Suspension maintenance?

My brother recently sold me his old full suspension mountain bike. I've been road biking 3-4 days a week for about 8 months now, and I thought it would be fun to mix it up a bit. The mountain bike has been sitting in a box in storage for about 6 years and it needs some love. I did some basic cleaning, lubed the chain, and got the deraileurs working, but I have no idea what to do with the front and rear shocks. The front shock is a Manitou Mars 1 and the rear shock is a Fox Vanilla Float Air.

Do I need to take these in and get them serviced (new seals or oil - if the front shock is oil???)? Also, what kind of maintenance do all the moving joints in the rear suspension need? Should I buy some new bushings for those parts? It's an Ellsworth Truth.

Thanks!!!
jeff

Wow, that's a really nice bike!

I think you can just ask your brother what maintenance HE has done in the past & continue to do the same.

The worst case scenario is that you would eventually have to replace the rear shock & fork which you may want to do with the Manitou fork at some point in the future ... regardless.

Supposedly, Manitou forks cannot be rebuilt to spec the way other brands can be ... I don't know why that would be since the parts you replace should "fix" everything ... unless the material choice for the legs is less than desirable & the replacement parts cannot compensate for wear/distortion.

I am fairly certain that the tech info for the FOX & MANITOU products is readily available (on their respective sites?).

A front sus fork service COSTS LESS THAN A NEW TYRE.
That is if it doesn't require additional parts.And is recomended once a year by the service agent.
Bearings in the linkages can wear down at anytime i have 5 sets of bearings that i moniter and replace if i think they feel worn. have replaced the main swingarm bearing twice.The first time it collapsed on the trail so now i preempt the breakdown.They are reletivlly easy to remove and replace.
rear shock i'm in the dark here.mine has been replaced by the suplier twice over three years.
so effectivlly i got the ultimate service.

Sitting for 6 years? Overhaul the fork (if you don't know what's involved then have a shop do it, but it's pretty easy: seals, oil, etc), "test" out the rear shock to see if the damping/etc work still and if it does ride it until it leaks or the adjustments stop working. You can replace the rear shock with something better for under $150 these days or find another old vanilla for <$50.
As for the pivots? Even if the previous owner said he replaced them all right before he stored it for 6 years I would replace all the pivot hardware (whether bearings or bushings). It's worth a hundred bucks (or less) for the peace of mind and such to me.

Ells use bearings everywhere now, but then I can't say that I know. Email them and see what they say. If you have the serial number they will be able to tell you exactly what you need and ship it to you. I'd say find your own bearings 'cuz if you have a good parts/fastner type shop near you they can almost always get things like bearings/bushings for a ton (two tons!) less than the manufacturers charge...and yes, it's for things that actually fit and work and are in my experience of even higher quality. When I re-did the pivots on my Turner I took the bushings, bolts, etc that I needed to the local fastner store (that rocks btw) along with the information from Turner's site about what they use and I was able to get stuff that is *perfect* and just under half the price (Turner sells a rebuild kit for $75 and I paid $35) and while the bushings were identical (same brand) the pivot shafts and bolts were higher quality.

It's more running around than surfing the web and ordering, but I like to tinker and love to daydream in the tool/fastner shops!

Good luck.

Brock...

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