julric01

Just purchased a 2021 Roubaix Expert about 3 weeks ago.

I went for a bike fitting last week and it was recommended that I swap out for a smaller hover bar and different stem - all good so far - got the parts and took the bike in yesterday, picked it up today. Should have been a simple job, swap out the handlebar and stem.

Got home and looked a little closer and noticed the Future Shock adjustment knob seemed loose - then I noticed the entire knob now comes off - the plastic knob along with the metal part that fits inside the plastic knob now lifts off. Further it turns out when I put it back on and turn to loosen the tension, the long pin that fits down inside keeps turning and now will also come apart.

I would post pix, but the site won't let me since I'm new

So what the heck did they do? Is this repairable or am I now going to have to replace the entire FS 2.0 cylinder? I'm going to take it in to a Specialized dealer tomorrow, but thought I'd see if you guys have any thoughts.

Help!

Badger6

Swapping stems on the FS2.0 requires removal of the knob, you've described. Are you sure it is broken, and simply not re-installed properly? When it is installed, there is a set screw that must be turned with a 1.5mm Allen key and tightened to 2Nm (18in-lbf). Check that first, you may be fine, they simply didn't tighten it correctly.

julric01

Yeah, it's certainly broken. I know about the set screw - it's still there, but the metal piece that the plastic knob and set screw attach to comes off and it's inside the plastic knob. From what I can tell it looks like the guy basically just unscrewed the whole knob (counterclockwise) like it was a normal stem cap, which then broke the clip that held it together. It now just spins freely and comes off - it's supposed to have clicks or notches as you turn and adjust. I still can't post links, but i you add "https" in front of this, maybe you can see what I mean - //imgur.com/a/PKvZio5

It will likely have to be replaced - I'm most upset that they basically broke my less than one month old bike.

Badger6

I've got bad news for you...when the set screw is loosened, the cap slips right off, and there is no metal piece inside the cap. I haven't done any disassembly beyond taking the cap off (in preparation for also charing my stem and bars this week). What I'm wondering is what the top of your FS cartridge looks like? Because that piece inside the rotary knob appears to be the top of the FS Cartridge.

Based on your post, it would appear that the fitting work was done at a shop that is not a Specialized dealer. Is that correct? I'd notify them Monday morning that it appears that their mechanic and/or fitter may have damaged the FS cartridge when they swapped the stems. They'll likely hem, haw, and deny....whatever. Then take the bike to a Specialized dealer, get it diagnosed. If there are costs to you associated with the repair/replacement of the cartridge, I hope the shop that did this will stand behind their work and reimburse any costs they've caused you.

I'm sorry for you, man, this sucks. The upside is that this is fixable...but, now it's a potential ball ache to get it rideable again.

julric01

Yep, that metal knob is the top of the FS Cartridge - totally what that piece is - and it should be attached to the cartridge, not coming apart like it does now. The shop that did the work seems pretty up and up and high end, so we'll see how they handle this. At the end of the day as long as I can get it fixed, even if I'm out some cash, it shouldn't be too costly. I just hope they can get the parts fairly quick - everything seems to be in such short supply!

Badger6

Good luck with the shop, if they are as you describe, I am sure they will make this right for you. Also, unlike a Shimano or SRAM bit that is in demand on every bike, this is proprietary and fits only a few specific bikes, I'd bet Specialized has spares. Good luck!

julric01

so I went to the local Specialized shop, as expected the whole cartridge needs to be replaced. They’re sort of freaking me out, said they’ll have to call tomorrow to see if they have it and the one tech said oh that’s going to be very expensive! I said it shouldn’t be over a few hundred max, I believe Specialized recommends having it replaced every 500 hours, so l’ll be hacked if that’s expected to be a $500+ repair every year.
Again, seems pretty fragile in the end.

Troul 

I'd have to get a lot of miles in before the bicycle is perm retired at the time it reaches 500 hours. How fast would the average mph need to be to achieve 30,000 miles in 5 years when only riding 3 days a week? lol

Andrew R Stewart 

Back in the day of dawning suspension manufactures had maintenance schedules based on hours of use, often only 50 to 100. Ride your bike three days a week for a couple of hours each time and that's 8 to 17 weeks of use, a short part of a season in many locals. Of course most every buyer didn't read this part of the manual and never did this maintenance until it became a repair lever job. (and by then with the rapid pace of suspension development often replaced the fork anyway).

If the current fork has a 500 hour maintenance interval I consider that really good. 500 hours divided by that same 6 hours a week and you have what is reasonably 2 years of use, in mots locals, between service. Andy

Troul 

imagine if vehicles never improved upon the suspension design from the 50s & 60s. Ball joint life would be about an oil change internal nowadays. I still think bicycle suspension forks should not be so craptastic nor cost so much for the "upgrade". Especially the split suspension forks. They way as much as a 1950s Buick.

