Fork abuse or not (I hope)

[dtm]

Hi,

Will it do any damage to my forks if I ran them over rough terrain with a few medium hits whilst running with a high compression damping or lockout. It was just that I ran over some rocky stuff recently with a few small jumps (no big drop offs or anything just some smallish impacts after low jumps) and I wondered why the front suspension felt hard on my arms wasn’t getting all its travel. Then I realised that the compression damping was set high (virtually but not quite at lockout position) Will it blow the seals or not, or are they designed to take this sort of treatment. It was only for a couple of minutes its just that I read somewhere later that you can damage your forks that way. They are brand new Manitou 100mm forks and I am 147 lbs. They still feel pretty normal I think but I was just worried as its my new bike. I figure thaey should be able to take the pressures but I would like some reassurance.



Thanks

 

[szucchi]

I beat the **** out of my Manitou r7 comp and have had no problems and I weigh 200lbs. Try trowing your bike off a cliff and if they still work, everything will be okay hey It's a mountain bike afterall....

Hi,

Will it do any damage to my forks if I ran them over rough terrain with a few medium hits whilst running with a high compression damping or lockout. It was just that I ran over some rocky stuff recently with a few small jumps (no big drop offs or anything just some smallish impacts after low jumps) and I wondered why the front suspension felt hard on my arms wasn’t getting all its travel. Then I realised that the compression damping was set high (virtually but not quite at lockout position) Will it blow the seals or not, or are they designed to take this sort of treatment. It was only for a couple of minutes its just that I read somewhere later that you can damage your forks that way. They are brand new Manitou 100mm forks and I am 147 lbs. They still feel pretty normal I think but I was just worried as its my new bike. I figure thaey should be able to take the pressures but I would like some reassurance.



Thanks

 

[kclw]

A lot of forks have what is called a blow off valve. This valve opens up if you hit some thing hard with the lockout on. I don't know if this the case with your forks. I know Fox and Rockshox have them, marazochii does not. So depending on your fork it could be damaged it could not be damaged.

Those of you running marazochii's the easiest way to blow your TST cartrige is to forget to turn the lockout off as you enter a downhill.