Do you really need to do annual suspension maintenance on every suspension brand

[genealogyxie]

A quick Google search will tell you that no matter what suspension brand you have, if it's air or coil suspension, you need to take it to the LBS to do a full suspension rebuild every year, even if you don't ride it that year. That just doesn't seem right to me because I don't see people needing to do suspension rebuilds on their Jaguar (car) air suspension?

And why doesn't any of the big brands mention this annual suspension maintenance? Could doing something like using pure Nitrogen or StayFill gas instead of regular air help prolong the life of the oil and seals?

[Crash217]

I worked in a motocross suspension shop for years so this is my take.

Suspension Servicing Schedules are wildly variable.  How many hours have been ridden?  What kind of conditions?  How fast or big is the person riding? etc etc.   And just like any mechanical thing,  Cheap oil and grease that is clean is better than expensive oil/grease that is dirty from 100 hours of use.

Anecdotal information; When I worked in the shop, I played with pure nitrogen vs pumping up suspension bladders with "regular" air on my personal bikes (a fun luxury of being "in the biz", I could fiddle with things A LOT more than the average person, for free!)  I couldn't tell a difference on the shock dynos or in regular riding.  Maybe a pro could? Maybe with an MTB being so light, and completely dependent on the air spring it would be noticeable.

"Regular" air is about 78% nitrogen so its theoretically 22% less heat stabile than nitrogen I guess?  I would assume the difference would be most noticeable once the suspension starts to get *HOT* and the normal air is expanding more than nitrogen would.  (Dirtbike suspension, especially the shock, gets REALLY HOT compared to *most* mtb stuff.   

I never tested air vs nitrogen for long term for seal life because suspension service life is wildly variable and the outside world we use our bicycles and motorcycles isn't a lab environment.

[acedeuce802]

Cite your sources.

https://www.sram.com/globalassets/document-hierarchy/service-manuals/sramrockshox-service-interval-counter-mat.pdf

SRAM does not have any service intervals that are calendar based.

I personally do fork lower and shock air cans once per year if I rode that bike a lot, or every other year if I didn't ride so much.  That would typically equate to the "every year" bikes being ridden around 1500 miles in a year, and the "every other year" bikes being ridden around 200-500 miles in a year.  Then I do damper service either every few years or whenever I feel that damping has changed.

[genealogyxie]

What if you just only did the maintenance once every 3 years? Would coil (or even the super cheapo elastomer suspension found in the $700 bikes) suspension still work and won't get destroyed? IMO, when most people buy a new bike, they just want something that is reliable and low maintenance. Taking it to the LBS and paying $250 every year doesn't sound low maintenance for me

[ChristEr]

What if you just only did the maintenance once every 3 years? Would coil (or even the super cheapo elastomer suspension found in the $700 bikes) suspension still work and won't get destroyed? IMO, when most people buy a new bike, they just want something that is reliable and low maintenance. Taking it to the LBS and paying $250 every year doesn't sound low maintenance for me

I've a rockshox Judy TK on my bike. Use it in the Caribbean and in the Netherlands quite often. Hadn't serviced it for 5 years. Decided to do a full service myself. All the seals were still in good condition. Couldn't see the difference with the new ones. I think the lowers were just low in oil; the oil spills ever so slowly through the wiper seals during usage. The uppers were impeccable.
In my case refreshing the oil of the lowers and a change of the wiper seals (half an our job, no special tools, less then 20 euros) would have been enough.

[carbonazza]

I've a rockshox Judy TK on my bike. Use it in the Caribbean and in the Netherlands quite often. Hadn't serviced it for 5 years. Decided to do a full service myself. All the seals were still in good condition. Couldn't see the difference with the new ones. I think the lowers were just low in oil; the oil spills ever so slowly through the wiper seals during usage. The uppers were impeccable.
In my case refreshing the oil of the lowers and a change of the wiper seals (half an our job, no special tools, less then 20 euros) would have been enough.

Thank you for your feedback.
I have a couple of SID forks that have about this age if not more, never serviced them.
They were ridden in all kind of conditions, sometimes harshly.
I will try your light maintenance.