Crater Cruise killed my Reeba World Cup fork

[HammerHed]

 

I did the 100k Crater Cruise and at the start noticed I only had 3cm of travel on my fork I thought it had locked out, not having a lock out lever I started and when I hit the dirt road stopped to see if I could unlock it, no go.

 

I continued and it immediately started bottoming out on the corrugated road, so rather disturbed I continued and at the 50k water point managed to borrow a pump to check air levels. I pumped it to spec top and bottom (had not lost any air pressure) and then it went rock hard, no give, and no matter what I did could not move it.

 

So carried on riding and 500m later heard a loud pop, didn't see anything so continued and at the next water table noticed I had lost all the oil as the top right seal had popped out. Now the shock started to collapse and the bike geometry changed as the ride height in front was down by 50mm.

 

Hell on my hands as they took a huge pounding, managed to finish.

 

That was the end of my Crater Cruise weekend I was going to do the 56k the next day.

 

Anyone know what went wrong with this fork, it is barely 1 year old?

 

Can I safely repair it?

 

Any comments?

 

HammerHed2009-10-11 13:45:53

[Aurora]

same happened to my Reba SL at sabie last year, the distributers just fixed it for free

[HammerHed]

Ouch, was it still under warranty?

 

Who are the distributors?

 

[Aurora]

cape cycles or something in the cape

 

 

 

Yes it was, i heard of a few that had the problem occur, mine happened 5km into stage 1, shock blew at 25km in...

[HammerHed]

Seems like a design flaw.

[Aurora]

it had something to do with the lockout jamming

[HammerHed]

 

it had something to do with the lockout jamming

 

That was my initial thought, but you should be able to ride with the lockout on on bumpy roads. No?

 

[Johan Bornman]

Bring it to me, we can have a look at it. I'll open it whilst you wait and we can discover the cause together.

[WRIGHTLIGHT]

Hmm, just bought a 2010 Reba SL, hopefully won't give me the same k#k as mentioned above.

[techguy]

The world cup Reba's (and all Reba's for that matter), Are affected by dirt getting into the dust wipers, if you do a lower end service and clean out all the muck then it'll be buttery smooth again. Don't forget to replace the dust wipers...

[HammerHed]

 

The world cup Reba's (and all Reba's for that matter)' date=' Are affected by dirt getting into the dust wipers, if you do a lower end service and clean out all the muck then it'll be buttery smooth again. Don't forget to replace the dust wipers...[/quote']

 

Will all the bottoming out and topping out with no damping fluid on the 100k Crater Cruise have done damage inside?

 

[Johan Bornman]

The world cup Reba's (and all Reba's for that matter)' date=' Are affected by dirt getting into the dust wipers, if you do a lower end service and clean out all the muck then it'll be buttery smooth again. Don't forget to replace the dust wipers...[/quote']

Will all the bottoming out and topping out with no damping fluid on the 100k Crater Cruise have done damage inside?

 

It is highly unlikely that there's damage in there. The bottom-out bumpers are two robust rubber discs at the bottom of the two sliders and I've never seen any of these damaged by bottoming out.