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In last winter's major overhaul of the beloved 11s I had the scabby alloy fork stanchions powder-coated, and the fork seals and oil replaced on reassembly. Since then when I get on and off the bike, I have sometimes noticed s-ti-c-ky-ne-s-s in the extension of the forks. Curious methinks, but not a biggie.

However, now have done around 11,000 miles since rebuild, and I've begun to feel this whilst riding the bike too; and see a broze or rust-coloured deposit on the chrome tubes above the seals...HMM this could be a problem if it loses me front end grip and feel (er, what feel?).

SUGGESTIONS PLEASE - found this old thread http://bit.ly/ZrjgTb but saw no answers there...

NB Front axle, spindle clamps etc all checked; both front balljoints were replaced last year (expensive but had to be done!). The WP shox at both ends have been refurbed again and suspension bushes checked and greased, so they're not likely to be part of the problem, either.

there's not much in there that could be rusting - the likely candidate is the bronze bushes, but there's nooooo waaaay they should be doing that.

Strip and examine is my suggestion, sorry.

Like r550s says, there's not much in there to rust My guess would be incorrectly seated seals, possibly damaged, and the wire core has rusted,
If the stanchions were sticky, could the wrong size seals have been used
You might be lucky and just have to lift the dust covers to see what's up

Update on sticky forks...

Read back to 'r550S' post from 2004, and it dawned on me that at rebuild they were refilled with too little oil. Wizard wheeze - rather than remove forks -requiring new fork seals) I could whip off the air bleed screws and use a dipstick to check the oil level.
Straightened out one coat hanger, marked depth to reach approx 25 mm below the oil seal and in 2 minutes Yep, confirmed that at least the top bushes have been running low on lubrication.

Also that as my 2002 bike does not have the plastic tube inserts to reduce oil volume, so they need 490 ml each, not 170.

Small bore pipe, funnel and syringe made adding around 180 ml each leg possible, and after bouncing the front a few times held it down whilst refitting the air bleeders...and hey presto the fork action is already smoother.

Will road test this week and see how it feels...

Cured is it, Young Skywalker.

That's all it was, low oil level in later type forks. When I got off the bike the forks would appear to bind in small steps, which was down to their not getting enough lube at the top of their travel.

Normal service, smooth travel, and better feel restored.