I may be picking up a Chameleon at the weekend so I’m starting to think about the rest of the build now! The plan is for it to be a fun singlespeed trail ragging bike (a new niche 😛 ) that I can take to the dirt jumps when im not in the mood for riding my bmx. I used to use a Pike 454 dual air u turn for this sort of thing and it was great – wind in the travel and pump it up for djs then let a bit of air out and extend it a bit for trail centres etc. Just wondering if there’s anything better or to stick with what I know?

Oh and what travel works best with the chameleon? I generally dont seem to like long travel hardtails so I was thinking of either going for the u turn for flexibility or maybe sticking to a fixed travel fork of 100-120mm. What do you reckon would be best bearing in mind I have a proper dh/fr bike for that sort of thing?

bet you can get something lighter though but I love mine

Depends on your “all”, u-turn Revelation Team is better at absolutely everything apart from stiffness (and probably outright strength). Old Pike never got better than motion control damping, which is fine but not amazing.

Hate U Turn, slow and clunky 🙁
Fox Talas with the RC2 works well

Northwind, the kinda riding I had in mind for this was everything apart from dh/fr stuff which I’d use my voltage for. So trail centres, xc rides, some dirt jumps and the odd ride at woburn when I fancy a change from riding the voltage! Basically the same things I used to use my trailstar for.

Takes just seconds to go from end to end on u-turn… Plus side is the fork works normally at all settings, unlike TALAS

I guess rider weight will come into it for strength/stiffness, I’ve had no probs with the Revs but then I weigh 9 stone. 😆

Yes, a U-Turn Pike with a Push upgrade 🙂

i suppose the plus side of u turn is one arm gets a good work out

I weigh 9 stone.

Are yu just very small in height – it is rare I outweigh someone

You are Jimmie Krankie and I claim my £5

Have TALAS and Uturn. TALAS is quicker but not a deal breaker as UTURn has more adjustment – ie any height between the two.
Not noticed any issue with feel on differenet setting for the TALAS tbh but it is miles lighter and on my XC hardtail and nto my Orange

Pike and RCT3 internals via Loco tuning, when I can afford I’m going to get my bogo Sektors sorted by him

mikewsmith – Member

i suppose the plus side of u turn is one arm gets a good work out

And it’s the left arm too, so balances things out. Rockshox think of everything.

Junkyard – lazarus

Are yu just very small in height – it is rare I outweigh someone

I’m 5’10! But only about an inch thick.

Haha well I’m 11.5 stone and I never found my pikes flexy at all even at 17 stone! and no problems with the u turn, It doesn’t take very long to wind them in.. The revs seem good, maybe a bit worried about em for the jumps though.

9 stone? I weigh 15.5 😯

I’ve got one of those hybrid Revelations with the Pike lowers that Rock Show did for a year or two. Very nice and stiff fork and goes out to 150mm travel.

I’ll probably get the damper upgraded at one point as I intend on keeping them.

I had an 07 Chameleon (love that bike – seemed to deal with everything pretty damn well) and ran it with 140mm 32 Vans and it worked really well. I think the later ones are happier with a slightly longer fork – at 100mm they may be a bit steep but I like slack bikes.

I’m not a fan of Pikes personally – although the air ones without the U Turn were better than the coil ones with the U Turn.

New pikes will be far better.

I’ve got sektor coils with blackbox damper running at 140mm. way better than the old pikes…

+1 for PUSHed Pike – great fork

This is a 2009 chameleon. I dont want loads of travel as it feels unbalanced on a hardtail to me and is bad for jumps. I’m not getting a new pike as I reckon that’s way too much travel for a hardtail. 120mm has been the sweet spot on other hts ive owned in the past so I may also look at 120mm forks if theres anything about, rather than never making use of the full travel of the revs..

I’m surprised by the “love” that people give the old Pike fork… I was never that impressed.

I had Pike U-turn Team forks on my hardtail… I liked them at the start but it wasn’t long before I found the limitations of the Motion control damping (big hits or sensitivity… take your pick). I had them Pushed and it was an improvement but they were never really great and damper was a bit delicate needing fixed quite often. I eventually swapped them out for some Fox 36 Float forks which were lighter and much better; although considerably more expensive 🙄

I’m currently trying a Rev Team fork (again) and I’m not getting on with it (again) so I think I’ll be going back to the Fox 36 Float (reduced to 130mm) on my hardtail.

