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Problems with my 2010 Boxxers

ChrisKring

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
2,399
6
Grand Haven, MI
If anyone is planning on meeting up with SRAM at the Open, I would advise you to make sure that they are going to be there or have a backup plan. Last I heard, they were skipping the Open. You probably will want to go through your shop.

Can't wait till this weekend to put some more time on my 2010 Boxxer on a real mountain.
 

Sam B

Monkey
Nov 25, 2001
280
0
Cascadia
It's no longer 15cc's in the lowers. It's 245cc's in the damper and 10cc in each lower leg for 2010. Also the 2010 boxxers may have a longer break in period due to the bushings inside being atleast twice as long.
That is wrong actually... on the 2010 Team it is...

245 cc's of 5 wt for the damper

10cc 15 wt on the damper side for bushing lube
40cc of 15 wt on the spring side for bushing lube


I don't know about the left leg of the 2010 World Cup.
 

Pegboy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 20, 2003
1,139
27
New Hamp-sha
I truely don't understand the "mediocrity is acceptable" mentality. A fork goes three rides and is close to seizing up and people say it is justifiable and the guy is in the wrong because he didn't tear it down and rebuild it out of the box!!?? He's not saying that the thing doesn't perform as well as he hoped...there is something wrong which should not happen three rides in. Yes, you can pick just about any product on the market, put some extra TLC into it and upgrade some aspects here and there to squeeze an extra bit of performance out of it, but it doesn't mean that it shouldn't work "fine" without having to do so.

There seems to be some sponsored riders on here trying to do some damage control but I have a novel idea, if these problems are occuring due to sub par lubrication or assembly, FIX IT! (Manufacturers). If I go buy a new dirt bike, I may be able to send out the suspension or modify it myself to achieve optimal performance, but I sure as hell wont have to rebuild the fork after three rides. (Engine break-in is different..unavoidable).

The ski sceanrio is not a good one. Wax is for speed and is specific to weather. You need to re-wax at least 8 times (or hotbox) to condition skis. A "world cup" tune would be almost un-skiable for most and downright dangerous for some.

For the record, I witnessed the same exact scenario described on a '10 Team this past weekend, rubber like streaks up the stanchions and all, on a "sponsored" riders bike. Is it a crap fork?, Absolutely not. Can it be avoided by some extra attention to details, damn straight.

We justify high costs, we accept poor outcomes; hey manufacturers, keep the crap coming, we're buyin'!
 
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davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
That is wrong actually... on the 2010 Team it is...

245 cc's of 5 wt for the damper

10cc 15 wt on the damper side for bushing lube
40cc of 15 wt on the spring side for bushing lube


I don't know about the left leg of the 2010 World Cup.
not sure who told you that but it is false... do not put 40cc into the lower legs... you will bottom out on compressed oil and your fork will not be the better for it.

245cc of 5wt oil in the damper, and 10 cc of 15wt in the lowers... this is direct from and engineer at SRAM and this is what is printed in their Service Documents for the 2010 fork (which i was told should be online this week)

another tip for putting oil in lowers... put upper tubes in until the touch the first bushing and not much more. pour oil in through the bottom, wait a few seconds and then push uppers the rest of the way down berore turning fork upright. the idea behind this is that the oil will stay mostly in the area between the two bushings thus providing constant lubrication... eventually it works it's way down, hence the need to rebuild once a month or so.

40cc of oil sitting in the bottom of your fork will lube nothing... do not do it
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
There seems to be some sponsored riders on here trying to do some damage control but I have a novel idea, if these problems are occuring due to sub par lubrication or assembly, FIX IT! (Manufacturers). If I go buy a new dirt bike, I may be able to send out the suspension or modify it myself to achieve optimal performance, but I sure as hell wont have to rebuild the fork after three rides. (Engine break-in is different..unavoidable).
hahahaha... nope. again with conspiracy theories (no SRAM sponsored riders that i know of on here) just people trying to help keep things from getting blown out of proportion by people who have no clue...
see my above post for a great example

bottom line... Rock Shox has built an outstanding fork, and with the Team it is substantially less than any of it's competition.

all it takes is 3 minutes after the first few rides/break in to have your fork feeling like a factory maintained race fork. if you can not do this, shut up and buy something else... no one is forcing it one you

love the dirt bike analogy... yeah, buy a dirt bile and go out and thrash it out of the box and tell me what happens to your engine and transmission. and tell me, can you completely overhaul your moto fork with a 5mm allen key and a 24mm wrench? actually... can you do that to any other major companies DH fork?
 
