Originally Posted by
steve_cay
How do y'all lubricate the fork on our bikes? The Suntour manual sais to wipe stanchions with an oily cloth after every ride. The RST manual says to apply grease to stanchions every 10h of use. Neither specify what type of oil or grease. Reading up generically for bike shocks, there is a lot of "don't use grease containing lithium", "don't use typical grease that attracts dirt", "do not use anything with solvents", etc or your seals will be ruined prematurely. YouTube videos on the topic suggest "Fork Juice spray or oil", but that is not "grease" as specified in the RST manual.
Truthfully, with the caliber of forks on something like a DS (at least 8.4+), I do nothing.
If the wipers are doing their job, and they darn well should be, any thing you put on the staunchion wont penetrate any way (and may or may not attract dirt). The only thing I do is wipe any obvious dirt off the the stanchions with a dry cloth (and even then thats getting picky as the wipers tend to...well...wipe it and leave it gathered in a ring at the upper end of the travel where its not harming anything other than the looks). Disclaimer: I dont ride in mud/rain/etc. Our bikes' worst enemy is crusher dust (which is hell on chains, not so much forks).
EVENTUALLY the lub/grease embedded in the wipers will need freshening up, if not the wipers themselves, and perhaps after some years (depending on your riding) the insides could stand to be cleaned and re-greased, but thats a tear down rebuild sort of thing.
If you feel you must (this from the local Trek dealer), a drop, and I do mean a drop, of Teflon lube under the outer seal will keep things sliding and sealed well enough.