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Try not to think about how hideously complicated modern mtb hardware is
I suspect your hydraulic disc brakes are more susceptible to catastrophic failure than an air Spring although some solo air implementations have terrible design flaws - I'm looking at you Cannondale
Howard-
I guess you're right. A catastrophic failure is a cracked inner ring leading to loss of pressure. A maintained shock/fork is likely not have that issue.
I guess as long as I do a quick oil swap and seal inspection/swap before big trips it should be fine. Fox does specify 25hr service intervals, but I've read plenty of stories where people push past that without much issue. I make sure I clean stanchions, add a line of oil to the seals and cycle the forks/shock to push dirt out. Should be enough I guess.
Philip_J_Fry
Time for a really, really silly question from myself, google couldn't humour me.
I use a full suspension bike for some rugged bikepacking applications. The three areas of concern for me are primarily:
Has anyone actually machined an "emergency" solid piece of metal, hard polymer or something that can be put in place of the rear shock to turn the bike into an "emergency hardtail"? I guess the weight penalty for something like this is pretty significant, as you would need tools to replace it with the collapsed shock as well as the actual piece itself.
What does everyone else do to minimise the risks of air shock/fork failure on remote trips? Is it truly a case of "use a hardtail and coil fork"??