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go-ride.com

Monkey
Oct 23, 2001
548
6
Salt Lake City, UT
hahahaha... nope. again with conspiracy theories (no SRAM sponsored riders that i know of on here) just people trying to help keep things from getting blown out of proportion by people who have no clue...
see my above post for a great example

bottom line... Rock Shox has built an outstanding fork, and with the Team it is substantially less than any of it's competition.

all it takes is 3 minutes after the first few rides/break in to have your fork feeling like a factory maintained race fork. if you can not do this, shut up and buy something else... no one is forcing it one you

love the dirt bike analogy... yeah, buy a dirt bile and go out and thrash it out of the box and tell me what happens to your engine and transmission. and tell me, can you completely overhaul your moto fork with a 5mm allen key and a 24mm wrench? actually... can you do that to any other major companies DH fork?
I agree with what you are saying. They are easy to sevice, but good luck getting that snap-ring off the rebound adjuster with a 5mm allen and a 24mm wrench. :D
 

JewBagel

Monkey
Apr 22, 2008
229
0
oregon
hahahaha... nope. again with conspiracy theories (no SRAM sponsored riders that i know of on here) just people trying to help keep things from getting blown out of proportion by people who have no clue...
see my above post for a great example

bottom line... Rock Shox has built an outstanding fork, and with the Team it is substantially less than any of it's competition.

all it takes is 3 minutes after the first few rides/break in to have your fork feeling like a factory maintained race fork. if you can not do this, shut up and buy something else... no one is forcing it one you

love the dirt bike analogy... yeah, buy a dirt bile and go out and thrash it out of the box and tell me what happens to your engine and transmission. and tell me, can you completely overhaul your moto fork with a 5mm allen key and a 24mm wrench? actually... can you do that to any other major companies DH fork?
So what about my 09 team then? I threw it on and it has worked fine with out a break in rebuild, for 5 months, no drag what so ever. That said, I am going to take it apart before summer and check everything over. However, no matter how you feel about the product what happened to his fork should not happen to a new product. I rode one and it was very similar, not quite to that extent but there was some serious drag, for reference I did not have that problem with my fork, nor did anyone else with the 09 I have talked to.
I'm not hating on SRAM, I really do love the way my boxxer feels and you couldn't beat the fork for the price, but what is happening with those forks is unacceptable. They should have kept it off the market until september when most new stuff is released and maybe solved the problem. It is a problem with first generation products, they get to the market and then all the bugs you weren't able to see among a few of the test products, or in the design get exposed. This however is a little over the top.

As for the dirt bike analogy, it is accurate. He mentioned BESIDES the engine, all of which require a break in. In my years working at bike shops I have never seen a production fork that requires you to disassemble it after the first ride or two.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
86,049
24,576
media blackout
The ski sceanrio is not a good one. Wax is for speed and is specific to weather. You need to re-wax at least 8 times (or hotbox) to condition skis. A "world cup" tune would be almost un-skiable for most and downright dangerous for some.
How is it not a good analogy? High end race skis are expensive and require regular maintenance. Modern DH forks are exactly the same. The skis may not have moving parts, but that doesn't mean they don't require lots of attention to detail. If you really wanna get technical, there's a LOT more equipment required to keep race skis in good shape (multiple files and deburring stones, waxes (which don't last long and aren't cheap), base grinders (which are a few hundred bucks), etc). You should be thankful that the majority of maintenance on a DH fork can be done with a few allen keys and sockets.

The argument that wax is condition and weather specific is actually a good analogy to bikes. Different tracks with different terrains require different suspension tunes and adjustments. I don't know about you, but I make minor adjustments to my dampers based on terrain. I know a lot of other riders who do also.

Again, your argument that a "world cup tune" on skis would be unrideable for most skiers, most mountain bikers definitely would be hindered by a suspension tune used by WC pro downhillers. That Fox 40 WC that's being sold? The only difference between that and the stock 40RC2 is a stiffer compression tune, stiffer rebound tune, a stiffer spring, and higher oil weight. Oh and the stickers. Nothing really groundbreaking.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
what is happening with those forks is unacceptable. They should have kept it off the market until september when most new stuff is released and maybe solved the problem. It is a problem with first generation products, they get to the market and then all the bugs you weren't able to see among a few of the test products, or in the design get exposed. This however is a little over the top.

why because it happened to a few forks out of a few hundred that are out there?

seriously people, get over it.... there were at least 10 of us bromont with these forks and not one single issue from anyone's.

I have had mine for a month and it feels absolutely perfect (and i am beyond picky)... so by tis same logic that you folks use to say something is crap, it must then at the same time be the complete opposite

you guys all jump to conclusions about stuff you really have no first hand experience with. who is to say one of these "guys" everyone knows did not eat **** and twist the crown without even checking to see? wash their bike with a power washer? how do you know they did not switch springs without greasing the rubber slilencers that keep them quite (these will be quite sticky if not greased... stock ones are grease, spares are not. if you drop a spring in dry your fork will hate you)... the truth is you have no idea... yet you write something off for it :crazy:

The fork is mint out of the box 99% of the time for 99% of the people... and anyone who had an issue (if you can call it that) only needs to give up 3 minutes of their time to fix it... and the fork has a long break in period due to the massive bushings rockshox used this year.

the advice for rebuilds I have given on here is for those that want that little bit extra... or 110% performance. how is that hard to understand.

any issues are isolated instances, few and far between... and guess what, if you get one of these forks, SRAM send parts out ASAP to your local shop so you do not have to send your fork in for service.
 
