Jill and I recently bought new bikes. Since it’s her first mountain bike, Jill decided on a cheap hardtail. She’s content with it for now, but her idea was to start with something a little more budget-firendly until she figures out what she really wants out of it.
After a few rides, she began to notice some stiction in the fork. I spoke to some folks at our local bike shop, who told me that the cost of having the fork serviced would likely be more than it was worth. They suggested we replace it with something from Fox or Rockshox instead. But given how cheap the bike was to begin with, and given that she planned to ultimately replace it, Jill decided that it just wasn’t worth the money.
Still, I thought there might be something I could do. I found a Youtube tutorial for a breakdown of the fork, and it looked like a pretty straightforward job. The only problem was that a special tool was required to “open it” from above. It was a cheap tool, but not a common one. Shipping would take over a month – and cost more than the tool itself.
So, I checked online again and found that someone had created a version of the tool that accepted a ½” drive. It was posted on Thingiverse, and free to use. It took 5 minutes to set up the print, and just over an hour later, I had a working tool.
From there, servicing the fork was about as easy as it looked - there really weren’t many parts. Once I got it back together, the stiction was gone. It’s still way too firm, unfortunately, but without replacing the spring, there’s not much we can do. Since that would mean chasing good money after bad (well, not so bad), Jill’s decided to live with it for now, until she’s ready to upgrade.
If you’re wondering why the bike in the first photo looks different from the one in the second, Jill actually rented a full-squish for a recent ride in Tahoe. And good thing, too - that trail was super gnarly, and while I’m sure it would have been passable on this bike, I’m equally sure it would not have been comfortable. Hilariously, one of the fork’s lowers provides a clue to the bike's limitations:
If you have any idea what “leisure cross country” is, please let me know.