my super smart app let me know that i had reached 50 hours on my favourite vivid shock and it was time for an air can service. in case you don’t know: most suspension components require a simple service, usually new wipers and foam rings in the forks and air can seals in the shocks, every 50 hours and a full service including the damper every 100 hours or so.
for the forks and normal shocks that’s probably fine, but the vivid is a bit different. it is impossible to service the air piston without disassembling the entire unit.
as a result the work is the same, although i fudged it a bit and did not remove the piggyback cylinder and the internal floating piston (that’s really what ut us called).
it didn’t really matter, i didn’t have the spares for it anyway as part of the smaller service kit. so essentially the work is the same except you can’t replace all the seals. not sure how that makes sense. i think from now on i’d rather just do the full service.
there was one thing, though. the main piston appeared to be a little tight on the shaft due to air trapped between the seals. it’s all good now, though. my second time servicing a vivid air! i love that shock.
and i actually do enjoy the work, too. it’s rewarding. but doing half the job feels silly. let’s not do that again.