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JewBagel

Monkey
Apr 22, 2008
229
0
oregon
you guys all jump to conclusions about stuff you really have no first hand experience with. who is to say one of these "guys" everyone knows did not eat **** and twist the crown without even checking to see? wash their bike with a power washer? how do you know they did not switch springs without greasing the rubber slilencers that keep them quite (these will be quite sticky if not greased... stock ones are grease, spares are not. if you drop a spring in dry your fork will hate you)... the truth is you have no idea... yet you write something off for it :crazy:

The fork is mint out of the box 99% of the time for 99% of the people... and anyone who had an issue (if you can call it that) only needs to give up 3 minutes of their time to fix it... and the fork has a long break in period due to the massive bushings rockshox used this year.
First, I do have first hand experience with it. The guy I am referring to is a mechanic friend who had the fork a week previously to me riding it, I know he had not crashed it. I did not write the fork off, I simply said it should not come from the factory like that.

I doubt the fork is mint out of the box for 99% of the time, but there is nothing to prove either you, or I, right or wrong on our assumptions. Just so you know, I do plan on getting one in the future just maybe the next years model or the year after that. They will find kinks to work out.
 
wished there was a boxxer maintenance class i could take. i just need to watch someone knowledgeable once or twice doing it live. i've always afraid of marring up the seals, or over/under torquing screws.

the 2010 boxxers do look tasty. considering them versus the fox 40s
 
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Sam B

Monkey
Nov 25, 2001
280
0
Cascadia
not sure who told you that but it is false... do not put 40cc into the lower legs... you will bottom out on compressed oil and your fork will not be the better for it.

245cc of 5wt oil in the damper, and 10 cc of 15wt in the lowers... this is direct from and engineer at SRAM and this is what is printed in their Service Documents for the 2010 fork (which i was told should be online this week)

another tip for putting oil in lowers... put upper tubes in until the touch the first bushing and not much more. pour oil in through the bottom, wait a few seconds and then push uppers the rest of the way down berore turning fork upright. the idea behind this is that the oil will stay mostly in the area between the two bushings thus providing constant lubrication... eventually it works it's way down, hence the need to rebuild once a month or so.

40cc of oil sitting in the bottom of your fork will lube nothing... do not do it

Maybe I need to DOUBLE check with a reply back to him but I copied that text directly from an e-mail Boobar sent me when I e-mailed him about oil volumes...

And yes, gotta get the oil in the zone between the two bushings... that is a good tip for everyone.
 
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davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
wished there was a boxxer maintenance class i could take. i just need to watch someone knowledgeable once or twice doing it live. i've always afraid of marring up the seals, or over/under torquing screws.

the 2010 boxxers do look tasty. considering them versus the fox 40s
not gonna look it up for you, but...


tim flooks has one on his tftuned site, you can seach youtube for an official sram one, and it might even be on their website.

and Sam B... maybe he mis keyed his text to you but it is most def. 10cc

there is no seal at the bottom of the spring lag where is goes into the upper, just a bushing... oil can drip through there slowly but it will not flow in a manner that would allow 40cc to sit in the bottom of the leg that will get smashed by the upper tube as it compresses... best case scenario would be severe bottom out damping in an awfully crude way, but in reality you would most likely ruin something in there.

the upper tubes hit a vry small bottom out bumber that sits at the bottom of the fork... that 40cc has to get displaced somewhere and there is no way it is going up into the chamber with the coil.

the "spring" side of both the team and WC have really only changed in size along wit the larger tubes. as far as maintaining them, they are just about the same to the old ones (though the WC now runs on much lower air pressure due to larger volume)
 
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BmxConvert

Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
715
0
Longview, Washington
That is wrong actually... on the 2010 Team it is...

245 cc's of 5 wt for the damper

10cc 15 wt on the damper side for bushing lube
40cc of 15 wt on the spring side for bushing lube


I don't know about the left leg of the 2010 World Cup.
When I spoke to Sram they said 10cc in each lower leg. However, all of my friends/customers are on the WC's, so there may be a difference for the Team.

The Race however, uses a different amount of oil in the damper. I can't recall how much as this point as I wasn't concerned about it when I started opening the WC's.

-Kevin
 

RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
not gonna look it up for you, but...


tim flooks has one on his tftuned site, you can seach youtube for an official sram one, and it might even be on their website.

and Sam B... maybe he mis keyed his text to you but it is most def. 10cc

there is no seal at the bottom of the spring lag where is goes into the upper, just a bushing... oil can drip through there slowly but it will not flow in a manner that would allow 40cc to sit in the bottom of the leg that will get smashed by the upper tube as it compresses... best case scenario would be severe bottom out damping in an awfully crude way, but in reality you would most likely ruin something in there.

the upper tubes hit a vry small bottom out bumber that sits at the bottom of the fork... that 40cc has to get displaced somewhere and there is no way it is going up into the chamber with the coil.

the "spring" side of both the team and WC have really only changed in size along wit the larger tubes. as far as maintaining them, they are just about the same to the old ones (though the WC now runs on much lower air pressure due to larger volume)

http://www.dirtmag.co.uk/news/category/videos/how-to-maintain-your-boxxer-forks/dirt-1231194.html

Video at the bottom of the page.

