How FOX are making shock servicing more accessible

We spent a whole day with the technicians from Fox learning best practices in servicing their rear shocks like the DPX, X2 and DH2 etc. We talk tools, nitrogen charging, Andreani Fill Machines and how to really inspect the internals.

Jake and I discuss what we learnt from our time with the Fox technicians, while showing you some great close ups of the service work

@FOXFACTORY

The five hour drive through a storm into a hotel in South Wales, cause we’re off to Fox today to go and get some staff training. I’m but there is every single bit of variation for here. We have enough chassis all the way down to like, you know,

The rake, the color and the so much now offset. So yeah, that’s why, you know, reps come out and say you’ve got to put some orders down. Right. Yeah. But what, what, what do I order. What do I hold in stock. It’s impossible to go into sixes here, but there’s probably

About ten different variations, 36 inch wheels, all these travel and it’s really hard to say, Yeah, we’re fox dealer, because where do you start exactly? Doesn’t matter what you order would be the right thing to you so you’ve got lathe you’ve got to leave in the machine.

Don’t use as much as we once did just what we need, but it’s very weighted. We’ve got a like we’ve got a load coming off. We actually we’ve got a little Yeah. My daddy, my dad’s many ladies come into the shop. So, yeah, we are just back from Forks down near Newport

And it was a bit too loud of stuff to record everything now. So I’m going to sit down and have a chat or review it in our own mind what we learned and what the purpose was and try and talk you guys through what we actually did when we got there.

So excited for me because Forks have not offered training in for a long, long time. I’ve never been in a formal Fox Training day. And you’ve only taught been taught suspension from what you’ve done in your apprenticeship with us. So for me it was a chance to go and put faces to names

And also to make sure that we’ve been doing things correctly. More to the point, and I think the team down there were excellent one. They like it was bigger. I think there was more people working there than I kind of expected as well. Interested as I had, what, six days?

I think that might eight days actually. There’s about six people working there at the time and doing various different for me, one of the the pros and cons between Rockshox, I represent him and, and Fox is always rockshox as much easier to service. You know you don’t need

As many specialist tools and sector or you don’t need nitrogen, etc. whereas Fox is potentially higher quality and better performance. But if you can’t service them as frequently, then you don’t get the benefit of that extra performance. So they need service centers like this which can get their folks performing.

When I first left, go see Fox. What was your like thing that you’re looking forward to? Yeah, I was pretty keen because, yeah, as you said, I’ve not really done any like proper suspension work. I’ve done lower legs and outcomes and I’ve taken a couple of downforce

Parts and forks and stuff like that, but I’ve never done anything seriously in that sense. Always just been follow the instructions and kind of guess, kind of essentially guess what I’m doing. Yeah, that can be a little bit scary when you kind of work on a list of stuff

That’s very, very expensive and pretty delicate at some of the times as well. Yeah. And it’s like so I was quite excited, even if it’s just just to go watch how someone else does it and see. All right. Actually, yet this is fine what I’ve been doing

And it’s like, yeah, actually have a bit more confidence in following the instructions because you can see you can see exactly what they’re doing and like working out essentially. Yeah. How you can, Yeah. How you can treat this sort of stuff. And yeah, the instructions are really good,

But some things are a little bit vague, especially relating to the nitrogen charge it and the fill machines. So when we, when they ask what do we particularly want to learn, you know what, we’re pretty confident with forks here. We do forks day in, day out and rockshox shocks.

We do Fox Shocks here as well, be doing them for a long, long time. But there’s always been a little bit of that in my mind. I just want to take my time, make sure everything was right and you’d never really worked on a fox.

So we used to have it taking a further pilot in that concept. Yeah. So we really, really, really wanted to concentrate on shocks. check in that we’re doing everything right. So and we weren’t actually. So that was one thing that was really bothering me actually.

A customer actually had one of these a a Fox Fox DPS. I probably serviced several dozens of these in my time. And this one that I was working on just just wasn’t wasn’t working as hard. You know what, I’ve going down to FOX, I’m going to ask them help.

Like, what have I missed? And I was expecting them to find something. So I was really keen to see how they inspect things. What am I missing potentially in the inspection? So I asked them, particularly when you take a shot apart, show me exactly what you’re inspecting,

What you’re looking for, and what have I missed? And you know what I think we’re probably just as fastidious as they are, which is nice. It was nice to see how they were looking at the shims and like

Really making sure that the damage in the I didn’t have any kind of knowledge. Obviously, know. They look like me. They just didn’t. I didn’t know that. Yeah. You take them out to inspect more victims and stuff like that and. Yeah, it’s interesting. So, yeah, this shock, we, we learned a few things.

