Thought the description of the new Pike was quite entertaining!

‘It’s the fork that’s ushering in a new era in suspension performance. See, the all-new PIKE is a completely different type of trail fork. One that meant walking all over the current engineering doctrine along the way. The result? PIKE is like a stealth bomber designed specifically for new-school trail riders. Its new damper rides high in the travel where it’s the plushest. Its industry redefining asymmetric approach to chassis design delivers an unparalleled stiffness…’

And the graph that goes with it is almost as daft.

Bike industry in meaningless hyperbole shocker.

Is it still heavy as chuff?

Do their marketing staff actually ride bikes ?

That is proper marketing twaddle!

I still have a page from an old copy of Mountain Bike International with an advert for a budget looking bottom bracket. The strap line is ‘indescribable….the wonderful more than you can believe it’.
Still cracks me up. Although more down to translation than hyperbole I think.

Is it still heavy as chuff?

Apparently ‘near Revelation weight and near Lyrik stiffness’

4.05 lbs. It does look nice but I wonder if it will stay as plush for as long as the old style coil ones.

To be fair, sure, it’s a little…. ‘enthusiastic’ maybe, but then it got your attention and that’s a job done. If it was very dry and technical it would doubtless put more people off.

Terms like ‘new school trail riders’ are a little cringe worthy perhaps, but let’s face it, it kind of is happening that way.
Look how built trails have exploded, more technical, bigger features, fast descents and technical climbs, plus a lot of folks more from a downhill background coming over to more xc style riding but still wanting hard, fast descents with big jumps and berms etc…
Gravity enduro too has kicked off big time, look at how the podiums are packed with downhillers.
In a sense, THAT is your ‘new school trail rider’…
The term doesn’t sit well with the British, but I recognise it as a happening of sorts.

Marketing bods have to write something that will catch your eye and entice some interest. Given the average customer knows bugger all and the market is crowded its not surprising. But it would be nice to achive the same in a more sensible, rational, educated manner.

Or take the piss 🙂 How about a fork that will give you the best “carpark bounce”

how do you make a damper ride high in its travel ? I’ve seen it said of those BOS things too

must be a combination of fast rebound vs high compression damping – are they not adjustable on these forks so that you lose that aspect ?

(I suppose it might have “position sensitive wiffle” might it ?)

I saw a listing for some snowboard boots once that said they were designed using ‘pure pseudo-science’ – raised a chuckle.

The completely reimagined PIKE comes murdered-out for a reason.

I know it was mentioned in the comments section but what does “murdered-out” mean?

Though they do sound good, proof will be in the pudding I suppose!

what does “murdered-out” mean?

I think they mean it’s all black.

Nice & Stealthy! 🙂

I think they mean it’s all black.

Racist.

They’ve jumped into the “Black Hole” left by Marzocchi when they stopped black stanchions on their Bombers!! They do look nice!

Nice & Stealthy!

Unless of course you’re in front of a white background… 😀

Looks alright. It’s sort of funny in a way, it’s not really like the Pike of old at all really is it? it’s a completely different fork as you’d hope ~10 years on from the original.

Really it’s just another fork in the ridiculous RS range that sort of crosses purposes/function with some of their others so far as I can tell.

But I expect the poor little marketing gibbons were so tired after dreaming up some new entries for the bullshit Thesaurus they decided to just re-use an old products name, nobody will actually care…

Do RS marketing peeps ride? Hell, yes, and fast too!

However, Bob at White Doctor nails it for me re marketing speak, http://white-doctor.com/en/philosophy/

“No nanobullshitechnology”

I know it was mentioned in the comments section but what does “murdered-out” mean?

For a bicycle Fork?

It’s the point where it’s been used as a weapon in so many violent crimes/passive aggressive shoe weeing incidents that it can no longer be used to steer a bike, Ref: Bombers.

So the New Pike is in fact not the new Pike but is actually the new Bomber, and Ideal for bludgeoning those who anger you on interwebz forums… See?

