RST ELASTOMER FORKS

After purchasing my RST 461 I found the sever lack of info on the forks to be a problem, RST are very good at answering problems but some pointers in the right direction would be nice. The tips on this page should apply to all the RST Elastomer forks including the 280,281,381 and 461 series of forks.

SERVICING

Diagram of RST 461 Internal Layout

These forks need servicing every 20-25 hours off road time. The manual that RST provides is dire (well mine is) and the first thing that it tells you to do is loosen the crown bolts, RST forks don't have crown bolts any more. When I next service my forks (I've only just done it and that's what prompted me into writing this page) I'll include some nice pictures for you to see.

Doing a routine service on these forks is a lot easier than some none RST forks so here we go.

1. Before you start remove the wheel and the brake cable from the brake levers, this will make pulling the lower legs a hell of a lot easier.
2. Unscrew the adjuster stacks from the fork, you will probably need to use a adjustable spanner to got the size correct, make sure that you undo them correctly as they only have plastic threads and plastic is weaker than steel, don't want to strip the thread on these. Once you have undone the adjuster's you will be able to pull the elastomer stacks from the forks.
3. At the bottom of each leg, is a bolt remove these with a 4mm hex key. If you look down the forks from where you have just removed the elastomer you will be able to see a 8mm hex bolt hole, it may be necessary to hold this in place with a 8mm hex key whilst undoing the 4mm bolt at the bottom of the legs.
4. Remove the boots from the lower legs so they stay on the stanchions, this will make refitting a whole lot easier.
5. Pull up the boots and sharply separate the lower legs and the stanchions.
6. Thoroughly clean the stanchions and the elastomer stacks, I dissemble my elastomer stacks when doing it as this makes it a lot easier to clean the last of the grease out, basically they just pull apart as there are plastic spacers in between.
7. Grease the seals and bushings in the lower legs and the elastomers using a non-lithium grease, lithium grease damages the elastomers and actually doesn't work very well. RST recommend Arlo Englund's Slick Honey and Bel-Ray, I use PACE and that seems to work as well as it gets.
8. Grease the bump stops and the drop outs at the bottom of the stanchions and rebuild the forks.

UPGRADING

RST Elastomer forks are fairly stiff and have room for a few changes, on the average ride the fork should bottom out a couple of times, if you don't you are not using all of your travel and have room to experiment. Please note that I cannot take responsibility for any damage done by doing any of the following.

1. Replacement Elastomers can be bought, these change the softness of you forks
2. One alternative to Replacing elastomers is to place them on a lave, and cut a few shallow rings around them, this will make them easier to compress and allow them to be compressed further before they 'Jam' together thus improving the travel on your forks
3. Boil the elastomers in water for 5 mins, this reduces the amount of  nitrogen in them and improves performance
4. In the springs at the bottom of the elastomers is a piece of rubber, the spring handles the small dumps and the rubber provides the progression of movement to the elastomers on larger bumps, so the further the spring compressed the more the elastomers are compressed so that it feels like a progressive movement rather that Sprint/elastomer. Removal off one or both (one in each leg) or reducing the size of the rubber may increase you small bump response. On forks without air damping removal of this piece of rubber may cause the shock to fell like a pogo stick on small bumps as it seems to jump about. Reducing the size of this on none air damped forks may increase your small bump response while still allowing for progressive of bump to the elastomers transfer, if in doubt try to source a piece of rubber that you have use instead rather then destroy the ones that you bought with the forks. I removed one on my 461's and didn't like the response. I then reduced the size of both rubbers and it felt that the fork dealt with repeating small bumps better.
5. Reducing the size of the bump stop rubbers (in the springs at the bottom of the elastomer stack) and the bottom and inside of the stanchions can improve the travel on the forks, best way thought is to source replacement rubbers so that you can go back if you don't like.

DON'T

1. Don't use Lithium grease it doesn't work and it damages your elastomers
2. Don't use Vegetable oil, it isn't sticky enough to stay in the tops of you forks and you will find that some area of you forks are not lubricated
3. Don't use a mixture of grease and oil, you will end up with a sticky mess that you cannot remove from your forks