Removeable covers for my front fork legs?

unixnerd

My last set of forks had rubber gaiters around the upper fork legs and they worked a treat. New set don't, just bare legs. As a result all the crud in the world gathers around the seal and I'm having to clean them all the time to stop them sticking.

Ideally I'd like some rubber gaiters that I can easily remove without having to take the forks to bits. Any ideas? I could make my own out of old inner tubes at a push.

ride_whenever

Not required, just mess up the stanchions.

Learn to love cleaning your bike, it'll last a lot longer.

unixnerd

Not required, just mess up the stanchions.

Learn to love cleaning your bike, it'll last a lot longer.

Prevention is better than cure :-)

It's OK in the summer, but the bike is getting really filthy every run at this time of year.

Neily03

unixnerd wrote:

Not required, just mess up the stanchions.

Learn to love cleaning your bike, it'll last a lot longer.

Prevention is better than cure :-)

It's OK in the summer, but the bike is getting really filthy every run at this time of year.

They're a bad idea, the get dirt inside and ruin the stanchions.

leaflite

I dont know how good they are, but lizzardskins sell them. Ive seen 1 or 2 bikes with them on

bennett_346

Clean your bike, takes me 3 minutes.

nicklouse

lovely way to trap crap onto your fork legs and then act like sandpaper.

the reason your old/cheap forks had them was the seals were crap.

Andy!

but if you had something that sealed around the bottom of the crown and the top of the damper/spring assemblies properly there would be no chance of crap getting in.

I suspect they don't fit them due to:

1. rubber gaiters look a bit crap

2. forks would last longer

lesz42

intill the rubber splits, leftys weak point

unixnerd

but if you had something that sealed around the bottom of the crown and the top of the damper/spring assemblies properly there would be no chance of crap getting in.

That was pretty much the case with my old Manitou forks. 13 years old and the stanchions were in perfect nick. In fairness I've no idea how much wet weather use they saw before I bought the bike, but I certainly got them filthy often enough. And you don't hear of car or motorbike owners having to clean their shock absorbers every time it rains.

supersonic

Todays seals are designed without gators in mind. A few reasons for this. One is that it was found that in many cases the gators trapped in mud and grit which damaged the stanchions. Also they tended to compress filth onto the seals forcing it through, and finally they stop the fork compressing fully.

Just wiping around the seals after a ride is normally enough, and to lube the foam rings every so often.

Andy!

unixnerd wrote:

but if you had something that sealed around the bottom of the crown and the top of the damper/spring assemblies properly there would be no chance of crap getting in.

That was pretty much the case with my old Manitou forks. 13 years old and the stanchions were in perfect nick. In fairness I've no idea how much wet weather use they saw before I bought the bike, but I certainly got them filthy often enough. And you don't hear of car or motorbike owners having to clean their shock absorbers every time it rains.

there is loads of parts on bikes that I think are stupidly designed which results in poor reliability and stupidly expensive parts.

Poor dirt sealing is a big one and if you asked an engineer from another field to build a bike from scratch it would end up a lot different.