leak. There is oil under the air piston, and it will flow out if the fork is upright, and the air valve pressed. Very normal. If you want to avoid it,. simply flip the bike over before doing any adjustments.

fritz

 

[oilerfan30]

hmmm...thats weird. I've never had that happen to me when airing my lefty. Does that mean there is not enough oil inside? Or do I not need to worry about it?

 

[Skeletor]

This is what a guy on my local biking forum posted:

If any air bubbles were there, that is not mud, that is the internal oil mixed with air and it 'll look like chocolate moose. All shocks bleed off an air/oil mix when the valve is facing downward during bleeding.

So the best way to bleed / add air to an air fork is to have the valve facing upward so the oil settles at the other end of fork.

Now, if you truly see mud, it should not be from in the fork, in 8yrs of using a lefty and 10yrs of using suspensions I've never seen mud in a fork; or at least not in any fork with seals in place.

If you bled out some of the fork oil, you'll need to add some back when you get the chance.


So I guess I should probably have some oil added to my Lefty sooner than later.