That sounds unlikely to me.  Instead, carefully inspect the surface of the tubes for a (possibly very tiny) nick/scratch/burr from a stone strike etc.  A good seal on a good fork tube surface will last for a very long time as there's no reason for it to fail.  If your seals fail so quickly there's probably something causing them to fail.  Pull the dust caps up from the sliders and try to extend the forks as much as possible so you can inspect all the seal wipe area.

There is really no debris, besides a little rust from the spring clip on top of the seal. When replacing the seals I replaced the spring clip of course.

I'm thinking it must be my fork tube, the original leak started when I had the superbrace on the forks, it must have deformed the fork tube and now the seal wont fit tight.

Either way, while sitting its a very minor leak, I'll just keep an eye on it. I don't really plan on ever riding the savage other than very rare occasional short trips, so it should be allright.

Pick up a Seal Mate. You may be right as rain. Sometimes it takes running the tool around the tube a couple times. I thought I had a leaking seal two different times and the Seal Mate took care of it. Not affiliated, just a happy customer.

https://sealmate.net/

A credit card is similar, but the shape of the Seal Mate with the hook and slot make it work better. It's thinner than credit card material, too.

Annoying as the front forks are to work on (at least for me on the sidewalk with my bike repeatedly falling off of my stands and literally into traffic on the street) I would be inclined to fix the leak for safety -- two reasons. One is that the leak can get onto the caliper and totally nullify the front brake. The other is my intense fear of tank slappers. Just food for thought. I was able to replace my seals effectively with that jury rigged long bolt thingy -- there's a thread on it in here that brakes down the whole job.

Surviving Philly wrote on 06/20/24 at 16:33:41:


I would fix it if I was riding the bike, but with my other bikes the humble Savage at this point isn't getting much seat time from me. I live in NYC, so right now it serves as a parking space saver for me - I park it strategically in front of my house so that if anyone parks behind it, they would block my driveway. This way I always have a spot right in front of my house, which is a huge convenience in NYC.

If I ever ride it, I'm not taking it on the highway at this point, it may just be a quick trip around town. The fork did not leak onto the caliper, but I'll be keeping an eye on it, and this is why I did the paper towel "fix" - to keep the oil from leaking down the fork and getting onto the caliper.

If I do ever fix it, I will probably have to get a whole new fork, because clearly there is something wrong with mine causing the leak. I don't see any obvious scratches, so it may be just deformed.

The bike also sat all winter with no leaks, and it only started leaking once the weather got hotter.