What does a leaking fork seal indicate?

[FinalImpact]

Your bike out in the sun allot? Seals usually let go for a couple of reasons:
- debris trapped in the surface
- the surface has a defect. i.e. a small rock can create a sharp edge that cuts the seal.
- seal gets hard and inflexible (time, plus heat, plus uv)

- Extend the forks fully and look for scratches, dings, sharp edges etc.

In your case its too late for this bu if you spot a defect early on, use some 800grit emry cloth followed by 1200 to 1600 grit cloth to remove things you feel with your fingernail. Clean it thoroughly to reduce the grit from getting into the seal.

The dirtier the environment the more likely it is for debris to take a seal out.

They have served you well so do the bushings, polishing, oil, seals etc. .

 

[FZ1inNH]

Your bike out in the sun allot? Seals usually let go for a couple of reasons:
- debris trapped in the surface
- the surface has a defect. i.e. a small rock can create a sharp edge that cuts the seal.
- seal gets hard and inflexible (time, plus heat, plus uv)

- Extend the forks fully and look for scratches, dings, sharp edges etc.

In your case its too late for this bu if you spot a defect early on, use some 800grit emry cloth followed by 1200 to 1600 grit cloth to remove things you feel with your fingernail. Clean it thoroughly to reduce the grit from getting into the seal.

The dirtier the environment the more likely it is for debris to take a seal out.

They have served you well so do the bushings, polishing, oil, seals etc. .

Fork seals are not affected by sun/UV rays. Fork seals are covered by a dust cap that is supposed to prevent any foreign matter from getting into the seal itself. But the dust cap can suffer from these symptoms you mentioned and when it fails, it lets in the debris which then can impact the seal and scratch the tube.

 

[reiobard]

with over 70K on the bike, probably not a bad idea to do them anyway, i am planning on doing mine as a preventive measure this year and change out my oil at the same time. Keira just did oil, so we will probably re-use her oil, but what the heck, we'll replace her seals and caps too.

Good luck!

 

[FinalImpact]

Fork seals are not affected by sun/UV rays. Fork seals are covered by a dust cap that is supposed to prevent any foreign matter from getting into the seal itself. But the dust cap can suffer from these symptoms you mentioned and when it fails, it lets in the debris which then can impact the seal and scratch the tube.

Agreed they are not directly exposed - but once the dust seal is compromised by dirt, or hardening from elevated temps, UV etc, it can allow debris in and damage the seal or scratch the tube if trapped which in turn takes out the seal.

I am curious how the tubes look after this many miles.

Kenny, perhaps a macro photo of the slide???