There is also a little thing called an online service manual. www.sram.com

I learned how to do a complete overhaul with the online manual and some youtube videos. Now, every month I do an overhaul on my boxxer with new lube and oil. Takes no time at all and feels so much better each time.

Quit your bitching and do some proper maintenance on your equipment. I forgot how many times that I was asked about how much of a bitch it was to lube the rail on my 303R while at highland yesterday. It amazed me how people would completely write off a product because they have to actually maintain it. The re-lube of the rail takes me all of 8 minutes and that includes removing/installing the shock.
 

slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
Time to give it up fellas. It is obvious that the "throw away" society that some of us live in has taken it's toll and people just accept that paying top dollar for an average product is acceptable.

All the press I have read says they tested them extensively by some of the worlds best riders before releasing them to Joe public ( or words to that effect ). Whatever - the usual crap that gets shoved down our throats, personally I am sick of buying "new" product and it performs at a level less than stated, and I am talking in general here.

Gee, I wonder why all the big American car manufacturers are going down the toilet. Hardly surprising from what I have read on here :rolleyes:
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Time to give it up fellas. It is obvious that the "throw away" society that some of us live in has taken it's toll and people just accept that paying top dollar for an average product is acceptable.

All the press I have read says they tested them extensively by some of the worlds best riders before releasing them to Joe public ( or words to that effect ). Whatever - the usual crap that gets shoved down our throats, personally I am sick of buying "new" product and it performs at a level less than stated, and I am talking in general here.

Gee, I wonder why all the big American car manufacturers are going down the toilet. Hardly surprising from what I have read on here :rolleyes:

yup they were tested, and maintained in the manner described it the owners manual and in video's such as the one a few post back.

how is this an average product? have you ridden one? as for price... boxxer team is hundreds less than a fox, and half the cost of a manitou.

instead of making broad off topic generalization from your armchair in new zealand about everything "american" why do you take the time to read back and you will see there is no issue other than a need to put a small bit of grease under a dust wiper... and once a month (more if you desire or ride in harsh climate) take 5 minutes to replace oil in lowers.

get your head out of your ass and try to add something constructive instead of been another uninformed person spraying BS in this forum.

and your statement on the US auto industry reinforces the fact that you are uninformed and just repeat back what you hear from someone else without ever learning the facts.... just another typical, ah, nevermind
 
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May 16, 2008
30
0
Okay so this morning we popped open the fork. On the dampner side there was what appeared to be 10 cc of oil

the coil side had not a drop of oil in the bath and there was no grease around the seals.

I packed in a mixture of grease and oil in between the seals and put 15 w 10cc in both the legs.

I took the fork out and they felt awesome for about the first half of my first run before the seals on my coil side started to rub and leave sticky rubber on the stanchion .

Another small detail is that out of the box the low speed compression knob is super hard to turn. the beginning stroke rebound does not even turn . The ending stroke rebound can spin in both directions and does nothing.

Say what you may, I may have received a lemon but it is not just one thing on this new fork that does not work , I have had 4 rides and pretty much nothing on it works properly. Tomorow I cam going to call norco our local distributer here in the whistler area and I am going to have to pay to ship this "brand new" fork to them to get fixed and i will be left without a fork for probably a week or two .

Same thing happened with me vivid last year it blew up in the first 3 days and not even norco had knew how to fix it yet , so I had to go out and buy a real shock (rocco) just so i could ride my bike.

Unless sram does something for me in a big way I am not loving them or speaking highly of there products.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Okay so this morning we popped open the fork. On the dampner side there was what appeared to be 10 cc of oil

the coil side had not a drop of oil in the bath and there was no grease around the seals.

I packed in a mixture of grease and oil in between the seals and put 15 w 10cc in both the legs.

I took the fork out and they felt awesome for about the first half of my first run before the seals on my coil side started to rub and leave sticky rubber on the stanchion .

Another small detail is that out of the box the low speed compression knob is super hard to turn. the beginning stroke rebound does not even turn . The ending stroke rebound can spin in both directions and does nothing.

Say what you may, I may have received a lemon but it is not just one thing on this new fork that does not work , I have had 4 rides and pretty much nothing on it works properly. Tomorow I cam going to call norco our local distributer here in the whistler area and I am going to have to pay to ship this "brand new" fork to them to get fixed and i will be left without a fork for probably a week or two .

Same thing happened with me vivid last year it blew up in the first 3 days and not even norco had knew how to fix it yet , so I had to go out and buy a real shock (rocco) just so i could ride my bike.

Unless sram does something for me in a big way I am not loving them or speaking highly of there products.
did you take the rebound nobs off before opening the fork?

did you put the seals down level, and are you sure the fork crowns are straight? something would have to be way mis aligned to get rubber streaks (if that is what they are)

maybe you got a lemon.. or maybe it is something else

just trying to help ya, but all that gets lost with the hate parade idiots

edit: as for your vivid... the rebuild instructions were online at sram months before they started shipping. your dist. is pretty useless if they could not sort it out.

great mentality by the way "mine sucks so they all suck"... thata boy

have you called anyone (as in SRAM) yet, or have you just bitched online and hoped that would fix your fork?
 
