Suspension service ? Who does or doesn't ?

[weeksy]

It's quite common on MTBs to get your bouncy bits serviced, maybe once a year, 18 months tops.

However, i think people get their motorbikes suspension serviced, about, well, never i'm guessing ?

Do you ? Would you ? Why ? why not ?

[Yorick]

I did when track riding. But I don't understand enough to dabble myself on the GSXR

But I have dabbled successfully with the GasGas.

[dern]

I've changed the oil in a few of mine, most recently the drz, but I haven't done them all even though it would be beneficial. The track bike definitely gets done more frequently.

I've changed the springs in one, a blackbird, to better suit what I wanted from it and have replaced fork seals a few times when needed.

I've only setup bikes myself a bit, without much expertise. I now have a sag measurer thing so will do the drz and possibly the other bikes.

I've only had one bike setup by someone else and that was the honda. Make a substantial difference but that included valving and springs as well as servicing.

[MrLongbeard]

Nope, why? dunno, I just get on 'em and ride 'em.

[Rockburner]

I've replaced the units, and done forks, but never tried to break down a shock unit.

[wull]

Always done my own frequently, usually winter refresh etc etc, and when it’s needed, leaking oil seals. Saves a bunch of cash and doesn’t cost overly much when you do it yourself, and you know it’s working as it should.

I have a collection of tools that allows me to service the majority of forks including the BPF ones that you get a lot from 2009 onwards.

[Scotsrich]

I’ve done front forks, oil changes and new springs.

As for the rear I’d rather just buy anew aftermarket shock.

[Bustaspoke]

I learned more about suspension from riding my mountain bikes than I did from my motorbikes.I first saw cartridge forks in 2005 on my Fox 36 equiped Enduro.I also learned about sag,rebound & compression settings from the mountain bike.I never stripped down an air shock,but I would take the shock & 36 forks in for a service.
All my motorbikes had right way up forks & very little adjustment,apart from my Street Triple,that has USD forks,Compression & rebound adjustmment & it's done 9000 miles,I still haven't changed the oil as I don't have the tools for the job.However I've watched a lot of Dave Moss tuning video's on YT & if I keep the bike I'll do that Dump & run service on the forks & see about either getting the rear shock resprung & revalved or buy a Nitron.
I bought my SV650 last February & by late summer I had swapped out the shock for a YSS unit & did a fork oil change & experimented with the air gap.As the SV has conventional 'Right way up' forks it was easy to do

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I do my own forks, the first set of cartridge ones I tried were in a 1986 KTM 250 (I owned it in 1988), White Power Upside Down forks, made a balls of it the first time and had to take them to Jim Aims, Jim took the time to show me how to strip, clean and rebuild them.

Rear shocks I'm happy changing and setting up, never taken one apart though, but I live in an area where MX is big, so plenty of local people can rebuild shocks.

Standard road bike suspension rarely has enough adjustment to make much difference, and when it does some people make a mess of it and say the bike is evil handling.some

Odd this subject should come up, I'm thinking of changing the oil and springs in the forks of my Suzuki, as they feel like they've been set up for Buster Bloodvessel

[mangocrazy]

I've stripped, re-valved and re-sprung the forks on most of the bikes I've owned. If you're servicing USD forks you really do need to get the tool that compresses the spring while allowing you to unscrew the damper rod. And 'dump and run' is OK up to a point but it doesn't remove the grey sludge that builds up in the forks over time. You really need a full stripdown and clean to make the most of an oil change. It also allows you to check on the state of the bushes.

Unless you have the specialist tools and are able to re-gas shocks to the correct pressure, shock servicing should be left to the 'professionals', as my wife would say...

[Bigyin]

Never messed with any suspension system apart from some preload or damping adjustment but zero attempt at maintaining or refreshing/repairing suspension

[weeksy]

It was as much a question of "who gets it sent off" as much as expecting people to do it themselves fully.

In MTB land they're only semi-serviceable due to needing nitrogen canisters filling etc to specific pressures. So not all can be done at home.... but still, they get sent off and done anyway.