[slimshady]

When reading @Gallain 's post above, I'm thinking of stanchion wear as the main driver for a fork replacement as stated by the Fox rep. Once Kashima starts to peel off, it goes away pretty fast.

I have seen pretty "young" XC forks die that way here in Argentina because most of those stupid noodle-eaters think fork service is something reserved for the gravity community. As if mud and water weren't capable of grinding down bushings and stanchion coating. On top of that, the bushings/seals of a short travel fork spend much more time on the same part of the stanchions than the ones on a longer travel slider.

 

[Happymtb.fr]

I have seen pretty "young" XC forks die that way here in Argentina because most of those stupid noodle-eaters think fork service is something reserved for the gravity community.

The lockout function is indeed pretty hard on the stanchions but I wouldn't say that servicing suspension is more or less common through the different categories of mountain bikers: most bikers seem to forget or don't want to service their suspensions. Maybe the price is putting them off and doing the work themselves seems off limits for many. Some people are also surprisingly bad at feeling how their suspensions work...

 

[slimshady]

The lockout function is indeed pretty hard on the stanchions but I wouldn't say that servicing suspension is more or less common through the different categories of mountain bikers: most bikers seem to forget or don't want to service their suspensions. Maybe the price is putting them off and doing the work themselves seems off limits for many. Some people are also surprisingly bad at feeling how their suspensions work...

I have a close friend who services suspensions for a living down here. I help him with shim stack customization every now and then, and believe me, most of his customers aren't short on money.

He has shown me so many worn stanchions you wouldn't believe it. The two most common answers he gets when asking how did they allow it to happen are "I was having so much fan I didn't want to stop", or "dude, I can't stop training!" (this one coming from a middle-pack rider with more money than brains/legs/lungs is hilarious).

The funniest part is we are absolutely unable to get replacement CSUs here, so a worn stanchion ends up meaning a dead fork.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

When reading @Gallain 's post above, I'm thinking of stanchion wear as the main driver for a fork replacement as stated by the Fox rep. Once Kashima starts to peel off, it goes away pretty fast.

I have seen pretty "young" XC forks die that way here in Argentina because most of those stupid noodle-eaters think fork service is something reserved for the gravity community. As if mud and water weren't capable of grinding down bushings and stanchion coating. On top of that, the bushings/seals of a shot travel fork spend much more time on the same part of the stanchions than the ones on a longer travel slider.

Rock strikes tend to be what eat my stanchion coating...

 

[Happymtb.fr]

The funniest part is we are absolutely unable to get replacement CSUs here, so a worn stanchion ends up meaning a dead fork.

I have seen a few British shops pressing new stanchions and new steertube into crowns. I don't know where they source it or how it holds. Maybe something for your friend to investigate. NDtuned seems to provide steertube.

I am actually quite curious about it, pressing them in and out is not that difficult but I wonder if it holds as well and mostly if the stanchions don't get slightly out of alignment during the process...