Headshok Fatty Ultra fork not ridden in ages

[Jouzer]

Hey! I acquired a Cannondale F700 2001 which has the Headshok Ultra Fatty DL80 fork. The bike has less than 1000 miles total and the fork was working when left in the shed 5 years ago. The owner let out the air, thinking it will age better that way. It was last serviced 5-10 years ago.

Soo I ordered one of the last HD166 gasket kits and intend to service it, but I’m running a little low on money and was considering just pumping the fork and riding it a bit for now to see how I feel about the bike.

My question is, how easy is it to ruin the Headshok this way?

Also question about rebuild, if someone could tell me; is it good enough to swap the oil and gaskets if all looks good, any other critical that requires periodic maintenance?
Can the bearings be serviced at all without taking them off, eg. push new grease from either side or something like that?

Thanks, Cannondale’s are awesome, too bad the Headshok service parts are long discontinued

 

[black lightning 1987]

Hope some of our Headshok experts will chime in soon. If not, you might shoot MikeA a private message.

 

[Brian]

I would ru nit if it hold airs. It will not hurt it. The problem is the age of the seals. Cannondale today is a different company. Finding the parts of our "vintage" (even 2013 is vintage) is hard to find. Maybe somebody can chime in and give some headshox advice.

 

[black lightning 1987]

My gut feeling on the question about running it as is is the same as Brian's, but I am no expert. I have 6 or 7 Headshok bikes but have only done minimal work on a first year Silk Road.

 

[Jouzer]

Thanks all! I think I'll try to ride it soon and go from there. It's also good to know that not servicing it every 6 months doesn't mean it's gonna explode. Because I figured this is probably the last gasket set this Headshok will see, judging the markets.