randyjawa 

First, I rarely restore bicycles. I do, however, completely refurbish and tune an old bike, making it road worthy and safe to ride.

I did modify one mountain bike, years ago, installing a set of drop bars and road type tires. Rode it for a couple of days and then a fellow offered to buy it and my mountain bike days came to an abrupt halt. Anyway, my now gone Canadian made Rocky Mountain...


This year, after completing a refurbishment of a nice old seven speed Marinoni, I realized that I had no project of interest hanging in my man cave. Then, with-in a week, or two, three freebies came my way - a Trek Alpha SL 2200, a Specialized Sirrus and a found at the dump Devinci mountain bike. I had been looking for a mountain bike for a while now and this one fills the bill perfectly...



I don't know much about mountain bikes, particularly front suspension units. I cannot help but believe the fork on my Devinci will need attention and any advice regarding how to refurbish would be much appreciated. I did get an important piece of information, regarding the fork, but, try as I might, I cannot locate the post.

Ironfish653

Regarding your Front Suspension Unit; also commonly referred to as "Forks," like their rigid counterparts; it helps to know the Make and Model (and sometimes year) that you are dealing with, so that you know what types of internals it has (spring and damper type) and how it goes together.

Your unit appears to be a RockShox Jett 26" which RJ the Bike Guy has a teardown video. (Skimmed it, didn't watch the whole thing)
It seems to be a coil spring with an oil bath damper, which is pretty common for entry level fork from that era. Pretty basic internals, no special seals or cartridges; so if it currently goes up and down and isn't loose and rattling, it should respond well to a cleaning and re-lubrication shown in the video. No special tools, either, other than some extra -long hex drivers.

88ss

It is funny to see people restoring bikes from the year you bought a new one and never stopped riding and calling them "vintage". Manufacturers are so desperate to use the "new and improved" technique to market the 140 year-old safety bicycle that to some "vintage" is five yeas old or less.

markk900

Randy - I found a service manual online for most of the range of those forks including the Jett; DM me your email and I can send it to you (forum won’t let me attach it).

mixteup

I just finished cleaning up a basic Rock Shox fork, a bit older than yours - The kind with an "elastomer" spring.
It was pretty easy, and worked well after cleaning and fresh grease.

madpogue 

There was at least one safety recall on RockShox forks from 2001. I forget what years/models it covered, but I got a Judy fork from 2001 replaced free with a pretty nice upgrade. RockShox is now part of SRAM, and since it's a mandatory safety recall, they should still honor it (I got mine replaced in 2019/2020). SRAM even covered the shipping both ways; I just had to do it through a local bike shop.

randyjawa 

Great advice folks and I am grateful. I have been doing my research and, to me, a fork rebuild looks to be an easy task for me to complete next Spring. Will update on the bike when I am finished and have had a chance to ride it for a while. At the moment and after a couple of test rides, I can honestly say that the bike rides like a tractor. Of course, I am accustomed to vintage road bikes, most of which come in at less that 23 pounds. Anyway, thanks all.