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slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
did you take the rebound nobs off before opening the fork?

did you put the seals down level, and are you sure the fork crowns are straight? something would have to be way mis aligned to get rubber streaks (if that is what they are)

maybe you got a lemon.. or maybe it is something else

just trying to help ya, but all that gets lost with the hate parade idiots

edit: as for your vivid... the rebuild instructions were online at sram months before they started shipping. your dist. is pretty useless if they could not sort it out.

great mentality by the way "mine sucks so they all suck"... thata boy

have you called anyone (as in SRAM) yet, or have you just bitched online and hoped that would fix your fork?
Get over it. Why should he have to do any of this on a "NEW" product.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Get over it. Why should he have to do any of this on a "NEW" product.
go back in your hole and stop trolling

the guy had an issue, i am trying to help him out since he has already taken the for apart and is trying to find out what may be wrong.

guess what every product ever made will have a few lemons in the bunch... this is one guy with an issue out of hundreds of forks that are being ridden with no issue.

go away, and come back when you have something to say...:banghead:
 

RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
Get over it. Why should he have to do any of this on a "NEW" product.
Why shouldn't he? Proper maintenance goes a long way and it starts from day one.

I'd be more than happy to take the fork off of his hands and do the proer maintenance.

Shoot me a PM and we will set up payment and shipping details.

If you don't like it then go buy another product, end of discussion. There are many other forks out there but you will have to pay more money only to do the same damn thing.

When my new elixir CR's came in, the first thing that I did was re-bleed them and make sure everything worked as advertised, when the vivid came in last year I rebuilt it and made sure that it was up to speed, etc.

You gotta put some work into anything to get 100% out of it. That goes with everything.
 

slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
yup they were tested, and maintained in the manner described it the owners manual and in video's such as the one a few post back.

how is this an average product? have you ridden one? as for price... boxxer team is hundreds less than a fox, and half the cost of a manitou.

instead of making broad off topic generalization from your armchair in new zealand about everything "american" why do you take the time to read back and you will see there is no issue other than a need to put a small bit of grease under a dust wiper... and once a month (more if you desire or ride in harsh climate) take 5 minutes to replace oil in lowers.

get your head out of your ass and try to add something constructive instead of been another uninformed person spraying BS in this forum.

and your statement on the US auto industry reinforces the fact that you are uninformed and just repeat back what you hear from someone else without ever learning the facts.... just another typical, ah, nevermind
Yeah, your right. It is the whole of America going down the toilet, pity they are taking the rest of the world with them :banghead:

Maybe if they could build forks that actually work out of the box for average Joe - hang on, they will have been quality checked by the Chinese guy putting them together for a massive $3 a week :huh:
 

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
Hey Lee/Dave -

Is it really acceptable to have such short service intervals? I don't think the "high performance = high maintenance" argument floats, you can convince yourself that it's normal and okay, but I don't see highend MX forks being serviced once every two weeks to not feel harsh and horrible, and if you've owned a marzocchi fork (pre-problematic ones) then you'll know the same thing.

I'm really on your side as being an avid boxxer fan, I re-pack wipers and change lower oil quite often, but I really don't think it's OK. I would much rather a fork where I didn't have to do this so often to keep it running prime, and IMO it's a function of a poorly designed lower / bushing / seal / lubrication system.

I run boxxers because they are usually lighter, lower and better damped than the competition (often by a long shot in at least one of those categories), but there's no reason that they can't simultaneously last a few months before needing a service (like a lot of other forks out there), and IMO it's a fault of design/manufacture rather than user error.

I think the longer break-in time being a good thing is a delusion as well, excessively tight or sticky bushings are going to result in a stickier fork down the track as well, compared to one with better tolerances. That's my experience anyway.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Yeah, your right. It is the whole of America going down the toilet, pity they are taking the rest of the world with them :banghead:

Maybe if they could build forks that actually work out of the box for average Joe - hang on, they will have been quality checked by the Chinese guy putting them together for a massive $3 a week :huh:
you are a simple minded one.... that's a nice way of saying you are a complete moron.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Hey Lee/Dave -

Is it really acceptable to have such short service intervals? I don't think the "high performance = high maintenance" argument floats, you can convince yourself that it's normal and okay, but I don't see highend MX forks being serviced once every two weeks to not feel harsh and horrible, and if you've owned a marzocchi fork (pre-problematic ones) then you'll know the same thing.

I'm really on your side as being an avid boxxer fan, I re-pack wipers and change lower oil quite often, but I really don't think it's OK. I would much rather a fork where I didn't have to do this so often to keep it running prime, and IMO it's a function of a poorly designed lower / bushing / seal / lubrication system.

I run boxxers because they are usually lighter, lower and better damped than the competition (often by a long shot in at least one of those categories), but there's no reason that they can't simultaneously last a few months before needing a service (like a lot of other forks out there), and IMO it's a fault of design/manufacture rather than user error.

