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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,429

    Brain troubles - Specialized or Fox connections?

    I bought a Specialized Epic Comp about 4 or 5 years ago and have mostly enjoyed the bike. I immediately upgraded crank, cassette, wheelset, and a few other things to get the bike closer to what I wanted.

    I was intrigued by the brain, specifically. Sounded like a great idea to lock out the rear end until you needed it, and for the first year or two, it actually worked pretty well. In the late fall of 2011, I went out on a late season and very cold ride. Immediately I could tell that the rear shock was not working as intended. Shock had a major loss of pressure and the brain was not locking anything out.

    I had my LBS send the shock in in the spring of 2012 and paid $150ish to have it rebuilt. My son was born in March, so my riding season was all of about 150 total miles. The brain worked great once again. In the spring of 2013, I did my pre-season bike prep to find that the brain was no longer working with the same symptoms. The shock went back to Specialized for another overhaul (my bill was about $50 this year to the LBS for removing and replacing the brain and shock-specialized covered the rebuild). I had another slow season with similar mileage.

    This past season, I have been focusing on paddling and have been on exactly two rides including today and the brain is beginning to show signs of failing again.

    Anybody have any contacts at specialized or Fox that may be able to give me any suggestions about what may be going wrong or how to transition to a non-brain rear shock. I'm sick of sinking money into this thing.

    Seth

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,429
    Bummer. Just read a few posts online with correspondence from Specialized saying that the brain requires a servicing once yearly or every 150 hours, whichever comes first. Sounds like they expect me to pay $150 each year just to keep the bike running, no matter how much I've been riding it.

    Sounds like it would make way more sense to just replace the shock with something my LBS could service. Any recommendations on a 100mm replacement with propedal or similar? RP23?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    967 tree 4
    Posts
    1,213
    All shock manufacturers recommend once a year servicing. Next time send it in directly to the fox factory in california. I've had excellent service from them and The shock came back like new. Special ed brain shocks have a non standard shock mount so u may be stuck w that shock.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    here and there
    Posts
    18,583
    Dump the brain, if you can.
    watch out for snakes

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