Front Fork Dust Seals

[Guest]

How important is it that those little dust caps (im guessing they are dust caps) on the front fork arent cracked? Both of mine are and I was thinking I would just slap on some electric tape and not think about them. Do they have any function besides looks and dust?

[hampshirehog]

As long as they haven't got big cracks in them you're good to go. Their sole purpose is to keep out the dust and debris from getting at your seals.

[pete]

Mine had lots of large cracks but mainly over the lowers, there were no cracks around the stanchion side.

When I pulled the forks apart to paint the lowers, there appeared to have been absolutely no ingress or dust or debris and the seals look like they're still good to go when I get the rebuild done.

I'm replacing the dust boots with gaiters, but that's more for how I want it to look rather than because they're cracked.