Mountain Biking - Shock Rubber 'dongles'

I was just wondering, My bike came with shocks on the forks, and they are covered with the rubber protective things, but as seen in many mtb vids, they are removed :S ..

What are the purpose of these rubber dongles, and why do people remove them?

(PS: They do look alot better without them, but im sue theres some dangers.)

I was just wondering, My bike came with shocks on the forks, and they are covered with the rubber protective things, but as seen in many mtb vids, they are removed :S ..

What are the purpose of these rubber dongles, and why do people remove them?

(PS: They do look alot better without them, but im sue theres some dangers.)
They're called "Boots" In the videos the people are using forks that have seals good enough to keep crud out of the internals. Forks that come with the boots do NOT have seals good enough to be run without them.

The boots tend to be on cheaper forks, and from past experience with a pair of Rock Shox Judy Cs (1999) the rubber wears out pretty quick (it goes baggy where it should fit snug) and crud starts to get into the fork internals anyway. Once this happens there's nothing to be lost by just cutting the rubber away and servicing the fork on regular intervals. I replaced my Rock Shox after a year, but the rubber was wrecked before then anyway.

The boots tend to be on cheaper forks, and from past experience with a pair of Rock Shox Judy Cs (1999) the rubber wears out pretty quick (it goes baggy where it should fit snug) and crud starts to get into the fork internals anyway. Once this happens there's nothing to be lost by just cutting the rubber away and servicing the fork on regular intervals. I replaced my Rock Shox after a year, but the rubber was wrecked before then anyway.
I've got a Jett C from '99 and the boots are fine <shrug>

Good for you! Mine however didn't last.

if you cut off the boots that yo hae on your shocks, it looks cool but rust then builds in your fork until its like riding a rigid fork... :eek:

are you george?

I have a Rock Shox Judy XC (carbon legs) on my 95 Attitude and the boots are fine. One alternative, should the boot loose its ability to stay snug, put some zip ties on each end to hold it in place. Obviously, YMMV.