My poor, neglected Rock Shox SID fork. I got this fork for the World Champs way back at the start of 2012. Since then I’ve ridden rather a lot of very long races on them and apart from the occasional wash, I’ve shown them no love and attention whatsoever.

I think it’s all those years of riding with rigid forks. All I had to do with those was clean them, check for any signs of them snapping (!) and moan and grumble about the tingling in my hands caused by nerve damage for a couple of weeks after a 24 hour race. Suspension forks, it would seem, need some looking after.

I’d noticed that they weren’t as controlled or smooth as they used to be. I also noticed that they looked a bit shorter. “Maybe I should give them a service” I thought. Then I remembered the last time I serviced a suspension fork back in 2002. That particular fork now lies at the back of the cellar, in bits. A constant reminder of my ineptitude and ham-fistedness. “I know, I’ll send the fork to someone who knows what the bloody hell they’re doing” I then thought. It’s an expensive item, a modern high-end suspension fork. If you’re going to take it to bits you really should make sure you know what you’re doing….or just send it to a professional.

I’ve a few racing friends who’ve recommended Loco Tuning in the past so I called them. Shortly after filling in the booking form on the website I got a reply from Simon at Loco telling me to box them up and send them over. “You’ll have them back by Friday” was the bold claim (it was Tuesday already). I also booked in a second SID fork which needed the travel increasing but this didn’t make a difference to Simon’s optimism. He reckoned I’d still have both of them back by Friday.

Sure enough, they arrived back on Friday. New seals, new oil, the older fork had been leaking air into the negative chamber so that was sorted and both forks feel as good as new. In fact, better than new.

Now that winter’s over and the summer is just beginning, do your fork a favour and get it serviced by someone that knows how to do it properly. For the price of a night out you can get your old suspension working as well as it did when you first got it and you’ll have it back faster than you’d have thought possible.

Get in touch with Simon at Loco Tuning via their website – www.locotuning.co.uk