Sounds great in principle. Except for two minor minor tiny little details:

1. Tapered steerer only.
2. 15mm only.

That must rule out a significant chunk of the market, especially as it has largely been RS pushing 20mm forks for trail riding. I’ve pretty much got all 20mm wheels and won’t be buying any forks that mean I need to replace wheels too as the forks are pricey enough.

Anything remotely modern designed to take this sort of fork will also take a taper.

Most front hubs are easily converted.

new-school trail riders.

NuSkool trail riderz shirley?

I like all black stuff but whoever decided on “murdered-out” deserves a bedsheet/bar of soap/towel beating from all his colleagues.

Plenty of modern stuff won’t take a taper, especially steel hardtails. But that aside, lots of people don’t ride ‘modern’ stuff and it restricts the use of low-stack anglesets.

I’ve got 5 20mm wheels, only one is convertable. That kit costs a tenner, so even if all the wheels were convertable it would be an extra £50+ to allow compatibility.

RS ahve told us for years that 20mm is stiffer and better, so why are they changing their mind for a 160mm fork that’s designed to be stiff?

I think RS know it’s a bit OTT.. they’re good at that. Did you see the Vivid Air video? “For racers only – send us your race license number to apply to buy one as normal riders aren’t capable of getting the best out of it”

Brilliant.. They know exactly how to spark a bit of viral marketing.

That matt black Pike looks sooo good.

Read the press release in “tongue-in-cheek” mode and it’s enjoyable… I think they are taking the piss from the more more formal and stiff Fox performance orientated (i.e. racing) marketing… calling something a “CONNECTAMAJIG” shows they are being playful.

Why are we so down on the “marketing” guys? It’s bike bits used for having fun… lighten up.

I didn’t find it too bad, although stuff like that tends to wash over me as I’m listening/reading for the technical specs/details.
In built BS filter if you like 😉 oh and I’ve ordered a set or two as well.

Sounds great in principle. Except for two minor minor tiny little details:

1. Tapered steerer only.
2. 15mm only.

That must rule out a significant chunk of the market, especially as it has largely been RS pushing 20mm forks for trail riding. I’ve pretty much got all 20mm wheels and won’t be buying any forks that mean I need to replace wheels too as the forks are pricey enough.

That only leaves the other 478000 forks in the RS line up to meet your needs then…

15mm is still a pointless standard IMO, but it’s been adopted quite widely and RS would be mugs not to accommodate it in a “Trail” fork.

This fork (or at least the basic Chassis of it) is intended more to appeal to the OEM market I reckon. The bigger bike brands are already migrating to 44mm / Taper Head tubes and will be wanting to order 15mm axled wheelsets in as much bulk as possible also to get prices down and to fit across their whole XC/Trail/AM bike ranges, fewer configurations means less tooling, means lower costs and lower OEM pricing which all of which means a Tapered/15mm fork in most travel brackets from 100-160mm in ~20mm increments is really a neccesity for RS/Marz/Fox’s OEM ranges if they want to compete for OEM business… and they do.

The aftermarket version is really just a spin off…

If I’m honest, I thought it was from April 1st. Is it genuine?

Keep with Fox then.

‘ve got 5 20mm wheels

You’ve got 5 wheels (how many bikes?), surely a 6th 15mm is a fraction of your wheel spend.

Steel hardtails? This is target at longer travel FS bikes IMO. Longer travel hardtails are a niche, and anyhow some steel frames are 44mm or taper and would take a taper fork fine.

Something sensible written about the rebound- STW should hire the writer 😉

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/article/rockshox-pike-suspension-fork-first-look-36937/

From the other Pike thread on here: 😉

The Rapid recovery rebound, albeit rather badly explained, is basically like the dual flow system, which has a factory set speed at near full travel to mid travel which gets the fork to return quickly to big hits to stop the fork ‘packing down’ on repeated ‘hits’ and the knob control the end of stroke rebound.

Works pretty well in current form and is a great upgrade on the older rebound assms, that do pack down a bit.

Any news on whether the damper assy will fit 32mm forks? Guessing not?

Doubt it as, as they’re 35mm stantions.

Very few details available at the moment, on the case for parts etc. but will be through a few months after the forks arrive in late June early July.