IMG00169-20110208-2025 by kimberley robinson, on Flickr

Been swapping between what i think are medium and firm springs on a pike 454. This is the (black Mark) firm spring that i removed. Is it supposed to be in 2 bits like this at the bottom ?

no

That to me looks like a helper spring.

Is it a fixed travel version?

Tora fixed travel coils are the exact same as this

they’re difference gauge springs. so not related to each other. My guess is its a bottom out spring.

It seems very hard. so do you think its making the spring even stiffer ? is a black sping the hard version ?

looks like two different springs in the picture. Isn’t that a bumpstop spring?

I would say no on this one. I just serviced my pikes and they have a bottom out spring (not sure if that’s the correct term for it) fixed to the base of the stanchion. The spring can be removed and cleaned during service but I’m pretty sure that it shouldn’t be detached as it is here in your pic it should stay in place. It looks like it’s come away from it’s mounting.

Not come across these, but looks like a “tender” spring on the left,i’d expect it to be seperated from the next spring with a platform/spacer though.

What does a tender spring do then ?

http://www.sram.com/_media/techdocs/05PikeSLRaceTeamCoilService.pdf

I used this excellent guide on the SRAM site for my Pike service. From your piccy it looks like the base plate spring assembly has become detached and may even be upside down.

I don’t think that spring will do any thing at all where it is, other than rattle about a bit. I can’t see how it can be compessed.

looking at the pdf file on the sram site, it looks as if it should be attached to the bottow of the stanchion, and the other way around. a bottom out spring as mentioned earlier.
well the med spring is in there now, without the little fella. better not risk riding it like that.

http://www.sram.com/_media/pdf/service/coil_spring_chart.pdf

Here is the spring chart from the SRAM site. Scroll down the list to the Pike section where you can see the correct spring colours vs rider weight. The black spring is actually the extra firm.

I bought my Pikes second hand and they came with a black spring which was way too stiff for my weight of 12.5 stone so now I have a firm one in there. I might try the standard spring also to see how that goes but I think it might be too weak.

Tender springs are very soft, short travel springs used for small bump sensitivity, any more than a small amount of travel and they go coil-bound and transfer the load to the firmer spring next to them, worked pretty well on the older Pace forks.

Everything is back together as it should be and working perfectly. Many thanks for all your help guys.
looking for a blue u-turn spring now if anyone has such a thing.
cheers