This past Saturday I was out trail building and riding with my friend and team mechanic Sam. We started building 2 drops, 2 jumps and one spectacular log ride. I was working on one of the drops, it was a 3 foot drop from the rock to the ground followed by a soon to be berm into a small jump at the end of the trail, the total trail length was about 25 feet. I tried my drop out twice and it was pretty gnarly.
Sam was working on another drop line, it started with a 4 foot drop then a short trail to a jump with about a 3 foot gap to the landing. After he finished it I had to try it out because he was without a bike. I tried the jump out first, the dirt was still a little wet but, it worked out. I chucked the drop with ease and needed to try it again, which I shouldn't have. I landed the drop with ease but for some strange reason the rear of my bike felt a bit funny. I looked down at my rear shock and saw a clear/yellowish bubbly fluid leaking from the value of the shock (where the air is put in). I knew right away something was wrong, I called Sam over and he seemed optimistic, he thought I just blew an air seal (less than $30 to fix).
I left my bike with Sam, he took it to the shop and diagnosed the problem. He came to the conclusion that I had blown the Nitrogen charge in the shock. The nitrogen charge give the rider the ability to control how fast or slow the shock rebounds and if the rider wants the shock open, locked out or on pro-pedal a happy medium setting intended for climbing. My shock is blown, its essentially useless, with out the nitrogen charge I'm riding on a spring, an out of control one at that.
I have three options to fix this, send my shock to Push Industries and have them rebuild it for $180 plus shipping. Order a new Fox Float rear shock for $300+ depending on what configuration I want or, order a RockShox Monarch RT3 shock for $275+ depending on the configuration.
You know what "they" say: If you want to play, you got to pay!
Looks like I learned the hard way
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