KYB seals and bushings in 48 mm Zokes FYI

[Cberg]

Just serviced my 48mm marrazochi forks and the tech used KYB bushings and seals. He said both the seals and bushings fit slightly tighter than the marrazochi parts.

[GMP]

Tighter as in press fit with the upper, or tighter as in stiction with the lower? So far what has been said is that there is less stiction with the KYB stuff. All the Zoke 45s I've done with OEM stuff had tight fits of the seals in the uppers, much tighter than WPs or KYBs.

[Cberg]

The tech had both seals, he said the KGB would work better so I would say it was a better fit on both the upper and lower legs.

[Cberg]

Maybe it had a little to do with the fork leg that had a small dent in it which he got straightened within 0.1 mm of spec.

[GMP]

Well yeah, that will make a big difference! Zoke seals are a tight fit in good Zoke tubes.

[Cberg]

I'm just passing my experience on. Considering the tech had both seals and wouldn't have used the KYB's if they were a sloppy fit on either fork legs, it may help guys out.

[GMP]

Thank you for that. Did the edge of the upper tube get dinged on a rock? Being there are relatively few of these forks around a bit more protection there, like the plastic wear collars on the 45s, would be a good idea.

[Cberg]

The only thing I can recall doing is one hill climb I did at the top there was about a 10' straight up rock face I had to get over and ran out of momentum about 1/2 way up the face and instead of the bike flipping over on top of me I did the old wick of the throttle and let go of the bike to get it over the top . Well it made it over the top but fell into a pole on that side. Funny thing is though the seal didn't start leaking until probably 10 or 12 rides later?? and that is when I noticed the small dent on the fork tube . It had me baffled since I haven't had any real go downs besides low speed fall overs so I'm thinking that must have been when it happened. Still has me thinking??

I agree it would be nice to have some kind of protection. I was a little worried about the fork and was starting to look around for a outer tube but when I talked with the suspension guy he said he has straightened out some pretty mangled fork tubes and mine was pretty minor.