Mysterious hole

[PT1029]

Doing up another bike for a key worker. It is a passable Giant, old but little used - looks all original, lots of dust, minimal corrosion or perishing.
However, the forks have a mysterious hole, whick looks as though it is corroded through the fork blade wall. The forks otherwise look pretty corrosion free. Any thoughts on the origin of the hole? I wonder if it was leaning against something none ferrous, and suffered electrolytic corrosion (though I don't think the storage coditions have been particularly damp). Or might the inside be blanked off at that point (to support the end of the spring), so any water that got in sits at the bottom and rusts through the wall. I have encountered plenty of suspension forks full of water before, but never any with a hole like this.
As far as I can tell, there is the steel spring the inside, but I have not looked that closely at the gunge there in. The other fork leg is completely plain in the same location.
Forks are cheap(ish) RST Omni suspension forks, the fork leg is steel, so my hunch is the hole is not too much to worry about. If a slender fork blade and no suspension, I would say otherwise.

[Jdsk]

Forks are cheap(ish) RST Omni suspension forks, the fork leg is steel, so my hunch is the hole is not too much to worry about.

I'm not sure what you're saying here... are you proposing using that on a public road?

Thanks

Jonathan

[hamster]

Very nasty cheap forks.
So, the corrosion is so bad inside that in at least one place it has rusted through.

Do you feel lucky?

Bin them.

[rmurphy195]

Very nasty cheap forks.
So, the corrosion is so bad inside that in at least one place it has rusted through.

Do you feel lucky?

Bin them.

What he said. IME (of cars!) anything that looks like this means furtherninvestigation, 'cos its usuall corroded from the inside out and it is the tip of the iceberg. being the fork leg it is critical, safety wise (most parts of a bike frame are!) so I would either
a) grind or cut away the corrosion, back to good metal, then weld a patch on it (I doubt that for a bike fork leg this would work as well as gixing a small hole in a car sill!), or
b) More likely in this case, treat as scrap to be on the safe side.

[Valbrona]

Is the design of those forks such that the legs have been filling with water during use?

That fork poses the immediate danger of serious injury or death.

[jgurney]

treat as scrap to be on the safe side.

Seconded!

[gregoryoftours]

Good grief man (or woman), put them in the bin.

[Bonefishblues]

Is the design of those forks such that the legs have been filling with water during use?

That fork poses the immediate danger of serious injury or death.

Well, if it were ridden, anyway

[Pneumant]

Doing up another bike for a key worker. It is a passable Giant, old but little used - looks all original, lots of dust, minimal corrosion or perishing.
However, the forks have a mysterious hole, whick looks as though it is corroded through the fork blade wall. The forks otherwise look pretty corrosion free. Any thoughts on the origin of the hole? I wonder if it was leaning against something none ferrous, and suffered electrolytic corrosion (though I don't think the storage coditions have been particularly damp). Or might the inside be blanked off at that point (to support the end of the spring), so any water that got in sits at the bottom and rusts through the wall. I have encountered plenty of suspension forks full of water before, but never any with a hole like this.
As far as I can tell, there is the steel spring the inside, but I have not looked that closely at the gunge there in. The other fork leg is completely plain in the same location.
Forks are cheap(ish) RST Omni suspension forks, the fork leg is steel, so my hunch is the hole is not too much to worry about. If a slender fork blade and no suspension, I would say otherwise.
IMG_20201229_111357573_LI.jpg

Hi, are you certain that the fork lowers are Steel? I reckon they could be Magnesium which is a fork leg material often used by RST, magnesium corrodes readily when protection such as the paint has been damaged. I wonder if the fork leg has taken on water and corroded from within? Whatever there is no doubt in my mind that these forks are unfit for use and should be changed out / scrapped as part of the 'Doing Up' process.

[mikeymo]

Are you charging money for this "doing up"?

It will probably make a difference to your liability in a court of law whether you are doing this as part of a trade or profession, or just helping a friend out for free.

[Graham]

1) Your profound concern for the recipient of the bicycle - safety FIRST ! Why risk it ?

2) Legally negligent - You are the person who handed on the bike knowing full-well that there was an obvious defect. Why risk it ?

3) Red-top Rag newspapers get a story about a key-worker - killed or seriously injured - by a donated bike. I'll leave you to imagine the consequences of that one.

[gregoryoftours]

It's an absolute no brainer. It's a big hole caused by rust, caused by water getting past the bad/worn seals of a very cheap fork and pooling inside the steel lowers. The internal damage is much more extensive than the already huge 1cm hole. It's a safety critical part of the bike.

[PT1029]

Thanks for your advice chaps, all quite correct. What was I thinking!
My original hope was coloured by the thought I've done some work on this bike, will try not to waste it...
In fact, the last thing I did with the bike was to wire brush a bit of "surface rust" off, which is when the hole appeared. Proding with a screw driver on the hole edges, the metal seems quite firm. If I have the time, I'll dismember the fork to have a better look inside out of curiosity.
Re magnesium, no, they re definately steel (hense rust).

[Jdsk]

Good call.

Jonathan

[Brucey]

if the hole has appeared from the inside (quite likely since cheap forks are pretty good at filling up with water) the rest of thing could be corroded to blazes inside and/or the upper parts of the fork are no longer securely connected to the lower parts of the fork.

Often forks of that sort are so bad inside that they are likely to head for the bin even without being disassembled, based on how they move. Almost anything else is an improvement over a cheap, knackered suspension fork.

cheers