I think the longer break-in time being a good thing is a delusion as well, excessively tight or sticky bushings are going to result in a stickier fork down the track as well, compared to one with better tolerances. That's my experience anyway.
man o man.... you of all people should know better to use moto analogies. but here is a great site if you want to use as reference http://motocd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=25
every 10 hours of track time for high end moto stuff... ****, at that cost it should be 5 years in we go by the MTB consumer logic of $$ buys less maintenance


new boxxer is no different than the old one in terms of proper maitainence. fox forks have same "issue" if not more so since they lack an oil seal.

like i said before (time and time again) you do not need to do anything to a boxxer very often. it all depends on personal preference.

I work on my bike every time i ride it... by choice

this thread was oringinaly one guy asking advice and got ruined by a bunch of douche nozzles stirring the pot and making broad claims they have no facts about.

**** it... my fork works mint and every boxxer i have ever owned has been mint. so much for helping anyone

you guys can get your advice from people who have never ridden one and just spray BS on the internet. this place is not realy any better than pinkbike afterall

later
 
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slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
Hey Lee/Dave -

Is it really acceptable to have such short service intervals? I don't think the "high performance = high maintenance" argument floats, you can convince yourself that it's normal and okay, but I don't see highend MX forks being serviced once every two weeks to not feel harsh and horrible, and if you've owned a marzocchi fork (pre-problematic ones) then you'll know the same thing.

I'm really on your side as being an avid boxxer fan, I re-pack wipers and change lower oil quite often, but I really don't think it's OK. I would much rather a fork where I didn't have to do this so often to keep it running prime, and IMO it's a function of a poorly designed lower / bushing / seal / lubrication system.

I run boxxers because they are usually lighter, lower and better damped than the competition (often by a long shot in at least one of those categories), but there's no reason that they can't simultaneously last a few months before needing a service (like a lot of other forks out there), and IMO it's a fault of design/manufacture rather than user error.

I think the longer break-in time being a good thing is a delusion as well, excessively tight or sticky bushings are going to result in a stickier fork down the track as well, compared to one with better tolerances. That's my experience anyway.
One of the problems with "New" generation forks is that they run closed damping systems and thus require very little oil in the lowers ( the oil is contained in the damper seperately ). They do this to reduce weight. The draw back of this is that little oil volume is available to lube the bushes stantions etc, thus the problem people are experiencing with "sticking". You really do have to pull the lowers regularly and lube things yourself to keep it all running 100%. Also less oil contaminates faster.
Moto and Maz forks generally run an "open bath" system and thus hold a lot more oil ( 220 mil each leg in my Maz 66's ) , the end result is that it gets splashed / pumped around the internals heaps and keeps it all lubed correctly. Another plus is that larger oil volumes require less service because it contaminates a lot slower.
Hope that makes sense.

BTW: Boxxers are good forks as are Fox etc. Dave and co are just an easy wind up :brows:
 

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
man o man.... you of all people should know better to use moto analogies.
That's why I threw in the marzocchi one, but seriously I've ridden other closed bath MTB forks that don't start feeling sticky as fast as boxxers seem to.

I think what you have to understand is the difference between wanting and needing to service things, like I think that "10 hours" number would be a good recommendation, however the fork wouldn't start getting sticky if you went longer. The thing with the boxxer is you really have to stick to those 30 day intervals (max) if you ride often and want your fork to be low on stiction. I would honestly say the ideal service interval is even a little less than that (I'm pretty anal, probably like you).

The fox doesn't seem to go sour as fast with the bushing system, perhaps because of the slotted setup they use, or some other reason - but they have their own host of problems with worn stanchions/bushings too. I just think if companies like RS (and Fox) are going to implement semi-bath systems they should put some R&D time into eliminating those problems and making sure the system has lower stiction for longer, and longer service intervals. It's not an issue inherent to a semi-bath, it's just an issue inherent to a design that hasn't been perfected IMO.

I don't have a problem with working on my gear, but less time needed for that would mean more time riding. To be honest I'd be happy if they even facilitated faster oil/grease changes, the speedlube on the totem was a good idea, and a grease port between the seal and wiper would make it almost perfect. Just the tearing down of the fork that gets tiresome, fast.
 

ChrisKring

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
2,399
6
Grand Haven, MI
My 2010 Boxxer isn't sticky. Given, I have only ridden it at the local hill but there are enough rocks to know that it feels a lot better than the old version.

With regards to service intervals, I am very anal about the feel of the fork and I would typically rebuild my previous gen (2006) fork once a year and do an oil change in the middle of the season. I had RS check it out near the end of last year and they said the bushings had no wear. That's after 3 years of riding.

MX forks: high end race forks get torn down every single weekend. Don't believe me, go ask the suspension guy at the Yamaha truck at a national what he rebuilds more (MX or DH). The Yamaha suspension guy used to do R&D for a MTB suspension company. Many of you know him. That is the level of parts the we are talking about here. Also, most MX forks are closed cartridge.

