[blue]

Whatever happened to fork boots? I'm so confused as to what happened, because the first sus forks didn't have them, then they did, then it was only high end models that had them, and now you can't find any forks that come with full boots.

Why did they happen? Why did they go away? Ah, what my mind thinks with bikes on the brain...

 

[drtbikrr]

I think at first nobody knew any better, then they got paranoid, then it cost too much, then they designed better seals and now it doesn't matter.

 

[Zaskar Rider]

I know that on trucks a lot of guys reccomend you don't run boots on the shocks because all they'll do is fill up with water and grit which will then be held there and continue to eat away at the shaft/seal even when you're not playing in the mud. And like dirtbikrr said, the seals nowadays are a lot better than the ones of the days of fork boots.

 

[Ian F]

Originally posted by Zaskar Rider
And like dirtbikrr said, the seals nowadays are a lot better than the ones of the days of fork boots.

Yeah - what he said. For the most part, fork makers discovered that no one ever cleaned the gunk out of the boots, which lead to seal failures.

Also, many forks (and almost all dual crown models) cannot run boots because the boot can't compress from 6-7" to 0" which is about how much exposed stanchion most forks have at full compression. Back in the day, forks with boots only had about 2" or so of travel, but about 4" of exposed stanchion, so there was room for the boot to compress.