Rock Shox Reba Race forks (2005)...

miss notax

Hello

Started to take apart the Santa Cruz yesterday and have managed to get everything off apart from the cranks and a bit of the headset (but that's another story...), but I know nothing about the forks. They are Rock Shox Reba Race forks, I think 2005, 120mm travel. Seem pretty well used and pretty stiff , but haven't fiddled about to set them up for my weight or anything yet (needed to get the frame stripped asap as it's going to get re-sprayed 8) ). Have had a hunt on the internet but have found conflicting reports. I know nothing about them..... Are they any good? Worth getting them serviced by my local bike shop, or utter tosh and not worth bothering with?



They look pretty battered but with some new stickers etc i'm not really worried about that!

Any thoughts / comments would be appreciated!

wheezee

They're highly regarded as far as I know. My (newer) pair are excellent.
Expensive to service, but I think that goes for most/all suspension forks.

Neal_

They're great forks. I've just serviced mine myself which was pretty straight forward if your got the tools. Replacement o-rings are £8.75 from eBay user evilhomersimpson. See this thread for a walk through > http://forums.mtbr.com/yeti/rs-reba-rev ... 31885.html

diy

Fairly easy to service yourself. you need some 5w and 15w suspension fluid and seals, but you can freshen them up by just replacing the oil and re oiling the air spring. I think they are the 2008 model.

cracking fork, yours are in better nick than mine.

Simplest freshen up is just putting 5ml of 15w in the +ve air spring chamber (if its dry) can make a big difference and changing the 5w in the moco. But personally I'd do the whole fork while I had it apart.

wheezee

Cost me about £100 to have mine brought back to life when they packed in. All I paid was the normal full service fee, so I guess nothing was broken... Next time I may well have a go myself.

What's the worst that could happen?

The Spiderman

Great forks.I have the same on my bike.I took mine apart and serviced them myself,while removing a spacer to give more travel which is fairly straightforward if you follow the on line guide on the RS site.

Lots of replacement decals on ebay too,if you want to freshen them up.

miss notax

Great, thanks for all your advice

Sounds like i'm onto a winner with them, then! Good news! Think i'll let the bike shop service them - i'm pretty good at taking thing apart but not so good at putting them back together again, and i'm not sure I trust myself :oops:

Thanks!

diy

If you are not doing it yourself send them to a specialist. It will cost the same and it will be done by someone who does it all the time.

wheezee

Took mine in to my lbs, but they just sent them off to Tune-something or other. The fact that experienced mechanics don't do it themselves, is the one thing that makes me wary of opening them up myself.

Neal_

It's really not hard servicing a Reba. A workstand is very useful but not totally essential and then you just need circlip pliers, a 24mm socket plus the allen key and 10mm spanner/socket for the footnuts. A torque wrench is recommended for all jobs but if you're confident you know what 7nm feels like you'll be fine. Just follow the SRAM manual and the guide I linked in an earlier post and take your time.

Also I'd recommend Red Line Lightweight Suspension Fluid in the damper.

FWIW I found bleeding Avid Elixir brakes much harder than servicing my Reba.

diy

Or if you are scrimper like me you use motorbike suspension oil which is the same and half the price.

Neal_

Yep, definitely don't bother getting Rockshox 5W oil as it's just Torco RFF 7 so any suspension fluid that is close to 16 cSt @ 40C is fine although Red Line is meant to be good. More info here > http://www.peterverdone.com/wiki/index. ... sion_Fluid

I was a cheapskate in the purchase of my circlip pliers from ebay which are pretty rubbish and the use of synthetic engine oil I already had in my lowers There is some debate on whether using engine oil for lubrication is good or bad but have a look at the links I've posted in this thread to make your own mind up > viewtopic.php?f=10004&t=12833886

omaha

i've a 08 set of reba teams, they are a great light xc fork. ive had just about most others for around the same level/price bracket but always came back to rebas. i send mine of to TF and have them sorted there they do a great job....

miss notax

omaha wrote:

i send mine of to TF and have them sorted there they do a great job....

Do you have the website address for them please? Thanks

Neal_

http://www.tftunedshox.com/

Torres

Why not have a bash yourself first?

You've got nothing to loose, crack them open sort them out and rebuild; if something bad happens then you were always going to send them to TFT anyway and there's not an awful lot you can do that they won't be able to put right during a standard service

diy

http://locotuning.co.uk/

is another to consider. 70 quid for the service incl. about £30 worth of parts and fluids.