A bike service reminder app that knows when your fork is due

Your fork has no warning light. It feels fine until the day it doesn't, and by then the oil in the lower legs has done its last job. A service reminder app does the remembering. The trick is a reminder that knows which fork you've got, because FOX and RockShox don't ask for the same thing.

The Plus1 Garage does that, and it's completely free. Pick your bike and the fork comes filled in. For most forks, the reminder then follows the maker's own interval, adjusted for e-bikes and wet riding. Here's what the makers say, how the reminder works, and what the paid apps charge.

Why suspension is counted in hours

Suspension makers count riding hours, not miles. A fork works every time it moves. An hour of descending moves it far more than an hour on a fire road, and the miles don't show that.

• FOX recommends a full service every 125 hours or once a year (FOX). Its current owner's manuals say every 125 hours or yearly, whichever comes first, for forks like the 38 and shocks like the FLOAT X, and on a fork that service includes fresh bath oil and wipers in the lower legs. An older FOX manual table said 100 hours; 125 is the current advice.
• RockShox puts a lower leg service at 50 hours on forks like the Pike, Lyrik and ZEB, with damper and spring service at 200 hours on recent models (RockShox chart). Most of its air shocks get an air-can service at 50 hours, and so do the lower posts of most Reverb droppers. The chart counts hours only: its yearly line is for brake bleeds.
• Brake pads have no hours. They wear with braking. SRAM says replace them when pad and backing plate together are under 3 mm. Shimano says at 0.5 mm of pad.

RockShox calls these the maximum hours, and says your terrain and conditions may mean servicing sooner.

The catch is that few of us know our hours. Most of us know our miles, because an e-bike display shows them. So the Garage keeps both. FOX's 125 hours becomes 1,000 miles, at an estimated 8 mph. If your bike has no display and you run it on a rough guess (how often you ride, and for how long), it counts the hours instead.

Why mud and e-bikes bring it forward

FOX says you may want to service more often if you're a heavy user, ride an e-MTB, race regularly, or ride in especially wet or dusty conditions. A Forest of Dean winter ticks two of those before you've left the car park.

Neither maker says how much sooner, so these are the Garage's estimates.

• On a full-power e-bike, the fork and shock get 85% of their hours and miles. Lightweight motors get half that cut.
• Set "Where you mostly ride" to Wet and muddy and the fork's lower-leg service drops to 70% of its life. Full fork and shock services drop to 80%, a shock's air can to 70%, and the dropper to 60%.
• Months don't change. A yearly fork service stays yearly, however you ride.

Where the Garage starts you

These are its starting numbers before the wet setting. Pick a different fork or shock and they change with it. The months on the RockShox rows are the Garage's backstop, not RockShox's.

Part	What the maker says	Garage, any bike	Full-power e-bike
FOX fork (32 to 40, Podium)	125 hours or yearly	1,000 miles, 125 hours or 12 months, lower legs included	850 miles
RockShox fork, lower legs	50 hours	400 miles, 50 hours or 6 months	340 miles
RockShox fork, full service (Pike, Lyrik, ZEB)	200 hours on recent models	1,600 miles, 200 hours or 12 months	1,360 miles
FOX air shock	125 hours or yearly	1,000 miles, 125 hours or 12 months	850 miles
RockShox Super Deluxe (2017 to 2026), air can	50 hours	400 miles or 50 hours	340 miles
RockShox Reverb, lower post (not the AXS B1)	50 hours	400 miles, 50 hours or 12 months	No change
Brake pads, front and rear	A thickness, not hours	620 and 500 miles	About 430 and 350 miles

The pad figures are the roughest. As the Garage's note says, pads wear with braking, not distance, so one wet uplift day can use up a set. My brake pads guide covers checking them.

Pick your bike, and the fork comes with it

I ride a Mondraker Zendit. It's in the list with a FOX Podium fork, a FOX Float X shock and SRAM Maven brakes. Pick it, and the fork reminder follows FOX's own 125-hour service, lower legs included, rather than a separate 50-hour lowers service. As an e-bike, that's 850 miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. For scale, I've done nearly 1,000 miles on mine.

Set it to Wet and muddy and the lower legs come round at about 595 miles. The Garage's note on a FOX fork also passes on advice from UK FOX service centres: if you ride a lot in the wet, change the lower-leg oil in between, around 50 hours. FOX's full service includes the lowers, so when the fork comes back you mark both.

I find the Podium easy to look after. The seals are always covered in oil, and protected by the shrouds. That's my view, not FOX's, and it doesn't change the interval. FOX's owner's manual for the Podium gives the same 125 hours or yearly, whichever comes first. My FOX Podium review has how it rides.

One reminder, on the day

Every part gets a bar: fine, coming up or due. On suspension, "coming up" starts at 80% of a part's life, so there's time to book the fork in.

• One notification, at 9am on the day a part falls due. Nothing at "coming up".
• One per bike per day. Several parts due on the same day arrive as one.
• It reminds you when it can see the date coming: a calendar limit like the fork's 12 months, or any part on a bike run on a rough guess.
• A new odometer reading that tips the fork over turns it red there and then. No banner on top of the screen you're looking at.
• Routine checks never nag. Fork and shock pressure, chain lube and the rest sit in a checklist.
• Don't want any? Switch off Service reminders in Settings.

When the work's done, tap "Serviced it". Checked it and it's fine? "Doesn't need a service yet" pushes it back. Bought the bike with a fork done last month? "Not right? Set where it is in its life."

What the paid reminder apps charge

Plenty of apps do service reminders, and many charge once you add a second or third bike. UK App Store prices, checked October 2026:

App	Free version	Paid
ProBikeGarage	Free to start on Android and web	£3.99 on iPhone, then Premium at £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year
PedalCare	Up to two bikes	Pro: £2.99 a month or £29.99 a year
BikeCare	One bike	Pro: £2.99 a month or £24.99 a year
Velo Buddy	One bike	£4.99 a month, £24.99 a year or £29.99 lifetime
Tiiks	One bike	Pro: £3.99 a month or £39.90 a year
Cogbook	Service log; full e-bike support is Pro	£3.99 a month, £19.99 a year or £39.99 lifetime
BikeHealth	Several bikes, and a 14-day Pro trial	Pro £4.99, Annual £49.99
Componentry	A two-month trial	£4.99 a month or £49.99 a year
The Garage	All of it	Free. No paid tier, no ads

The Garage isn't the only free option, and I'd rather you knew. Garmin Connect's gear tracking is free. A June 2026 update brought it to some Edge computers, with phone alerts when gear nears the end of its life (Garmin). intervals.icu does gear reminders on the web for free. mainTrack is free to download on iPhone. Strava keeps a free running total for each bike, but its gear help page mentions notifications for shoes, not bike parts.

So why the Garage? I built it, so take this as my opinion. It's completely free, all the way through. It knows over 900 bikes, 224 of them e-bikes. It's built around e-bikes and wet UK riding. And it sits in the app I already use to find people to ride with. My Garage guide covers the rest of the bike.

What it can't do

• You type the miles. It doesn't read your bike, and Plus1 rides don't feed it.
• Every number is a starting estimate. Your weight and your trails are your own. Correct it.
• It isn't a mechanic. Dry legs, an oil ring or a knock mean the fork's due now, whatever the bar says. My suspension service guide covers the signs. Damper work belongs with a service centre.

I'm still building the Garage. This is what it does today.