Things like taking the little nylon bushing out that I’ve always done with a small drill, but they’ve got this technique with a blowtorch, which I thought was brilliant. So I stole them one, by the way. A blowtorch? Yeah. So I don’t know what we use for

When we have to heat things up to let melt loctite, etc.. We use battery powered heat gun, which I always thought was a bit safer. The guys did that. Just get the blowtorch. However, opportunity make probably ten blowtorch in the workshop and it’s been used constantly here. Yeah.

So anyway, they’ve got a little technique with a blowtorch in the pic to get out, which we might try at that. I’ve kind of developed my, my drill technique quite well. I think it was for me, I wouldn’t feel safe or confident

Taking a drill that close to the to the shaft to the shop. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to have the risk. I know of suicide. You made a nylon, so it’s pretty soft. Yeah. Things you drill, But the risk of slipping with the drill and damaging it. I don’t. I don’t like it.

Yeah, it’s never happened to me, but, yeah, I quite like their technique. But then there’s a risk of putting a pick through your hands. It was all dangerous, isn’t it. Yeah. Offset by something. yeah. Yeah. Removing that little nylon ball. Actually, there’s definitely a technique to all of them.

There had developed and everyone had a slightly different technique, which is that interesting. took the shock apart and inspection. I was really happy that our inspection technique was basically the same as theirs. They were probably a little bit hotter on how they inspect each individual shim That was quite interesting.

And yeah, building it back together again, we were doing everything right. I enjoyed seeing like that all their processes with like the nitrogen machine and stuff. So for people who don’t know these, these shocks are charged up to 500 psi in the little chamber. Yeah.

Which is why this little balls head might just sending something. Yeah. It’s going Yeah. So yeah it was that interesting to see how they’ve got like you know the the tank was charged to like 1500 PSI or something. Yeah. That’s normal. Yes. Yes. Was it.

You prevent the things from, from overfilling or being overcharged. It was completely capped 500. Yeah. On the thing which was nice to see that. It’s like yeah. Actually that’s just a complete safety measure here that you physically can’t overfill this no matter how much you crack the top. You’re not having to

You don’t have to worry about what someone’s going to or anything like that. It’s just like you can’t possibly overfill it because it’s regulated here and that’s not good enough. Yeah, but that’s, that’s what this does. That’s what this does. So but yeah, they’ve got a couple of nitrogen tanks down there.

They’ve got the option of checking one against the other where already got what nitrogen tank it. You don’t always know. So that was good. So yeah, we went through some nitrogen charge in which you’ll see on the video is like a little safety needle that you inject and well, another

Interesting thing for me is on the instructions when you load how to do this, it just says listen out for a loud bang now with this hack. So you can just tighten up. Pinch it up. Nice and straight. Big bang. You go. Done. and then need to listen for a little hiss.

And if you get the OS is gone wrong, you start again. Now, I’ve always done this with the defenders on because I’d not really known how loud, as I’ve just put it defenders of safety glasses on precaution nitrogen charge it back on and you hear the pop

But no one that we’re into fair defenders and it’s not actually as loud as all the instructions and ever they make out. So in actual fact, they don’t wear a defender. So I can listen for a little hiss if it does go wrong. So they’ve got that little check.

So it was nice to see people just doing it so casually. Can we probably already do this? I know four or five times a month at the most. Peak summer. Peak summer, Yeah. And so just to see that casual use of it, how they had their safety

Sort of set up and they were also used to that pop pop. So we’re doing everything right. Probably been a little bit overcautious with it. I think I’d rather be a full system. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And for me, I just need to. I’ve just learned the Odyssey

To do something to make sure I can hear for that. Yes. So I know that I’ve got a really good charge and that sort of thing. So yeah, I’m really happy that we’ve. Yeah, I’m sharing it with you guys. We’re not all perfect.

We’re on a learning curve like anybody else is, and it’s always constant, constant development. So yeah, we’ve immediately taken something away from that which will apply to our practice and make it better. And after that, we, we wanted to look into that act two shocks.

So after lunch we want to look at these now. We’ve been service in these for a long time and actually quite easy to service. These do need a lot of tools. So it’s like a Yeah, it’s not actually like soap. Yeah.

So that’s always a cut in need is you need a very specific air. Can clamp and you also need this little tool here which is to undo the notches that are on top of this. Now with these there’s no such thing as a basic aircon service.

You, you take them apart all the way and that’s it. There’s no like half house like these. You can just quickly service the air can this is to service the air quality, to service the whole thing. So anyway, if we’ve got all the tools here

That get into all their switches and dials and open things up, just the, shim stack and all sorts and also the fill tiles, because the big thing with these is that they need to be bled. And you use something called an andreoli machine or actually call it a shock vacuum pump.