Is there a better “do it all” fork than a u-turn Pike?

Nope!

Personally I’d go for pikes over revs for hardtail that is going to take a beating.

I had the u-turn revs and the u-turn helix broke. I think it was a certain year though.

The pike is still my favorite fork for a do it all bike.

Is there a better “do it all” fork than a u-turn Pike?

Yes. Heres why:

1. Secondhand Pikes are now ropey and getting tired
2. Secondhand Pikes are waay overpriced (I paid £399 for 454 air Pikes in 2008)- I’ve seen decent Pikes at £250-350 2ndhand.

3. Brand new Sektors can be had from £224. Drop in any cart of your choice from Loco cost effectively.

Was just about to mention the PUSH upgrade when someone beat me to it.

I’ve a 2006 454 Air U-Turn, still going strong on my hardtail. The anodizing on the crown is patchy, the lowers have seen their fair share of scrapes, but the stanchions are in perfect nick. Oh and they cost me £330 brand new…back when Rockshox was trying to regain credibility. Best purchase ever.

The Revelations on my XC bike have a better damper, but they aren’t anywhere near as stiff.

The dual flow damper does pretty much the same thing as a ‘Push’ tune and can be tuned too 😉

Junkyard – lazarus

What’s the ‘lazarus’ in aid of?

Can the fixed travel air Sektors be lowered and if so by how much?

I never got on with pikes, could never get them to feel right. Both rebas and sektors are great though.

@Loco – Would I be able to buy an off the shelf dual flow damper then? If so, how much would I be looking at?

Marzocchi 4X?
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=30252

or even?
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/45990/Marzocchi_4X_2012_Forks

Pikes are Ok on a chameleon but to be honest, I never wind them out at all anymore. They also dont feel as nice as marzocchis.

Loco’s Pikes on my c456, great, reliable forks. They have the newer rebound internals.

I’ve owned 3 pairs, all second hand. All bought for about £150, 2 pairs sold, both fetched over £200.
Not one repair on any of them and never needed new seals and no stanchion wear!

Richmtb – I have some of those rev/pike forks from 2009 I think. I have them at 140mm but didn’t realise they would go to 150mm, how have you achieved this much desirable thing.
😮

I used to own Pikes, they’re great for what they are (Stiff chassis, robust) but the damping is basic and they’re very heavy.

I think my new Revelation RCT3 fork, whilst nowhere near as stiff, tracks much better in rough stuff – simply because the damping is a lot better at coping with repeated hits.

I still think the old Pike has its uses though – E.g. on something like a do it all hardtail XC/DH/the odd jump sesh, I can’t really think of an obviously better fork. Looking forward to the new Pike though – they sound promising.

I had the same question Tom, sending my old but loved Pikes off to LoCo this month for some new internals.

I’ve used both coil and dual air U-turn Pikes and have two quite different experiences to report. The 2006 air U-turns imploded after just under three years on two different Hustler frames, anodising rubbed off both stanchions, the damper cartridge failed and there was a crack in one of the rods of the air side.. They went for recycling at TF.
Overlapping, a pair of 2007 coil U-turns on a Dialled Alpine have been faultless. Bought from Winstanleys for £260 new in early 2009, these have been one of my best purchases ever and are the plushest and ‘happiest’ fork I’ve used. Back to back with dual air Revs on another Alpine, you can really tell the difference in both stiffness and plushness. It would be very difficult to find something sensible to ever replace them with.

they do work very well on the DB alpine 🙂

Oh yeah, IMO don’t bother with the air ones. They feel horrible compared to coil and the weight saving is pissing in the wind (saving 150g on a 2.3kg fork for a pretty big performance sacrifice).

Got some on my BFe and I love ’em to bits. Every now and then I have a look for something to replace them, but nothing really fits the bill. Maybe ‘zochi 44s?

I keep meaning to research upgrading the damper though, I’m bored of them making an oily dribble whenever they get excited. Also, the lowers are starting to look tatty, has anyone had their lowers resprayed?