So I brought my bike in to the shop on Monday to get my new Michelin Pilot Street tires put on. Got a call yesterday that the bike is ready, BUT they found a problem...

Seems like one of my fork seals has been leaking and they discovered that when looking over the bike after putting on the new tires. So there goes $275 bucks out of my pocket for that... I wish I had the equipment and the comfort to replace them myself, but I prefer the professionals to handle a job of that nature.

On a positive note, they confirmed that my speedometer/odometer is not working because the speedo hub at the wheel is broken. So at least they were nice enough to check that for me. That is a job that I will handle myself.

Does anyone know where I can get a new speedo hub for a good price? Or would you just recommend getting a used one off eBay? Thanks

you didn't notice a bunch of oil running down your fork tubes and all over everything south of it?

Most leaky fork seals are just because there's a little dirt stuck in the lip. If you use a seal saver you can pull the dirt out($5 and no disassembly) and it'll probably re-seal just fine.

Oh and holy $hit $275 to replace an oil seal:eek: I'm pretty sure you can have Edd sorbo service and tune your whole front end for $300.

you didn't notice a bunch of oil running down your fork tubes and all over everything south of it?

it was not a crazy leak. it wasnt dripping all over the place. you could the oil sticking and clumping to the fork tubes all the way up. plus, since the previous owner took such bad care of the bike, the forks have a bit of rust in places, as well as spraypaint on the forks (i have no idea why spraypaint is on there). the shop said that with every compression of the fork, the fork seals are hitting the patches of minor rust, and spraypaint, and therefore it is acting like sand paper, slowly eating away at the seals.

so they are going to replace the fork oil, seals, and also try to remove that rust/spraypaint from the forks.

they recommend changing the fork oil every two years, but i guarantee it has not been changed since the bike was purchased. they say most people just wait until the seals leak and then they replace the fork oil

it was not a crazy leak. it wasnt dripping all over the place. you could the oil sticking and clumping to the fork tubes all the way up. plus, since the previous owner took such bad care of the bike, the forks have a bit of rust in places, as well as spraypaint on the forks (i have no idea why spraypaint is on there). the shop said that with every compression of the fork, the fork seals are hitting the patches of minor rust, and spraypaint, and therefore it is acting like sand paper, slowly eating away at the seals.

so they are going to replace the fork oil, seals, and also try to remove that rust/spraypaint from the forks.

so you did notice, just didn't care

Oh and holy $hit $275 to replace an oil seal:eek: I'm pretty sure you can have Edd sorbo service and tune your whole front end for $300.

yeah man, you are telling me. crazy expensive.

i sure hope the shop isnt trying to pull a fast one on me. i never completely trust mechanics. it is so easy for them to make some **** up and say there is a problem, when in reality there is no problem at all...

so you did notice, just didn't care

no i never noticed it at all. i didnt see that on the forks until i went to the shop yesterday to look at it and they showed me the oil way up on the forks.

main thing that pissed me off though was the guy working the desk at the shop that told me about the problem, was really short with me when I asked questions. He acted like I should know all about this stuff. Perhaps he just wanted to go home, because it was the end of the day, but still, I am a paying customer, treat me like one and help me understand what I am about to give you $275 to repair.

yeah wow that is a rip of a price .... ouch

like others have said, you can generally take your fork tubes off drop them off at a suspension shop and they will do a complete rebuild and tune for a little more than you are paying for this shop to fix a few things.