Car company comments: that made me laugh. Who lost the most amount of money last quarter? Which car company made money last quarter? The auto industry problems are due to consumers not buying cars due to credit.

Bottom line: it's a good fork. There was nothing wrong with mine out of the box.
 

go-ride.com

Monkey
Oct 23, 2001
548
6
Salt Lake City, UT
Man I can't believe how out of control this thread has become. Being the owner of Go-ride.com I've sold and serviced just about every DH fork ever available in the US. Does it surpise me that a few guys are having unusual problems with a new product. Not at all. We see high end products that have been in production for multiple seasons and still a bad one shows up once in a while. We see it on more than just suspension products, but certainly the more parts a product has the more likely it is to have issues.

As for the 2010 Boxxer I own a WC that has about 12 runs on it over three riding sessions. Our local shuttle is pretty rough so we only do 3 or 4 runs at a time, but a ski resort is opening this weekend so I'll get at least 20 more runs in a few days. What I've noticed so far is that the new Boxxer does require a longer break-in period than the previous model that felt completely broken-in out of the box. IMO this is ultimately a good thing in that the older version also went through bushings too fast and in many cases ruined the upper legs before the owner did anything about it.

So far I've pulled the lower legs, lubed the bushings, seals and wipers, and refilled with 15cc of 15wt oil in each leg. Upon inspection it appeared to me that the fork was properly lubed and oiled when originally assemble. So I did not notice much of a change from this simple service. However, but the end of my last riding session the fork is getting better and better. Some of this is due to break-in and some is due to my changing the compression valving to my liking.

As for all the other DH forks I've owned over the years I've had very similar experiences. All of them get ridden once or twice and then torn down to check the interals. 9 out of 10 have some sort of assembly issue. Some as simple as incorrect oil height and others have had issues as serious as missing parts. Any way you look at it if you want top level performance you should go through your complete bike on a regular basis.

Those of you who think MX bikes run great off the showroom floor just don't know what you are talking about. Just about any serious racer is going to tear down a brand new bike before even riding it. I'm talking ours of work to lube, loctite, tension, torque, adjust and double check just about every bolt, bearing, and moving part. Further many will pull the suspension and send it off to their favorite tuner before ever riding. In the end if you put in the work you will have a bike that runs like new for much longer than riding off the showroom and hitting the track or trail.
 

slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
Man I can't believe how out of control this thread has become. Being the owner of Go-ride.com I've sold and serviced just about every DH fork ever available in the US. Does it surpise me that a few guys are having unusual problems with a new product. Not at all. We see high end products that have been in production for multiple seasons and still a bad one shows up once in a while. We see it on more than just suspension products, but certainly the more parts a product has the more likely it is to have issues.

As for the 2010 Boxxer I own a WC that has about 12 runs on it over three riding sessions. Our local shuttle is pretty rough so we only do 3 or 4 runs at a time, but a ski resort is opening this weekend so I'll get at least 20 more runs in a few days. What I've noticed so far is that the new Boxxer does require a longer break-in period than the previous model that felt completely broken-in out of the box. IMO this is ultimately a good thing in that the older version also went through bushings too fast and in many cases ruined the upper legs before the owner did anything about it.

So far I've pulled the lower legs, lubed the bushings, seals and wipers, and refilled with 15cc of 15wt oil in each leg. Upon inspection it appeared to me that the fork was properly lubed and oiled when originally assemble. So I did not notice much of a change from this simple service. However, but the end of my last riding session the fork is getting better and better. Some of this is due to break-in and some is due to my changing the compression valving to my liking.

As for all the other DH forks I've owned over the years I've had very similar experiences. All of them get ridden once or twice and then torn down to check the interals. 9 out of 10 have some sort of assembly issue. Some as simple as incorrect oil height and others have had issues as serious as missing parts. Any way you look at it if you want top level performance you should go through your complete bike on a regular basis.

Those of you who think MX bikes run great off the showroom floor just don't know what you are talking about. Just about any serious racer is going to tear down a brand new bike before even riding it. I'm talking ours of work to lube, loctite, tension, torque, adjust and double check just about every bolt, bearing, and moving part. Further many will pull the suspension and send it off to their favorite tuner before ever riding. In the end if you put in the work you will have a bike that runs like new for much longer than riding off the showroom and hitting the track or trail.
And where does this leave the recreational rider, you guys seem to be conveniently forgetting about the 99% of riders out there who will also be using these products. Sorry, but it just does not wash with me. This sport is not just restricted to the elite you know. Race pace blahdy blah
 

RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
And where does this leave the recreational rider, you guys seem to be conveniently forgetting about the 99% of riders out there who will also be using these products. Sorry, but it just does not wash with me. This sport is not just restricted to the elite you know. Race pace blahdy blah
That still doesn't matter nor does your argument hold water. As a recreational rider you should be the first one to tear apart your bike and know exactly how to properly service every part. That is a responsible rider whether you are a racer or recreational rider.

It is not that hard at all to learn how to do any sort of maintenance on your bike and if you are weary about it then I am more than certain that any mechanic at your LBS will be happy during some down time to take you through all of the specifics. If they don't then I would find another shop ASAP.