I think there’s a few brands that make them Labor seven, etc. It’s one of those things I haven’t invested in yet because the volume of these that we do isn’t that great, that they’re not massively popular shocks. These machines are two and a half thousand pounds for the cheapest,

Probably about £7,000 for the ones that they were using down there and that to them. Yeah. And it’s I feel like we’re almost at the point where we need to invest in one, but I really wanted to see exactly how they work, what the benefits work. We have bleed at the moment.

So when we do these you can handle them, which takes longer. And actually I’ve always wondered whether you get an inferior bleed through hard bleeding. So I was interested in seeing those and trading machines. They weren’t as they were quite sophisticated as I thought they’d be.

There seem to be a lot of kind of interesting quirks with them. Aren’t the most user friendly? Yes. Yes. That’s what I took away. Like they had to. You still have to, like, hold the shock in a certain way and pump it through and

And check it and and maybe still have a levels. Yes. You got to keep an eye on the oil levels. And you can’t see, by the way, by just in regular use. You have to take the pulse check. Yeah. So, there’s a few with things like that.

And then actually I saw quite a lot of them after it been on the fill machine that they didn’t have 100% confidence in the quality of that blade that they still then put a hand bleed syringe on it to check.

So they almost went back to the hand blade just as a final is it okay. So yeah, I think for now we’re probably okay. How did you do it if you didn’t, you know, five, six, seven a day like those guys are? I think it’s probably a necessary tool. Yeah.

Because it’s I said for it saves a lot of time a difference to the, the average quality of it’s probably bad it’s better I’m lazy but it’s sort of Yeah I think it depends how careful and detailed you are.

I mean maybe in the future if we get busier, then we’ll invest in one. But for now, I’m really happy that I’ll have technique. is perfectly fine. So yeah, that was, that was really interesting. So I think I got out that I wanted. What about you? Yeah, I think so.

I think it gives me a lot more confidence to just have faith in the instructions. Essentially of like, Yeah, when you taking this part, it’s like, yeah, you can. As long as using the right tools can be fine and as well, I think we probably should say as well,

We didn’t use all of the specific tools, not specify. No, they just didn’t, they don’t like some of them. They’re not as easy to use all that sort of stuff that they’ve got alternatives that they use instead. Yeah, it was fascinating. Yeah. Yeah.

That definitely like some of the tools to remove bushings etc.. What the official FOX tools that found other ways of doing it like we have actually and yeah we actually still use this particular tool which is so expensive it’s scary

So interesting to see that that sort of hack to talk to but a bracket. So I think it was literally a standard pop tool bracket really, it was the standard. We’ve got one that says it’s different now. I one’s only got one hook,

So I might try it actually, cause I’d really like using that. So it’s really reassuring, but it’s in the vice and clamped. You got a really good grip. yeah, I’m watching professional suspension service going through what they do and being able to have faith

In the instructions and understanding what’s going on because yeah, it’s, it’s often when you haven’t done something before and you’re trying to follow the instructions and suspension, that pretty detailed stuff that will just be like remove, remove collar or take a pop or Yeah.

And it’s just like, yeah, actually being able to watch someone do it and like, yeah, this is, this is how they do it. They do it day in, day out and you know me do it. Yeah. Or inspect for damage. Exactly. You know what, what constitutes damage?

You know, how, how damaged or, you know is a little scratch in a shame. Okay. But we saw like little crimps and stuff. So, The other thing for me was they have exactly the same problem as we do with all the various fill adapters. So lot of this stuff is all Americans

Are all like the fittings and fittings rather than BCP fittings. That’s going to bore some of you to tears. But if you ever tried to set up your own nitrogen or fill system, you’re going to come into all sorts of problems with threads and adapters and American

Standards and British standards, and it’s just like it’s a pain. It’s yeah, one day I’m going to make a video about how the hell you connect to British regulator and nitrogen tank to American fittings because it’s just it’s just the biggest ball like. So yeah, that was good.

And so yeah we’ve got that shock fitted for the customer. Learn about that. And obviously Oren has got himself a nice little hand. The upgrade is going to be well, happy about orange factory adjustment now. that’s it. So yeah, thank you very much to the team from Fox, Foxton, Luke and Taylor

For putting that together for us. We will learn tons. We’re looking forward to really practicing and enhancing our skills and in this area and yeah, watch this space and if you are looking to get your shop serviced this now service that we confidently offer amongst all of our team.

Pretty much so yeah. Happy days. That’s one. Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did give a big thumbs up and leave your comment down below. Me and Jake are really, really keen to hear what you guys think. Alright, cheers.