I’ve just bought a Whyte T-129 SCR with the Pike Solo RC forks (120mm travel). The bike is great and just what I’ve been looking for after considering Kona Process 111, Evil Following, Spesh Camber EVO, Ibis Ripley etc…

Hitting braking bumps and rooty badness the forks just don’t seem to perform as well as I would have expected. I’m used to 140mm forks so maybe it is just that but I thought the Pikes were meant to be awesome. The rear just soaks stuff up beautifully but I’m feeling so much chatter from the front.

I’m still playing with air pressure and getting less and less to soften them up, any more and I’m going to blow through the travel too quickly. Are the bottomless tokens that this MBR article talks about able to be fitted/swapped around on these cheaper Pike RC forks or only on the more expensive RCT3 ones – does anyone know?

http://www.mbr.co.uk/how-to-2/tech-advice/rockshox-pike-5-ways-perfect-set-324890

Gonna give it a few more rides. Only two in so far. I’ve got the rebound damping somewhere in the middle (10 clicks between the 20 available from hare to tortoise).

Most likely your setup. Yes you can use tokens. What was your 140 fork? Can you describe how the fork was acting? What Standing sag are you using?

You notice loss in travel at the front much more than at the rear……and you just bought a bike with an inch less travel at the front. There’s no replacement for displacement yadda yadda waffle waffle etc etc

Lighten the rebound damping a little and add a bottomless token.

My Pike RCs took a few rides to bed in. They are quite sensitive to pressure, it is easy to be 5psi too high and lose a lot of small-mid sensitivity. Use the tokens and a bit of compression damping to control the diving. If you lose all small bump sensitivity google “pike burp”

Lots of tokens needed. The shorter travel ones need more than longer travel ones.

Thanks for all that advice everyone. Good to know that the cheaper model I have can still be tweaked with the tokens then. Looks like I have some experimentation to do. Will also play with the top compression dial to stop the diving too. Currently I use it fully one way and click-click-click all the way around to lock them out for the odd Tarmac road climbs that are needed to link trails. Will try the top dial somewhere in between with a lesser air pressure.

Mine also took a few rides to bed in. (130mm on a T130 SCR) The first few rides they felt quite harsh and small bump compliance wasn’t great.

Now they feel awesome!

I added a 3rd token once i got the setup right for my riding style.

I found that in comparison to my Lyriks, I can run loads of low speed compression in the pikes without them feeling spikey over rough stuff.

I think I was using about half the low speed compression clicks and 20 percent sag last time and found the ride to be firm in the car park but blew off under high speed hits really nicely.

Then again, I’m used to oversprung forks as I was a skinny runt of a teenager and never had access to air sprung DH forks – rock shox springs were way to hard for my 9 stone teenage weight. 😆

Going to look into getting a couple of tokens and experimenting. I’m on ride 4 now and I think they’re definitely improving.