Ha... had one of these a couple months ago. Bike park trip planned for the next day... overall bike was pretty good to go, just needed a general cleaning/lubing/look-over. but I had noticed that I'd been experiencing a little oil seap-age from the air bleed valves on my Fox38... upon closer inspection it seemed to me that the oil may have been coming from around the valve vs out of the the valve button. "Hmm weird" I thought... "maybe if I just tighten up the valve a bit with my trusty ratchet... \*\*SNAP\*\*!" Broke the valve right off the the fucking fork!! First thought: "B..b..b..but I'm going to the bike park tomorrow!!" Second thought: "Are my lowers toast??"
So, three pieces of valuable information for anyone with a Fox fork with bleeders:
1\. Fox has anticipated that this may happen and sells valve replacements in packs of two (which is great for when you are replacing a broken one and break it again... FUCCCKKK!! (I know... I know...)). Depending on how and where the break is, it's very simple to remove them with an allen key and maybe some needle nose pliers (no, your lowers are not toast). I bought them direct from the Fox Canada HQ in Burnaby over the phone... but they said normally you should order them through your local shop.
2\. In a pinch with no time? Just remove the broken valve, then tape and zap strap the shit out of that big hole in your lowers... seems dodgy but I can confirm it will handle a full-on bike park day with zero issues (I was actually in a local DH race that day and my fix did just fine). No comments on the long term durability of this crappy bodge though.
3\. Tighten your bleeder valve until it stops... then stop, like really stop. The torque value is low (5.0 Nm), and there is basically no more give after it bottoms, if it's tight and you try to give it "a bit more", it will probably break.
Oct. 13, 2021, 9:09 a.m. - IslandLife
Ha... had one of these a couple months ago. Bike park trip planned for the next day... overall bike was pretty good to go, just needed a general cleaning/lubing/look-over. but I had noticed that I'd been experiencing a little oil seap-age from the air bleed valves on my Fox38... upon closer inspection it seemed to me that the oil may have been coming from around the valve vs out of the the valve button. "Hmm weird" I thought... "maybe if I just tighten up the valve a bit with my trusty ratchet... \*\*SNAP\*\*!" Broke the valve right off the the fucking fork!! First thought: "B..b..b..but I'm going to the bike park tomorrow!!" Second thought: "Are my lowers toast??" So, three pieces of valuable information for anyone with a Fox fork with bleeders: 1\. Fox has anticipated that this may happen and sells valve replacements in packs of two (which is great for when you are replacing a broken one and break it again... FUCCCKKK!! (I know... I know...)). Depending on how and where the break is, it's very simple to remove them with an allen key and maybe some needle nose pliers (no, your lowers are not toast). I bought them direct from the Fox Canada HQ in Burnaby over the phone... but they said normally you should order them through your local shop. 2\. In a pinch with no time? Just remove the broken valve, then tape and zap strap the shit out of that big hole in your lowers... seems dodgy but I can confirm it will handle a full-on bike park day with zero issues (I was actually in a local DH race that day and my fix did just fine). No comments on the long term durability of this crappy bodge though. 3\. Tighten your bleeder valve until it stops... then stop, like really stop. The torque value is low (5.0 Nm), and there is basically no more give after it bottoms, if it's tight and you try to give it "a bit more", it will probably break.