Change your fork oil, or suffer duffed forks.

[yorkie_chris]

Fork oil degrades over time, it is subject to fluid shear like any lubricating oil, and also a fairly high degree of moisture contamination. The result being over time, it loses its viscosity and VI. So the fluid starts thinner, and gets even thinner when hot.

The other reason is to remove wear debris, the fork springs scrape the sides of the fork stanchion. You need to get this lot out of the fork. The more debris is in there, the more wear you will get. You want it as clean as possible. It does not take much debris to embed in some of the soft metals used like the brass bushings or the alloy slider ID to begin to cause rapid damage.

If you don't, may I present exhibit A:

oil change interval is every 2 years amirite?

[jambo]

Oh cool, you got it one of those little bracelets to help with arthritis!

On a serious note I tend to change the oil on a milage rather than time basis meaning about once a year ~10,000 miles.

Jambo

[Speedy]

What? That looks brand new!!

Blimey, that is quite badly scored......how old was the oil in that fork???

[yorkie_chris]

Looked new. There was a lot of wear debris in the bottom of the fork.

Proper fooked that. Yet to see whether outer leg itself is knackered.

Are they from the Bucket? Does this mean I've got to get my cheque book out again!

Preventative maintenace springs to mind. I know you have not been the sole owner of the bike but surely if maintenance schedules have been adhered to that is serious extensive wear. Looks like a bit more than a fork oil change is necessary.
My old girl is having a suspension overhaul next week[second in 40,000miles] and I hope I don't find anything like that.
Good luck with the rebuild Chris

Sole owner? I've not even started it yet!

Please note:

If you have your fork bottoms powder coated, make sure you remove the sand blasting residue from inside the forks before putting them back together!

Both sides ****ed

Oh dear .

The oil has been changed regulary. Like every 10k miles. This damage has occured with less than 100 miles of riding. This is a result (as Berlin has stated) of not ensuring the inside of the forks were properly clean after the fork lowers were powder coated. I stupidly did not check them before putting the forks back together again. I asked if they had been cleaned out and was told they had. My bad for not checking myself.