o-ring front fork

[nick52]

was riding today when i hit a pothole that nearly threw me over the bars... that got my attention, anyway when i pulled over i noticed a piece of rubber sticking out of the dust cap of the lower forks, checked the exploding drawings on the bdm site and it looks like the o ring.. i have the 04 ridgeback, the diagram was from the 05 ridgeback.. im thinking there the same? my question is can the bike still be ridden without causing further damage? and how much work is involved in replacing both sides???
thanks guys

 

[Bowhunter]

The purpose of the O-ring is to seal out water and dirt. To replace the O-rings you will have to drop the downtubes from the triple trees and remove the dust cap by sliding it off the top. There is a thread on rebuilding the tubes in the How-To section. Amy @ Strokers in Dallas has the O-rings in stock and you would be wise to do the fork rebuild while you have gone as far as removing the downtubes to replace the O-ring. The rebuild kit contains all the necessary parts you will need to rebuild the tubes and you will be surprised at how much gunk you will get out of the tube when you service it.
JP Cycles part# 221-411 will have everything except the O-ring and fork oil for the rebuild.

 

[nick52]

thanks,
im not sure i can do this myself, the bike has 2000, mi but when i replace the o-rings ill have the forks rebuit, im gonna get an estimate from east coast super bikes