What the fork?

Let's take a look at those forks and see what's going on here.


I pulled the Left fork up to the work bench for inspection. First I gave the gaiter a little squeeze and a twist to see if there is any oil in there. If so, it would be a sign that it needs to be rebuilt.

Good luck so far - no squishy-ness in there, so I can pull the gaiter off without making a total mess of my bench. With the gaiter off the fork, I can do a full inspection. To my pleasure, everything seems to be in good shape. No leakage top or bottom. The seals look good, and there is no rust or other damage here. Good news!












Now I'll perform the same inspection to the Right fork. Again, to my surprise, this one is also in good shape. Yay!

I may change the fork oil, but I'll wait to see how it handles. For now, I'll call it good.


Although they are both in good mechanical shape, they are very dirty. Lots of dirt and funk and, just like everything else on this bike, a bit of oxidation, too.

I'll start off with Simple Green and a nylon brush, just to get all the dirt and funk out of there.

With it all clean, I'll take a brass brush and clean up some of that oxidation. It's a bunch of work and I break a sweat, but it all comes pretty clean.

Now for the gaiters...
Both of them are in good shape, with no rips, tears, or holes. Just dirty.
Spider webs, dust, dirt. Moss??

First go-round is with Simple Green, which did a fair job, but there was still some funk in there.
I decided to use some of the tire cleaner/shiner. That did the trick. All clean and black again. Looks new.

Another task complete.