Bike Forks?

[El Champiero]

Rockshox steerers are definitely press fitted. The longest uncut steerer tube lengths I have found seem to be 265mm - this appears to be a standard across quite a few manufacturers. It's really unfortunate that they made a head tube so long - very unusual.

To replace a steerer on a Rockshox fork you need to purchase a whole new CSU - none of them are screwed or clamped in. It's cheaper to buy the whole CSU from Canada on eBay including the carriage charge (they are almost half the price compared to buying them in the UK).

If you are getting a new fork, I recommend getting a fork at the standard 265mm steerer tube length and then using a riser bar with your stem to preserve your current handling set up. From the looks of it your stem looks like it has a height of 40mm and assuming your max steerer tube length is 265mm then you'll be 25mm too low. Therefore, you need a riser bar with about 30mm rise. I guess you may know already, but if not, Chain Reaction is a good place to buy bits like this.

Here is one with 30mm rise and a bargain at the moment.
Crank Brothers Iodine 1 AM Riser Handlebar | Chain Reaction Cycles

This bar fits into a 31.8mm stem bar clamp. Check your stem bar clamp internal diameter to make sure the bar will fit.

Crank Brothers Iodine 1 AM Riser Handlebar | Chain Reaction Cycles

 

[EddiePJ]

I think Clockwise made a good point. It might be a good idea to temporarily remove the handlebars and spacers,and then measure from the bottom to where 250mm comes to. If you have 25mm of bare tube above the head-set,you could use a stem riser to get your handlebars back where they were. If you've got that 25mm, you should be able to use any new set of forks.

Result...

I removed the forks today, and the actual tube length was 285mm, not the 290mm that I had previously quoted.

With everything removed, the headstock measures 210mm, so currently there is 75mm sticking above.

Change the conical fsa for a normal one, remove the two 10mm spacers, fit a riser stem (if required) and I'm guessing that it's roll on Rockshox.

Thanks for all the help, I was getting very despondent over this one. The front forks operate like a knackered out rusty pogo stick. One brand that that I won't ever be touching again is SRSuntour.

All of this is a problem that should never have occurred in the first place, and my faith in BH as a brand is also rapidly becoming less and less.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You don't need to use the stem riser, but, obviously, your handlebars will be lower. They are higher than normal on the Neo, so it might be an advantage to have them lower.

 

[EddiePJ]

Daft isn't it, I'm more than happy to pull any GP250 race into every single component part, leave it a couple of years, then re assemble it again without referring to a workshop manual other than for torque settings, yet give me a simple cycle, and I'm lost.

Which leads me to my next question. If I going to be putting a set of new forks on, presumably I'm also going to need new bearings. Once again I'm clueless, so any tips of what to buy or what I'm going to need to do the job properly/correctly, would be appreciated.

 

[Clockwise]

Which leads me to my next question. If I going to be putting a set of new forks on, presumably I'm also going to need new bearings. Once again I'm clueless, so any tips of what to buy or what I'm going to need to do the job properly/correctly, would be appreciated.

You don't need new bearings unless the ones you have are worn/ruined. You will need to remove the crown race from the old forks, sometimes this is awkward so replacing the headset is easier. Also clean and regrease stuff.

This should show you how to remove/replace stuff on the cheap but the steps are rather simple, remove the old forks, remove the crown race, put crown race on new forks, regrease the headset, put it all back together.

[video=youtube;4Z20O6PUU70]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z20O6PUU70[/video]

Your headset looks to be one of these with a conical spacer, I wouldn't see any need to replace it tbh. Also if the frame is carbon you risk chipping/cracking when you knock out the headset.

FSA Orbit Z-41 OE Integrated Headset £9.99 | Planet X

 

[El Champiero]

Nice one Eddie. Bloody Suntour - awful forks. Best place for them is the scrap metal bin!

 

[EddiePJ]

Nice one Eddie. Bloody Suntour - awful forks. Best place for them is the scrap metal bin!

Bloody BH as well, for using such poor quality low end components. Don't know about the "best place for them is the scrap metal bin" it is the only place for them.

Clockwise, that YouTube clip was brilliant. If you have any more gems like that, I'd love to see them.

 

[Clockwise]

Bloody BH as well, for using such poor quality low end components. Don't know about the "best place for them is the scrap metal bin" it is the only place for them.

Clockwise, that YouTube clip was brilliant. If you have any more gems like that, I'd love to see them.

Lots of rubbish but skip to 5min and a great way to get freewheels off. Found it a bit ago, couldn't find my cheat bar then found the method of wheel against a wall and step over/onto spanner, 20cm spanner took off a stubborn freewheel first time.

[video=youtube;H7bDgnfn4uU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7bDgnfn4uU[/video]

 

[EddiePJ]

Look what was waiting for me when I got home from work today.

They are the best part of 600grams lightly than the crap from Suntour. I guess that the extra weight is from rust, water and swarf. Either that or the Suntour sales bull**** ended up inside the forks. Having said that, I'm sure that they would have been heavier still had that been the case.

I can't really do much about fitting them until the dealer has fitted the replacement Suntour forks from BH. I wasn't going to bother, but they might prove handy to put back on the bike if or when I sell it.

 

[patpatbut]

What model is this fork?

Pat

 

[EddiePJ]

The new ones are Rockshox Reba. RockShox Reba RL Solo Air Forks - Pushloc 2013 | Chain Reaction Cycles

They are currently in their January sale.

 

[GaRRy]

At ten times the price of originals and 20%+ of price of bike (at rrp) i should bloody well hope they are far better.

sent by pigeon post

 

[El Champiero]

These are damn good forks. There is no comparison between these and Suntour ones. Good work Eddie!

