Do you need to rebuild pivots? Well, no, until something breaks. Lol. then you weld or throw the bike away.
You can measure for wear. get better bearing, replace them all preemptively. This will tighten up an old bike, but it is hard to say whether it is "needed" or " not" .
pivot points at the rear axle is no good for a hub motor. A single piece swingarm will always be stronger, but it is not a real problem unless teh points are VERY worn and you have binding.
Remove the shock, articulate the suspension, and feel for " play" in the pivot points. Replace any damaged component or out of spec.
spaceship said:
I have no reference from which to evaluate the suspension but the fork feels pretty soft and I can bottom out the fork by pumping and putting all my weight down, and I assume this is not ideal. Is it possible to adjust or rebuild the fork to improve this, or is it just worn out? Its a Rock Shox Boxxer fork.
There are some knicks in the fork tube - is this a major problem or are these forks still serviceable?
The "Boxxer"is a single side sprung fork, and the hydrolic driving side is the other side. One side sits a (real) spring, the other sits the damper. Refreshing is simple, a oil change ( two different weights of oil needed)... and seals. Bushings rarely go out. A good bike shop can do its best to rebuild it easily.. but the nicks int eh tubes are never good. Aluminum tubes that are plated, ( like DLC or Nikasil, Alusil) and the tubes cannot be replated easily. Nicks and damage must be replaced if you want your seals running smoothly and no stiction. However, it is a good fork, and people like it. They made a steel tube version of the same fork and called it a " Domain".
Much better than an "Air-Charged" fork. Air forks leak, and do not last long upon these heavy loads. Coils are reliable.
Parts certainly are available. Seals, oil, spring, moco dampers, all available. It is a 35mm fork diameter and the fork can be upgraded with oil choices and spring rates. There is also high end custom tuners of this fork, that throw allthe Rockshox stuff out the window and revalve the fork with custom fitting. ...Also, they sell four springs for this fork: A soft, a med, a hard, and a extra hard. TYhey are color coded. I have an " Extra hard" on my bike but I still can compress teh spring to the max with my 100lb laden bike. If I could, I would use an "Extra Extra hard spring" because I like road racing and you need strong front end feedback for roadracing. YOu dont want to dive into the turn, you want to retain suspension articulation. An off road application this changes: you want ample travel. A compression damper/ rebound damper is on the Boxxers, the Domain only has a rebound damper. Chromed steel Domain tubes WILL fit int eh Boxxer and wor k with the internals. Rebound shim stacks in the lower fork are easily replaced for simple Rebound tuning, but the MoCo dampers are kinda silly, and could use some real suspension shims in the design for the use in racing competitively.
Ok. That is all I know.