The other day I had the opportunity to overhaul a Cannondale Lefty fork. I've had mixed luck with these in the past, confounded by Cannondale's lack of instructions, spare parts, and poor customer service. That notwithstanding, I've been anxious to master these tricky forks. A quick review of them online returns mixed results , but the general consensus is that they work great until it's time for service, but then it's a crapshoot.
If this were being used on an 'A' bike, I would have recommended he replace the entire cartridge. Since this is just a backup that won't get much use, he decided to fix his old one instead of spending $300** for a new cartridge. In the picture below notice the wear on the on the upper damper shaft. The lower leg had similar wear at the bottom of the bearing races. That's an indication of heavy use and long service intervals. Although it might seep slight amounts of oil when it's used, it won't see enough trail time for that to matter. Customer is happy because his lockout works and it now holds air again.
Let me start by saying that when I say 'poor customer service' , that means that Cannondale's answer to fixing your 5 year old Lefty many times is 'send it back and we'll sell you a new one for $800 (give or take,depending on model). A good deal (maybe) if you have a trashed 12 year old fork that has never been serviced, but not for a 5 year old fork that only needs one new bearing race and some o rings. I think their people on the inside try hard, but Cannondale doesn't have systems in place to help dealers and consumers service Lefty forks. Definitely a far cry from Fox and Rockshox.*
Back to the point though: I successfully overhauled a 2006 Lefty, making it work like new again. It compresses smoothly through its travel now, the rebound adjuster gives a wide range of control, and the lockout works properly. Most important though, it now holds air. The full service was time consuming because the damper needs to be free of any air and it takes a while to get it all out. Even though we likely didn't make any money because it took so long, it was valuable experience and one that I'm calling a 'WIN' anyway.
If this were being used on an 'A' bike, I would have recommended he replace the entire cartridge. Since this is just a backup that won't get much use, he decided to fix his old one instead of spending $300** for a new cartridge. In the picture below notice the wear on the on the upper damper shaft. The lower leg had similar wear at the bottom of the bearing races. That's an indication of heavy use and long service intervals. Although it might seep slight amounts of oil when it's used, it won't see enough trail time for that to matter. Customer is happy because his lockout works and it now holds air again.
So a successful Lefty service and a happy customer. A great way to start the summer!
*my issues here are with lack of parts availability, lack of instructions/parts diagrams, and the general vagueness of servicing Lefty forks. Most of my interactions with the people inside Cannondale are good, there's just not much they can do many times. Watch for a post later that will explain this in better detail.
**includes cartridge, solo air piston,clips, spacers, etc to convert to the newest cartridge.
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