After my first Covid infection I’ve had a couple of weeks off the bike as a precaution. The 200 hour Yari service was due so it seemed like a good time to do it.
The big, obvious lesson was that the fork needs to be tuned for the rider’s weight. Adjusting the air pressure and rebound made so much difference. The first ride after the service and adjustment was amazing – especially given a few weeks without any form of riding. I could brake later, and shaved almost 30 seconds off my recent times on a short segment.
Fork service ≠ fun
I had previously serviced the Rockshox Judy Silver, and my general impression was that it was a fork that wasn’t really designed to be serviced, there were parts of the procedure that were very time consuming — I recall spending close to two hours attempting to reseat something until I applied heat (or was it cold?) to persuade it to fit.
Little Yari
Service on the Yari couldn’t have been more different. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but, it certainly wasn’t difficult. There was nothing in the process that was fiddly or required much of a special knack.
Don’t be a tool fool
Another lesson was to read the service manual and take note of the tools needed, and check that they were available before starting. All the lubricants were sorted, but not the tools. This required two visits to the hardware shop for sockets which added about 2 hours to the process.
Timing breakdown
- Remove fork and prepping tools and a makeshift workspace: 1hr
- Service: 4 hrs (excludes 2 hours of trips to get hardware)
- Clean up: 45 mins
- Reattach fork: 20 mins
- Tune and adjust: 30 mins
So yeah, the best part of a day. But it was cruisy and overall very pleasant, with a superb result.
The difference cleaning the bike makes
I then spent a good couple of hours cleaning the bike including the drive train. The end result was fantastic – it looked almost new apart from minor scuffs, chips, and wear from rubbing. It was surprising how easily a quick rinse with the hose after a muddy ride immediately restored the bike to an almost completely clean state.