 

[EddiePJ]

These are damn good forks. There is no comparison between these and Suntour ones. Good work Eddie!

As you say the forks don't even begin to compare. Why suffer with crap quality and an inferior off road ride. I'm now averaging 35 miles a week riding off road, so these will be an investment.
They also don't take the best part of three months to source, and when they finally do arrive, are still wrong.

Also with next day delivery, decent warranty, remote pop lock, 600 gram weight saving, rebuild kits available off the shelf, and subject to tube length can be taken from bike to bike instead of the bin, what's not to like.

I also took advantage of the sale to buy a set of lighter and wider Crankbrothers XC handlebars. The OE bars are too narrow to be of any use off road.

Upon inspection the OE headset bearings appear to be the same market stall quality rubbish as the forks. It seemed pointless buying these forks, then putting rubbish back around them, so an FSA headset with sealed bearings is going in.

 

[El Champiero]

Yeah - definitely put a decent headset in there. This is a common part which is downgraded on many high end e bikes. My Scott e 29er had a terrible Ritchey headset (a big shame as they used to be pretty good quality) on it which kept coming loose no matter what I did. Then 4 weeks in, the bearings let a load of water in and completely messed it up. I then got a red Trailbright (Taiwanese made for a UK company putting their Trailbright name on the bits) headset from eBay with sealed cartridge bearings - which can also be easily replaced. This headset has taken everything I have thrown at it with absolutely no problem. Trailbright UK appear to have gone out of business (website down and ebay store is no more) but I suspect there are clones of these around on eBay somewhere.

 

[El Champiero]

Just found out - there is a new UK company called "Beyond Components" now selling these headsets under the name of Windspeed which I think are a bike shop in China.

http://www.beyondcomponents.co.uk/

Can't fault their headsets - at £20 they are genuine good value. Just remember to put some grease in the cups when you put the bearings in them. Also put a small amount of grease on the bearing washer on the top cup and on where the spacers contact the fork steerer. The bearings are already sealed and greased but this helps to keep them in good condition for longer and stops any worrying creaking sounds coming from the headset. (this happened to me - wondered what it was - greased these bits up and no more creaking).

 

[Clockwise]

Just found out - there is a new UK company called "Beyond Components" now selling these headsets under the name of Windspeed which I think are a bike shop in China.

http://www.beyondcomponents.co.uk/

Can't fault their headsets - at £20 they are genuine good value. Just remember to put some grease in the cups when you put the bearings in them. Also put a small amount of grease on the bearing washer on the top cup and on where the spacers contact the fork steerer. The bearings are already sealed and greased but this helps to keep them in good condition for longer and stops any worrying creaking sounds coming from the headset. (this happened to me - wondered what it was - greased these bits up and no more creaking).

If you are buying any of the ubercheap china stuff then buy it from amazon/ebay for way cheaper.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00G7IPHSY/ref=twister_B00G7IPHU2?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Best buy about by far atm is this, I got myself one and the size/strength against regular ones is huge.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/HSFSPIG/fsa-the-pig-headset

 

[EddiePJ]

The bike finally goes in on Friday for it's replacements forks, so hopeffuly on Saturday, I can then remove them and fit the Rockshox. I wouldn't have bothered with the replacements, but it might be handy in the future to shove a pair of new originals on if I decide to ever sell the bike on. In an ideal world I would ask the bike shop to fit the Rockshox instead of the Suntours, then just take the new Suntours home with me, but I can't see them doing that.

On a positive note, I asked a cousin of mine last week to find me a pair of large washers so that I could make a headset press. His reply was give me the bearing cups and I'll see what I can come with. He turned up today with two machined to fit blocks of aluminium, drilled through the centre, with a piece of studding fitted.
I reckon that I owe him a beer.

 

[Emo Rider]

All this negative talk of Suntour being crap has me a bit mystified. I had a 26" MTB I bought in 2003 equipped with low end Suntours. I rode it about 100 miles a week, road and trail, from April to September as part of my training as an ice hockey player. I used the bike like this until 2007 when I took up road biking. When I sold the bike it had over 8,000 miles on it. The forks were a bit tired as they took very hard use from my 14 stone 6 but still worked fine. I did take very good care of the bike.

My next bike with Suntors was my Marin Muirwoods. I bought it in 2010 and put a set of Nex 8's on it. Still have it and about 3,000 miles later the forks are like new. I bought a BH City 700 in July and have been doing 70 miles a week just commuting. Again equipped with Suntours, and not as good as the ones on the extreme, they are still like new.

The ones on the Extreme keep being compared to the Roxshocks which are more expensive and probably more suited to the use of the original poster. It also does not mean that BH is a bad brand because a set of forks failed. They might have been defective. It happens. I like my Suntours and I like my BH. Having said that, if I do need to replace my forks, I would seriously consider the Roxshock. Thanks for that.

 

[EddiePJ]

Don't worry, I really love the BH and it never fails to put a smile on my face when I ride it. Sadly it has just been the poor back up service that tarnished what should have been an easy to resolve issue. Still it's thankfully sorted now.
The problem with my forks could even possibly be unique to the Xtrem. I'm only saying that as I have seen two other Xtrem's in the last week that had both had a change of front fork. Hopefully your front works will continue to provide many more years of good service.

I spotted from another comment somewhere else that you questioned how I perhaps looked after the bike and also the use that it gets. Yes it does get muddy, but that is what it was designed for.

Yesterday.

And today. Hardly a badly maintained bike, and this is how it looks shortly after every ride.