Mountain Biking - Help with Rock Shox Duke Race, please

Hi,

I'm slowly building up a bike and the forks on it are ancient. A guy is selling some Duke Race (2003 he thinks) shocks that will fit for around $50. I'm going to go look at them tomorrow but I don't know what to look out for.

He's not the 1st owner and has only ridden them about 70 miles, he sayshe took them to a bike shop, they did a look-see and said they need new seals which are like $15.

What can I look for, how can I test them to check that they're OK? What could potentially be wrong with them? Like, how do forks like that get busted, I guess? Also, I don't know anything about maintaining them, I'd need to buy a pump, right? What else?

Assuming they look fine on the outside, what could be wrong with them that wouldn't be too far-fetched? If they needed a complete rebuild, would that be possible still and how much would something like that cost?

Lots of questions, i know, I just seriously know nothing about shocks. Thanks.

hey, tim. There really isn't a whole lot to Duke forks. read this service guide:

http://www.sram.com/_media/techdocs/05DukeXCSLRaceService.pdf

also, go ahead and order a pair of enduro fork wipers and oil seals to replace the crappy rockshox one piece units.

www.enduroforkseals.com

really, all the rest of the internal seals are just orings that can be found with quality replacements from your local hardware store. Motorcycle fork oil (go at least 10wt with the Duke!!! NOT 7) is about 5 bucks a quart from your local speed shop.

So about 50 for the fork, 50 in parts, and 2 hours of learning time tearing apart the fork yourself, and you'll have a nice fork that will last a loooong time, assuming there is no major internal damage. Look out for cracks or fork dropouts that don't align well on a hub.

Great, thanks a lot. Just the sort of advice I needed.

Hey great link. I have a Duke on my bike as well.

Well, someone offered him $80 so our arrangement, for me to come get them this evening, has fell through. Sure, I was the first guy to contact him and arrange a meeting, and sure he advertised them for $55, but I can't exactly call the BBB, can I? I could have snagged them last night but I wanted to get some info before I went out there. Stupid kismet. The forks I have are old enough to have a cantilever cable hanger on them.

hehe, you're just in Luck. I may be selling my Duke here in the next week or so. It needs the TLC as noted above (old seals, old oil), but structurally everything is sound. I'm just moving up to a longer travel fork.

As far as the pdf goes, if you dig really really deep into the rockshox/sram site, you can find the dealer service manual which is about 30 pages and extraordinarily detailed.

This thread fuggin rocks. My duke needs a rebuild and this is just the info I was needing. Thanks AfterThisNap for the info.

I've got an '01 Psylo with a 20mm thru axle I need to unload.

I've also got a wheel for it.

Not as cheap as the duke, but a good price.

Click my link below.

Thanks to this thread I just rebuilt my first Mountain bike fork and it was fairly simple besides cleaning up the mess I made...LOL

Test ride results.

The new 0-rings, enduro fork seals and Amsoil sythetic fork oil made the newly rebuilt fork work better than ever. I put in about 8 miles tonight and it worked great on the singletrack I was riding full of roots and washed out areas. The rebuild was definitly a learning experience and the next time it will go much smoother and faster now that I know what I"m doing.

Anybody needing a duke rebuilt, let me know I'll do it cheap and use some of the best fork oil made..:D