What's the Truth? Lubricant Sprays and Fork/Shock Seals

[BarHugger]

No spray comes near my stanchions, Not even if Bruno himself uses it as a deodorant. Pulling the lowers to change gears the oil is easy enough, so I do that as soon as the fork feels less lekker. 5yeats later and the stanchions still look new, and I have become quite in tune with my bike and fork needs wrt servicing.

Putting the bike upside down every now and then will also splash some fork oil on the foam rings to keep things lekker slippery.

The upside down bike thing I do regulary.......when washing bike with a 140kPa high pressure cleaner.....

 

......grabs coffee and makes like a duck......

Edited October 28, 2015 by BarHugger

[JXV]

I use Brunox after every ride and I just cant see how leaving all the muck that it lifts out in there can be a good thing. And I have seen how quickly it sctracthes without using Brunox. It is this muck that scratches the stanchion I think Fox wants to sell more forks quicker.

I'm pretty sure that the line of "muck" that you see on your stanchion after applying Brunox was not magically "lifted" out of your wiper seals.

 

Spraying stuff on your seals and stanchions from the outside will cause a layer of the sprayed liquid (however thin) on the outside surface of your stanchions. Being wet/oily this stuff will attract a thin layer of dust that may not be visible.

 

Wiper seal movement while riding will scrape this stuff together and form a ring of oil soaked dust at the high point of the fork travel for that ride. Kinda the same thing you get when you sweep the floor with a broom. Gathered together, dirt that was not visible as individual particles suddenly appears.

 

Just my opinion above - maybe Brunox really does have magical extraction properties

[raptor-22]

Gotta love snake oil marketing

[Mr X]

I'm pretty sure that the line of "muck" that you see on your stanchion after applying Brunox was not magically "lifted" out of your wiper seals.

 

Spraying stuff on your seals and stanchions from the outside will cause a layer of the sprayed liquid (however thin) on the outside surface of your stanchions. Being wet/oily this stuff will attract a thin layer of dust that may not be visible.

 

Wiper seal movement while riding will scrape this stuff together and form a ring of oil soaked dust at the high point of the fork travel for that ride. Kinda the same thing you get when you sweep the floor with a broom. Gathered together, dirt that was not visible as individual particles suddenly appears.

 

Just my opinion above - maybe Brunox really does have magical extraction properties

 

1. Wipe stachions as clean as you can.

2. Push down and see no dirt come out.

3. Spray some Brunox on.

4. Push down and see dirt come out.

[Wannabe]

1. Wipe stachions as clean as you can.

2. Push down and see no dirt come out.

3. Spray some Brunox on.

4. Push down and see dirt come out.

5. Wipe down dirt that come out, remove excess Brunox same time.

 

Being doing this regularly, never had a stanchion scratched, Fox or not.

 

Just had my bike / fork serviced, got a perfect bill of health. Just the "wipers" was a bit dirty on the top side.

[MrJacques]

I've used Shield Sheen Silicone in the past on my old fork, but now I've read that any solvents it may contain would be bad for the rubber seals and maybe even the anodizing. Maybe more of an issue with the others in spray cans that use propellants?

 

I've also read that mineral oil can make some rubber o-rings expand, so maybe also not a good choice for forks / shocks.

Edited December 6, 2020 by MrJacques

[MrJacques]

Robbie's Bicycle Concept recommends rsp Hyper Wiper and a friend of mine says it works well.

 

 

[Muzzarati]

Do lowers services with the correct oils and grease at recommended intervals, you don't need to replace seals each time, seals can last for ages. 

Using a bit of lowers suspension oil to lube up the stanchions is probably the best thing you can do. Hyperwiper is essentially just that but it has another trick which is the little nozzle the bottle has. With this nozzle you can poke behind the dust seals and actually get oil onto the foam rings.