Came across a ‘97 Orange X1 Pro couple months back, decent order but needed a clean up. Ok little project. Burned off the stickers, removed adhesive & other sh**e, cleaned the mechanics, swapped out old brakes & grip shifters for integrated Shimano rapid-fire ones, tuned it up, nice new tyres, even found a dude to do the decals too. (Ignore the grips, they were cheap. I’ve already been royally ridiculed over them by proper MTB friends)
It feels pretty sweet to ride & I’ve been tear-arsing all over the shop on it, the shox worked but there was no discernible control for the front, top caps did zero. Can switch compression damping on the Xfusion, w. blue bar, but that’s the only control I could see that I had on either device. Should also explain BTW, I have zero experience servicing MTBs or indeed shock absorbers. Last time I rode one was 25yrs ago & they didn’t have shox then - not on the bikes most of us could afford at least.
So the stumbling block has come, unsurprisingly, with the shox: Judy DH up front, Xfusion O2 Pro on the rear (an older iteration of I assume as can’t find any user info for them anywhere). Covid boredom got the better of me & i wanted to find out if I could alter them to suit my own aged frame. Decided to take the Judy’s apart to see what state they were in, only to find..... they’d already been butchered, gutted, & had a couple of slightly-rusty-on-the-ends coil springs stuffed in instead. Apparently that’s something folk used to do with them for various reasons.
The compression cartridge appears to be a White Bros Hardbody 80mm bad boy (apparently they were good back in the day?), instead of the RockShox one. I’ve cleaned it but not got the innards out of the cartridge shaft as it seems pretty stuck & I don’t want to risk damaging it. However if anyone has experience with these & can explain how to do that & refill the cartridge with oil, it’d be appreciated.
I think I’ve pulled a dummy out of the right leg (rebound cartridge) so now it makes sense why neither of the top caps did anything when I turned them. There was only a dribble of oil from that leg. But I’m assuming a lot there, I don’t know the equipment so again if anyone recognises from any images what’s been done to these forks & how to put some life back into them it’d be appreciated. Should the right fork have oil in it .i.e. dump a load in the crown as I’ve seen them do on some forks? I’m not certain I’ve got a working mechanism in there, hence why I think it may be a dummy. Plus there no adjuster thread in the end, it’s just a metal bar with a hole going through. The compression cartridge has the adjuster thread.
I’m keen to piece these forks back together to tide me over as it’s bloody good fun to ride, so I might syringe oil back down the adjuster rod & lube everything up before doing that. I’d rather use it if it’s still relatively ok rather than wait while I decide whether to try & make something out of these Judy’s or just keep them as is til I find suitable replacements (any recommendations? Just in case). Surely there’s a good compromise for repurposing old forks with 3rd-party innards?
I’ll attach some images below of before/after clean up of the frame & some of the shox in case anyone recognises them & can offer any advice to get them running/serviced or even update them in a cost-effective way perhaps. Thanks in advance
It feels pretty sweet to ride & I’ve been tear-arsing all over the shop on it, the shox worked but there was no discernible control for the front, top caps did zero. Can switch compression damping on the Xfusion, w. blue bar, but that’s the only control I could see that I had on either device. Should also explain BTW, I have zero experience servicing MTBs or indeed shock absorbers. Last time I rode one was 25yrs ago & they didn’t have shox then - not on the bikes most of us could afford at least.
So the stumbling block has come, unsurprisingly, with the shox: Judy DH up front, Xfusion O2 Pro on the rear (an older iteration of I assume as can’t find any user info for them anywhere). Covid boredom got the better of me & i wanted to find out if I could alter them to suit my own aged frame. Decided to take the Judy’s apart to see what state they were in, only to find..... they’d already been butchered, gutted, & had a couple of slightly-rusty-on-the-ends coil springs stuffed in instead. Apparently that’s something folk used to do with them for various reasons.
The compression cartridge appears to be a White Bros Hardbody 80mm bad boy (apparently they were good back in the day?), instead of the RockShox one. I’ve cleaned it but not got the innards out of the cartridge shaft as it seems pretty stuck & I don’t want to risk damaging it. However if anyone has experience with these & can explain how to do that & refill the cartridge with oil, it’d be appreciated.
I think I’ve pulled a dummy out of the right leg (rebound cartridge) so now it makes sense why neither of the top caps did anything when I turned them. There was only a dribble of oil from that leg. But I’m assuming a lot there, I don’t know the equipment so again if anyone recognises from any images what’s been done to these forks & how to put some life back into them it’d be appreciated. Should the right fork have oil in it .i.e. dump a load in the crown as I’ve seen them do on some forks? I’m not certain I’ve got a working mechanism in there, hence why I think it may be a dummy. Plus there no adjuster thread in the end, it’s just a metal bar with a hole going through. The compression cartridge has the adjuster thread.
I’m keen to piece these forks back together to tide me over as it’s bloody good fun to ride, so I might syringe oil back down the adjuster rod & lube everything up before doing that. I’d rather use it if it’s still relatively ok rather than wait while I decide whether to try & make something out of these Judy’s or just keep them as is til I find suitable replacements (any recommendations? Just in case). Surely there’s a good compromise for repurposing old forks with 3rd-party innards?
I’ll attach some images below of before/after clean up of the frame & some of the shox in case anyone recognises them & can offer any advice to get them running/serviced or even update them in a cost-effective way perhaps. Thanks in advance
Attachments
-
05F23FF2-D02E-4C11-B4C2-7D0D43801855.jpeg1.4 MB · Views: 857
-
88ACA666-E52A-4E1C-BC7C-FCB5B4412DE1.jpeg374.7 KB · Views: 855
-
297495CD-7A75-482E-BB38-14BC38C772C0.jpeg201.8 KB · Views: 853
-
38C4EA9C-E926-45F2-89E8-196F8B4D68B6.jpeg1.1 MB · Views: 855
-
B662D8B4-4D0B-43BB-A171-758F3B4D5504.jpeg1.7 MB · Views: 856
-
67645259-C7BD-4601-898E-2BA3C97EDE17.jpeg1.3 MB · Views: 856
-
E9CAB94C-B739-4213-BDD2-94D695EA4BD3.jpeg1.7 MB · Views: 854
-
FA9A4268-FF62-4B74-B311-08BF3E1E337D.jpeg508.7 KB · Views: 856