FOX Forks on the Continental Divide?

[lassevir]

I recently have been told that Fox (although great forks) has a  manufacturer recommended service time of only 30-50 hours of riding.  Naturally tackling the divide will put you in the saddle way more than that.

My question is if anyone has done any epic race (more than 50 hours) with a Fox Fork and whether or not it held up well for the duration?

[harryonaspot]

I have owned several Fox forks. I nor anyone I know has serviced their forks more than once a year. Many folks go way longer, although that is pushing things. I think fox says that to cover their ass. The oil stays clean way longer.

[lassevir]

What about the seals?  That is what I have been told will be a problem.  Have you done any epic rides or marathon races with one?

[Yogi the Barry]

My 3-cents on Fox forks, from owning two 32 mm Floats over about 8 years in mostly dry/dusty, not muddy, conditions...
I never got more than about 8-10 months of service life out of the Fox fork seals before they started leaking. BTW, I wipe my stanchion tubes down almost ever ride, dab on either pure carnuba wax [not a cleaner wax] or stanchion lube every month or two and do a full rebuild once a year. Switched to using Enduro seals [no, I'm not affiliated with Enduro] and could make it to the annual rebuild before they started leaking. However, as with all with gear recommendations, YMMV.  http://www.enduroforkseals.com/

[Yogi the Barry]

Part-II on my experience with Fox Float 32mm forks [F100 RL and RLC]

I've had two internal self-destruct issues with these forks.
1] Plastic collar which supports the top-out [negative] spring broke. I was lucky that nothing scratched the inner air sealing surface of the stanchion tube. New air spring assembly required to fix.
2] Top-out [negative] spring fractured in half. If you contact Fox on this issue, they will blame high air pressure on overloading the top out spring. I put the blame on Fox poorly sourcing a spring [low quality steel and/or poor heat treatment]. Think about how many times an automobile engine valve spring is flexed, compared to a spring in a bicycle fork. I was even more lucky the jagged ends of the fractured spring didn't scratch the stanchion tube inner wall. The fix? Bought a bag o' springs from McMaster Carr for less than the cost one replacement air spring assembly from Fox. McMaster Carr's [wee bit longer and softer] spring was a very close replacement.

Probably bad luck and a knee jerk reaction to the above mentioned issues and short seal lifetime, but all the forks in our Garage are now Rock Shox. Only Fox items I currently own are a nice fitting pair of full finger gloves and the RP23 shock on my Ibis Mojo.

-Barry

EDIT/DISCLAIMER - I have never ridden the Tour Divide/CD and will probably never get around to doing so in this lifetime. So, I'm not trying to give the impression that I'm a CD guru.

[nick]

Quick lower maintenance re-lube every six months. Full cartridge rebuild every year.