OSET 12.5 Front fork refurb

[tjums]

Hi All

My son got a OSET 12.5 (think it’s a 2010 model). The front fork is pretty stiff, and I was thinking on taking It apart, to do a bit of refurb on it. I do know that it’s just springs and no oil, but I still think I could do something (maybe change springs).
But it does not seems like you can take the fork apart=

Does any of you guys have any good advice – have any of you taken the bloody thing apart? 

Regards 
Thoams

[balga]

we have a 2017 12.5 and a 2010 16, they were quite stiff too.

the 16 has a little allen key under the bottom end of the fork,

once you disconnect that use some pliers to remove the plastic caps on top, or you can also use a wedge on the empty one.

Finding a fitting replacement spring is harder than it looks, but there are a couple of ways to soften up the overall front fork:

1. Clean up the old grease from the spring and from the tube, and re grease with a new one, that helps A LOT, after that it was ok for my son to ride (he weights 15kg)

2. If that's not enough, you could machine the spring on a bench grinder and remove a 0.1mm from the outside coating, this will soften up the spring but it's not reversible.

3. Another thing you could do to improve the front, is to dramatically lower the tire pressure, but keep an eye on the valve as it will start to slide and every now and then you'll need to roll it back. (not a big deal)

I did 1 and 3 and it works very good now, big improvement overall.

 

On the 12.5 it was all so damn tight that when I tried to undo the allen key it almost felt like the bolt was breaking and I stopped immediately. Also the top plastic caps were super tight and couldn't get them out.

I just greased the outside tube and lowered the tire pressure, after all the 12.5 is just a stepping stone and as soon as they need to understand how a suspension responds it will be time to upgrade to a 16 anyway.

 

Another very good mod is at the rear suspension by getting an air suspension shock from ebay, (AU$90 circa), the measure is 125mm, and if you get the one with two air chambers you can adjust the response way better than the stock spring with no damping. Just it's very hard to get the pressure right as the chambers are small and gotta be very patient in releasing the excess air.

This coupled with an untightening and greasing of the swing arm bolts gave a complete new feel to the bike.

 

Edited July 2, 2018 by balga