I leave mine on just to see what kind of travel I am using on the trails. I've never had issues with scratching yet, but I also try to keep my stanchions clean.
Zip tie on fork tube
Probably most people here use or have used a zip tie to set fork sag at one point or another, I was just wondering how many of you guys leave it on there when you go riding. Any problem with dirt or dust scratching the fork?
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no, I can usually see what kind of travel I'm getting from the dust dings that remain - I dunno if a zip-tie is really "bad" for the stanchions, but I can't imagine that it's good for it.
I have always left mine on, no problems.
I leave mine on all the time I like to see how much travel I am using after each drop so I kind of know the limits of my suspension-if i use the dust line i dont really know where i used that much travel -was it on the three footer or the six footer? For me the zip tie provides a little more info
I have one of those low profile zip ties on my fork. I push mine down next to the fork seal at the beginning of a ride and check to see where it winds up at the end of the ride. Therefore it's being pushed, incrementally, partway up the stanchion during the ride. If it were constantly being pushed up and then back down again, there may be cause for worry about dust and dirt scratching the stanchion, but given the relatively limited movement of the zip tie during the ride, I think there's little cause for concern.helidave said:Any problem with dirt or dust scratching the fork?
What is of greater concern is whether or not there's room for the zip tie at full compression. I measure from the fork seal to the crown to verify that this distance is greater than the maximal travel of the fork plus the width of the zip tie. If it is, I figure it's safe to leave it on full time.
What I've been doing is taking a super thin rubber band, cutting it, wrapping it around the fork, and then tying it. If you use one of the really thin ones it's a bit smaller then an o-ring and works great.
You are running a very high risk of sucking that rubber band down past the fork seal, and if that happens it could pull a spring from the fork seal with it that could tear up the stancion tubes which will require a new fork upper to fix.Monk_Knight said:What I've been doing is taking a super thin rubber band, cutting it, wrapping it around the fork, and then tying it. If you use one of the really thin ones it's a bit smaller then an o-ring and works great.
holy worst case scenario :lol:
those seals are water/oil tight.. its not gonna suck a rubber band in.. well unless its a fox, those things are so loose you could suck in small animals!
those seals are water/oil tight.. its not gonna suck a rubber band in.. well unless its a fox, those things are so loose you could suck in small animals!
Great story: Road trip to Rampage site in Utah w/ a few friends, one who had a zip tie on his boxxer stanchion.... as it turns out he had his crowns lowered a bit too much and upon bottom out the zip tie was forced down past his fork seal. It was pretty funny! More a function of not checking clearances than zip ties.
no i dont leave it on...
i set the sag, then take it off.
Every few ride i check to see if theres any changes but apart from that i take it off
i set the sag, then take it off.
Every few ride i check to see if theres any changes but apart from that i take it off
I keep my pet dwarf hamster in the lowers. If he's bashed into a bloody pulp i know i used full travel. Lucky for him, i'm using a fox air fork. When i first put him in there i put an o-ring from a topeak floor pump rebuild kit on one of the stanchions to check it intermittantly.
I tried something similar - but used a normal sized hamster (newb mistake)D34ThL0rd69 said:I keep my pet dwarf hamster in the lowers. If he's bashed into a bloody pulp i know i used full travel. Lucky for him, i'm using a fox air fork. When i first put him in there i put an o-ring from a topeak floor pump rebuild kit on one of the stanchions to check it intermittantly.
anyways, the bloody pulp contaminated my fork oil, bone bits jammed into the port orifice on my damper - ~6 hours rebuild time :madman:
I use the dirt line method.
6 months later we did a fork overhaul and found that the blue rubber ring actually got pushed down below the wiper. No damage happened, but I never thought the ring would be able to make it past the seal.
A buddy of mine crashed a few years ago, and the blue rubber ring PUSH put on his TALAS was gone after the crash. We figured it just broke off.tomsmoto said:holy worst case scenario :lol:
those seals are water/oil tight.. its not gonna suck a rubber band in.. well unless its a fox, those things are so loose you could suck in small animals!
6 months later we did a fork overhaul and found that the blue rubber ring actually got pushed down below the wiper. No damage happened, but I never thought the ring would be able to make it past the seal.
Yeah, I found that on my `04 TALAS the fork pretty much used the entire exposed stanchion on a bottom out, so I would think a zip tie or such could be problematic. On my Pike and Reba, There is still some stanchion exposed even at full bottom out, so I do not worry about anything getting pushed down past the wipers/seals.dan51 said:I use the dirt line method.
A buddy of mine crashed a few years ago, and the blue rubber ring PUSH put on his TALAS was gone after the crash. We figured it just broke off.
6 months later we did a fork overhaul and found that the blue rubber ring actually got pushed down below the wiper. No damage happened, but I never thought the ring would be able to make it past the seal.
I'll drink to the dust method also. :thumbsup: End of ride their is a ring of dust for all different amounts of travel used, unless you do a stoppie at rides end. :yesnod:
Just telling you what I have seen with my own eyes. Funny thing is 4 months after this fork came into the shop I was wrenching at the Specialized Rep. came into the shop to do a Specialized product update for us and he told us about this exact thing happening on their forks and that a zip tie should be put in place of the rubber o-ring, or nothing at all.tomsmoto said:holy worst case scenario :lol:
those seals are water/oil tight.. its not gonna suck a rubber band in.. well unless its a fox, those things are so loose you could suck in small animals!
No, it gets pushed up to the max and stays there, it doesn't rub back and forth.helidave said:Any problem with dirt or dust scratching the fork?
Simply Awesome. Thanks for the laughsD34ThL0rd69 said:I keep my pet dwarf hamster in the lowers. If he's bashed into a bloody pulp i know i used full travel. Lucky for him, i'm using a fox air fork. When i first put him in there i put an o-ring from a topeak floor pump rebuild kit on one of the stanchions to check it intermittantly.
I don't think he's trying to be funny.MtbSupply said:Simply Awesome. Thanks for the laughs
The hamsters know he's not trying to be funny!
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