Typical lazy POS that wants everything to be done for him, if something goes wrong then there must be someone other than himself to blame. He will make sure that the world will hear about his one case out of thousands on the inter-web telling everyone that every one of those products suck because theirs did...OR just trolling on someone else's thread without having any time on the product nor does he own one.

Just shut up!
 
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slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
That still doesn't matter nor does your argument hold water. As a recreational rider you should be the first one to tear apart your bike and know exactly how to properly service every part. That is a responsible rider whether you are a racer or recreational rider.

It is not that hard at all to learn how to do any sort of maintenance on your bike and if you are weary about it then I am more than certain that any mechanic at your LBS will be happy during some down time to take you through all of the specifics. If they don't then I would find another shop ASAP.

Typical lazy POS that wants everything to be done for him, if something goes wrong then there must be someone other than himself to blame. He will make sure that the world will hear about his one case out of thousands on the inter-web telling everyone that every one of those products suck because theirs did...OR just trolling on someone else's thread without having any time on the product nor does he own one.

Just shut up!
Oh, and everyone is a mechanic then. Well I have news for you and it is all bad. This type of problem does not actually affect me as I can strip down any bike and rebuild it, as I have done many times now on my own and friends bikes. However, not everyone enjoys that luxury and surely the manufacturers have a duty to deliver a product that performs for a reasonable length of time before it requires attention. True , this would appear to be a reasonably isolated incident BUT as others have posted it runs a little deeper than initially thought.
I am not actually bagging the Boxxer but merely supporting the little guy who parts with his hard earned $$$ and gets a less than satisfactory product.

BTW: Nice touch getting all emotional and abusing me personally.
 
May 16, 2008
30
0
That still doesn't matter nor does your argument hold water. As a recreational rider you should be the first one to tear apart your bike and know exactly how to properly service every part. That is a responsible rider whether you are a racer or recreational rider.

It is not that hard at all to learn how to do any sort of maintenance on your bike and if you are weary about it then I am more than certain that any mechanic at your LBS will be happy during some down time to take you through all of the specifics. If they don't then I would find another shop ASAP.

Typical lazy POS that wants everything to be done for him, if something goes wrong then there must be someone other than himself to blame. He will make sure that the world will hear about his one case out of thousands on the inter-web telling everyone that every one of those products suck because theirs did...OR just trolling on someone else's thread without having any time on the product nor does he own one.

Just shut up!
Haha oh my god bud that is hilarious. When your average consumer goes out and buys a 1600 dollar after market product that is supposed to act as a suspension absorber than out of the box it should do exactly that until its scheduled tune up ( 10 hours).

Going by your train of though applied to the car industry:
Upon the "recreational" commuter purchasing there car they should know that cars do break down and should immediately rebuild the engine after its first drive even though its first scheduled tune up isn't till 5,000 miles.

I will admit I probably got a lemon , but since posting this I have gotten 2 pm's from other people who have had the same problems . And a good friend of mine who rides for RS has had to get there's re-built 3 times in the last 3 weeks . All teams and all sticking seals with no oil.

hmmm I guess they got lemons too.

I am not trying to tarnish RS name I just want to let others out there to beware of the fact that these new forks do have problems and to not be too quick to rush out and buy a pair.
 

dilzy

Monkey
Sep 7, 2008
567
1
I've only had a little car park test of the new wc's which felt forkish.

Every manufacturer has QC problems, but there in no excuse for it. Dave and the rest of you blokes fervently defending Sram need to get off your high horse.

If the service schedule is every 10hrs and unless it say's you should do it after the first ride, then that's the way it is. If a service every 10hrs does not maintain optimum performance, then they need to change the schedule. It's not your job to invent a schedule, it's the bloody engineers.

There is no excuse for poor QC (having no oil or grease in spring leg) the end. All one can hope is that Sram looks after it's customers (which they do).
 

slowmtb

Monkey
Aug 17, 2008
216
0
ChurChur, NZ
Haha oh my god bud that is hilarious. When your average consumer goes out and buys a 1600 dollar after market product that is supposed to act as a suspension absorber than out of the box it should do exactly that until its scheduled tune up ( 10 hours).

Going by your train of though applied to the car industry:
Upon the "recreational" commuter purchasing there car they should know that cars do break down and should immediately rebuild the engine after its first drive even though its first scheduled tune up isn't till 5,000 miles.

I will admit I probably got a lemon , but since posting this I have gotten 2 pm's from other people who have had the same problems . And a good friend of mine who rides for RS has had to get there's re-built 3 times in the last 3 weeks . All teams and all sticking seals with no oil.

hmmm I guess they got lemons too.

I am not trying to tarnish RS name I just want to let others out there to beware of the fact that these new forks do have problems and to not be too quick to rush out and buy a pair.
I feel your pain brother. I hope it all gets sorted out, I know RS / Sram will look after you but it is a shame that they need to in the first place. I have ruffled enough feathers so must fly. Good luck with it all, I sincerely hope it ends with a good result :cheers: