Dyerseve726

I work at the UPS store and have a large mountain bike shipping out. The bike is just barely too tall in the front. The stem is probably 1/2" too high to fit in the box. This bike is fitted with shocks on the front fork, I'm assuming they are filled with air? I ride a road bike, so I'm not familiar with the mechanics of shocks, is there anyway to release the pressure in order to shorten the front fork for shipping?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

BCRider

Some use air and some springs and some a combo of both. If you only need to get yourself a 1/2 inch I'd take the stem right off or take it off and flip it over to get what you need. The only other option is to strap the forks to compress them a little.

Luke52

If you're really desperate, and it's an air fork, just let the air out of it by depressing the valve. It's a schrader valve, like car tyres, so you just need to press down the little bit in the centre of the valve stem.

If it's a coil-sprung fork, you can take off the top-cap and remove the spring to squash it all down. But these should be your last resorts.

dabac

I'd start with letting the air out of the tire, that should easily give you more than 1/2". Otherwise the "sag", the compression a fork sees under rider stationary weight should also be more than 1/2", so leaning on the bars and blocking the fork in this position with a strap or something should also do the trick - with no risk to the bike.