I am working my way toward mountain biking. I have purchased a '90s era Stumpjumper FS to begin my experiments with biking in nature. Here is a photo:
So I buy the bike, knowing the front suspension has sad, sluggish rebound, and then realize that beyond that, the weight of my body (175 pounds) is enough to practically bottom the thing out. So first priority is fixing the suspension. The rest of the bike is in great condition, and this is a Learning Opportunity.
The fork on the Stumpy is a Specialized Futureshock. My knowledge of mechanics ends at suspension, so I did some internet searching, actually quite a lot, and found little information of use. Oddly, I could not find a way to tell if this was a coil or and air fork. I couldn't find any information at all about this particular model, so obviously I had to open it up. Sorted through some videos online taking apart various models of forks, and dived in. Screwdriver bolt on the adjusting knob only moves the knob. Beneath the knob is a hexagonal thing for a box wrench. So I went to town on that and lo and behold, this cylindrical thing pops out, oozing oil as it does so. There was trapped air in there, though not much, which burped out too.
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| Here is the crown of the fork. I've already loosened the cylinder that holds the adjustment knob on. |
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| This is the cylindrical thing. On the inside there is a barrel with a a hexagonal allen-type inner contour. |
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| I can't see too far in there. But I can tell that allen-stick goes inside the barrel in the cylindrical thing and somehow that controls the preload or damping. Crap, I don't know enough about these things. All I know is that I don't see a coil in there. There is liquid. It kind of looks like a sewer in there actually. |
This is as far as I've gotten for now. My explorations will have to continue on another day. This is Stage One of my Specialized Futureshock disassembly/repair/reassembly mission. Over.