Ironfish653

You obviously don’t mess around with high performance equipment much. There’s a whole spectrum of cost/ durability/ performance to pick from.
Stuff designed to be low cost, and durable isn’t really high performance.
On the flip side, really high performance (ie; “Race” level) typically is both expensive, and requires regular service to keep operating at that level.

The FutureShock is more on the performance end of things. If you want super low maintenance, get a Redshift.

You want high performance, and extreme durability? It’s going to be really, really expensive;

Troul 

You are assuming wrong.
My ref is IAW OEM provided products. If I had to immediately go out & upgrade to an aftermarket product, knowingly the OEM item is majorly flawed before riding it, I'd go to a different OEM entirely.

Andrew R Stewart 

Low cost, light weight, strong. Pick two. Or, maybe, for suspension- affordable, light weight and maintenance "free". Andy

Troul 

Light weight & maintenance - "free" is my pick for an OEM suspension fork.

Ironfish653

How is it ‘majorly flawed?’ Because it has a service interval? Making a sophisticated lightweight, responsive bike suspension system *for a reasonable cost* is going to require giving up something somewhere.
If you want it to be ‘eternally maintenance-free’ it’s either going to be super-basic, or super-expensive.

I would posit that, if you want light weight, high performance, then increased maintenance is going to be the cost.

If you want to compare industries, I’m in deepwater oil production. The equipment out here is massively strong, massively expensive, and absolutely cannot fail. Each campaign requires hundreds of hours of testing and preventative maintenance before any asset goes in the water. The main seals on the docking collar are $10k, 100 lb Inconel rings that are good for exactly one use.

So, a once-a-year service on your bikes’ suspension doesn’t seem too unreasonable

Troul 

The cost is small fish to the bigger catch of planned obsolescence & inconveniences . You probably could buy the inconel rings for that very low rate production machine 10 years after the production ceased. Not likely to be the case for the average suspension fork equipped bicycle. I couldn't even buy my exact color fork 1 year after a new bicycle purchase, nor could I obtain the OEM parts to refurb the old one. Much rather have paid more upfront to not need to service nor deal with those headaches.

Atlas Shrugged

That 500 hour recommendation is a bit of an urban myth. I had put much more than that on my 1st bike with a future shock and was working great with no signs of wear before I upgraded to a 2.0 version on my S Works Roubaix. The upgrade cost was nominal.

Ironfish653

Agreed. It looks like the FS is coil-sprung w/ an oil damper. Rolling on needle bearings (like the old Headshok) it doesn’t have the friction of wiper seals like a telescopic fork, do there doesn’t appear to be much to wear out.

Ironfish653

Was this the fork you were upset that you couldn’t find in a 3-year-old NOS TREK blue paint scheme, even though the same low-end hybrid fork was still in production, just in the OE Suntour black?

A lot of budget hybrid forks are actually less expensive to swap out than to rebuild. The rebuild parts can be found, but there’s not much performance in rebuilding a basic fork like that.
Frankly, with 1-1/8 threadless being pretty much standard, changing a fork is a lot easier than it used to be when cutting and threading was required.

If you are going to select an integrated system, like FS, or Headshok, then the possibility of limited support in the future is the cost of doing business.

jimsforest

I know this was a few months ago, but this is fixable without a replacement cartridge. Check out the "the bike sauce" video on youtube (search for future shock repair 2.0, I am unable to post the link). Assuming this is the issue, as long as you retained parts you are good. Basically the top is held on by a retaining internal c-clip, then then hex adjustment knob connects to the coupler. In my case this worked, but much like the video I cannot locate the adjustment ball (must look like BB's, assuming there are two) and Specialized doesn't sell them. Still looking, but in the meantime it turns w/o the "click".

Badger6

Good find! Yeah, I believe the OPs problem was exactly as Sauce described, someone prised the adjustment knob off, thus popping the circlip out, and then it went missing. Regardless, since it is not intended to be a dealer or user serviceable piece, until Sauce did this video, I doubt many folks even attempted to figure out how to do assembly of the units. They are intended to be replaced as an assembly with only the adjustment knob being removable. As for an infinite, no click adjustment, lucky you…I wish mine was like that. Also, the 500 hour service interval seems a myth. Mine has 15,000kms on it and it still works like it is new (I did have to replace the boot when I tore it in the woods in the spring). But, a buddy of mine who bike packs and keeps his bike continually set up for bike packing with lots of stuff attached to his bars all the time had to have his replaced with about 7500kms on…I’m guessing all the xtra weight of things strapped to the bars ruined his FS.

julric01

Hahahaha - thanks - I had to reply So the bike shop ended up paying for the repair on my bike and that left me with the broken parts - I had reached out to the guy at The Bike Sauce originally to see if he knew anything about how to possibly repair the 2.0 (I think he had a tear down of the 1.5 version or something) - in any case he asked for my broken parts, which I sent to him and he figured out how to "repair" it although without the clicks.

So long story short - the cartridge you see in the video is actually my broken cartridge! Small world and all.....