1997 Judy DH Restore - Picture Heavy!

Nem

Dirt Disciple
I've recently done a lot of work bringing my 1997 Zaskar up to scratch after not having ridden it for maybe 10 years. My brother also had a 1996 GT Backwoods which has also not been used for the same amount of time and I decided I could have a bash at this too,

It had fitted a pair of RS Indy XC's which we'd fitted some sort of spring / damper unit but they were a lightweight set and now far too soft for my brother to ride. So we ended up finding a set of '97 Judy DH's on eBay which seemed pretty reasonable and these became my first job to strip, clean and rebuild.

I've taken photos along the way, not sure if they will be of use to anyone but either way I've enjoyed getting them back looking and working great again.

So, as they came after winning the auction. Dirty seals, and a lot of chunks out of the decals. Also some masking tape and other stickers on the rear which look like they were added to stop the original decals coming off.

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They seemed to only have about 10 - 20mm of travel at best. It seems this was solely from the top springs as the elastomers were totally shot.

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Other than this tho, the condition inside was actually very good. Very little wear on the stanchons / cartridge legs etc etc.

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Most of the inner parts stripped and to be cleaned up.

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So I set about removing all of the old decals / stickers to see how bad the paint was, which to my surprise actually looked very good indeed. Seems the decals were actually the only parts with the knocks and chunks missing.

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I managed to save one of the decals whole. This was then placed inside a clear food bag and scanned for tracing on the PC as a basis for the new decals.

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Stripped down the damping cartridges and cleaned then up. Was hardly any oil left inside them also so were definitely in need of a service.

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From here it was a case of refilling and assembling the damping cartridges. Then fitting the new top seals, the newer samurai seals so they can run without the dust boots, and basically grease up and fully reassemble. We've changed the spring / elastomer stack for a set of medium weight springs which should suit my brother perfectly.

The new decals were completed on the PC and printed out on glossy white vinyl, cut out and applied to the forks. Not done any decals before myself so not sure how long this method of print will last.

So the finished product back on the bike...

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Really pleased with the result both the look and how the forks now work. Just need to get the rest of his bike done now so we can get out on them again :)

Nick
 
They look great!

Where did you get the samurai seals from? I'm going to be doing the same thing with some '96 Judy SLs and I want to lose the rubber gaitors!
 
Links to places you bought things would be great as well.

Wouldn't mind the SL version of that decal at some point also. Mine are glued back on at the moment.
 
That looks sweet.

Love the backwoods. Was the first bike I purchased myself what a job you've done on yours!

Nice work :D
 
Barneyballbags":ny2zx235 said:
They look great!

Where did you get the samurai seals from? I'm going to be doing the same thing with some '96 Judy SLs and I want to lose the rubber gaitors!

First set I bought were for my XC which were from Chain reaction:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... delID=2995

But I've found them cheaper on eBay for this build:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rock-Shox-28mm-Fo ... _500wt_922

I know they are for the slightly newer fork models but they are still 28mm fitment so I gave then a shot and they fit fine. I did leave out the 9mm (ish) plastic spacer which sits just under the seal as the new seals don't fit all the way in otherwise, and I couldn't see it made much difference anyway with it left out.
 
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FluffyChicken":btfinhy0 said:
Links to places you bought things would be great as well.

Wouldn't mind the SL version of that decal at some point also. Mine are glued back on at the moment.

Added the links for the seals now.

The springs were actually out of my XC's as I needed firmer weight ones which I finally found and modified to fit. So the springs were already ready to fit.

The decals as I said were printed at home on a standard Canon photo printer using this 'paper':

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inkjet-Creative ... 153&sr=8-1

I just cut them out by hand and they look very good. I had to use a black marker to run around the cut edge so the edges didn't look like they had a white border just to finish them off.

I'm not sure how long they will last tho, I read somewhere that the ink in home printers is no UV stable and so the colours will fade quite quickly in the sun. But I tried one under water and it seemed fine. So even if I need to print off a new set every season it's no problem.

As for the decal file, no problem at all. What colour combination do you need for the SL's, is it the black background with the yellow outline?
 
coomber":2g36hkf8 said:
That looks sweet.

Love the backwoods. Was the first bike I purchased myself what a job you've done on yours!

Nice work :D

Thanks! As I said tho it's my brothers bike I just decided to have a tinker with it after finishing sorting mine out. This backwoods I think is a 14.5" frame so it's a bit too small for me. Also needs a lot more work yet, certainly needs a full polish as the ball burnish (if it actually is that finish?) has gone dull but I tested with some autosol on part of the top tube and it came up lovely :)

Also the Maugras were never set up right in the first place so they need sorting out, and the gear cable outer for the rear mech is all split and needs replacing.

Other than that it just needs a good clean and regrease before it's all done. We've already put a new handle bar and stem on it. The steerer on the new DH fork was too short so by leaving off the top headset spacer and going for a slimmer fit stem the top tube is now only 2mm below the headset top cap which I thought would be fine.

I'll post up some pictures of the finished bike when it's all completed tho anyway. Along with some final shots of my Zaskar too :)
 
Yeah looks quite small, mine was a 16" GT size which is more like an 18" but was too small. Only just sold mine on and regretting it now :LOL:

Mine had become dull as well, but like you say you just need to put some work in on the Autosol! Something to do over Christmas :LOL:

The maguras go well with it so I would stick with them if that's what your bro decides. They are super brakes.

2mm below headset top cap is spot on. No worries on that front.
 
Rock Shox graphics

You did a great job on this bike!
I am restoring my old gt avalanche, which has a 1997 Judy dh fork. Could you perhaps send me by e-mail the decals graphics you used for your forks?
 
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