SR Suntour fork - anything I can do with it?

[nemebean]

I knew going in that the Suntour fork on my Hard Rock was junk, but it has mostly served its purpose for me in the six or eight months I've had it (insulating my hands/wrists from bigger hits). I'm planning to replace it at some point, but recently I was reading a thread where they mentioned that even their Fox/RockShox forks came with dry seals or something and needed work before they lived up to their potential.

Now I realize this will never be a good fork, but I was wondering if something like that might apply to the Suntour too. It's had terrible stiction since I got it, but I figured that was just the nature of a cheap fork. If a little lubrication could help that it would be nice.

This is my first suspension fork, so my question is whether it's worth my time trying to take it apart and lube it (and what to lube, if so?). I don't want to spend a ton of time or money on the thing, but if it would be fairly simple to do I'd like to give it a shot.

[mitzikatzi]

Suntour XCR Fork maintenance, disassembly, repair, fix, service.

6 to 8 months. You have probably worn the fork out.

It costs very little to service your fork.

This thread might teach you something as well. Increasing SR Suntour 40mm travel fork to 60mm

[nemebean]

Thanks. It turns out my fork (an XCM, I think) is a little different internally, but not so much that it caused any problems. The whole process was...an adventure. I took it apart and everything was covered in extremely sticky grease, which I wiped off and replaced with some white lithium grease like the guy in your first link. Put everything back together and it was really rough, so I took it apart again and added some more grease. A little better, but still pretty bad. Decided I would try riding it and see if it loosened up as the grease got spread around inside (it did, fortunately). Went to put the front brake back on and couldn't get it adjusted right - I think I need new brake pads because I had to get it centered just perfect or one pad or the other couldn't reach. By this point my frustration level is running pretty high because my fork is as sticky as ever and now my brakes are not cooperating. Then the icing on the cake, and the thing that made me just walk away from it for a bit, I pull it down off the stand after finally getting the brakes acceptably adjusted and the lockout is stuck locked out. $&*%!

In the end I was able to fiddle with the lockout and get it working again, got the brakes adjusted safely, if not exactly how I wanted them, and the fork loosened up on my ride yesterday so at least it feels better than when I started this whole process. Phew.

[mitzikatzi]

Thanks for the feedback

[Jernas]

Thanks. It turns out my fork (an XCM, I think) is a little different internally, but not so much that it caused any problems. The whole process was...an adventure. I took it apart and everything was covered in extremely sticky grease, which I wiped off and replaced with some white lithium grease like the guy in your first link. Put everything back together and it was really rough, so I took it apart again and added some more grease. A little better, but still pretty bad. Decided I would try riding it and see if it loosened up as the grease got spread around inside (it did, fortunately). Went to put the front brake back on and couldn't get it adjusted right - I think I need new brake pads because I had to get it centered just perfect or one pad or the other couldn't reach. By this point my frustration level is running pretty high because my fork is as sticky as ever and now my brakes are not cooperating. Then the icing on the cake, and the thing that made me just walk away from it for a bit, I pull it down off the stand after finally getting the brakes acceptably adjusted and the lockout is stuck locked out. $&*%!

In the end I was able to fiddle with the lockout and get it working again, got the brakes adjusted safely, if not exactly how I wanted them, and the fork loosened up on my ride yesterday so at least it feels better than when I started this whole process. Phew.

Hey. So if I understand correctly you completely cleaned and re-lubed your fork. At first it was rough but then improved a bit. How is it performing now? Better than before you serviced it or worse? I'm interested because I have the same fork and am considering doing the same thing..

[nemebean]

Definitely better now. I'm still getting a bit of...jitter, I guess, from time to time. Instead of compressing or decompressing smoothly, it kind of moves in steps. That's gotten better as I've ridden it though, and even with the little bit that is still left it's smoother than before. It also doesn't happen every time. I should note that I've only ridden it once so far (~8 miles), so it may loosen up further as I get more time on it.

Also, I couldn't figure out how to pull the lockout mechanism to lubricate that leg of the fork. I couldn't get the cap off because of the lockout lever (which I couldn't remove either), and the bottom is not accessible on my fork either. I wouldn't be surprised if that is part of the reason it's still not perfectly smooth - both legs aren't equally lubricated now.

In any case, before I did it I could compress the fork, then get off the bike completely and sometimes the fork wouldn't completely decompress until I actually pulled up on it. That no longer happens, so even if it's not perfect I'd say it's much better.

[BigHit-Maniac]

Step 1. Remove the fork from your bike.

Step 2. Install a Fox or a Marzocchi.

Step 3. Use the Suntour crapola fork to beat people over the head with at your local bar when they get too rowdy from drinking crappy beer.

Step 4. Profit.

[nemebean]

Step 1.5: Send nemebean $500 for a new fork. For a bike that only cost a little more than that in the first place.

Perhaps this relates to step 4?

[nemebean]

Quick update in case anyone else is thinking about doing this too: I've now had a chance to ride the rebuilt fork a few times and it has loosened up quite nicely. I think it's actually better than new because it seems like I'm using more of the travel now than when I got it, which I attribute to the internals not being as sticky.

While the process was a bit more stressful than I would have liked, I'm now quite pleased with the results. Even if your fork isn't that old it might be worth replacing the crappy grease with something better.