They are as rare as hens teeth it seems. Has anyone actually seen them available anywhere? Seen many 29/27.5+ but no 29+

https://www.sram.com/rockshox/products/my17-pike-rc#sm.0000u1v5ncpajf62y6g2knln1oogj
I guess it’s get you LBS to call and see if they can order one, doubt any of the big boys are going to bother stocking them so they just have to discount it later, is anyone running suspension 29r+ and needing something stiff like a pike?

29+ Yari on my Stache and it’s brilliant. I’ve had a couple so bikes on with Yaris and the other with Pikes before and was equally happy with both.

If you want a bike that’s a bit more aggressive than the conventional view of a + bike then it’s the way to go!

29+ Pike on my Stache. Would not want to go back to a 32mm fork.

@andyg1966 – I’m with you on that one. The 32mm Manitou Machete that came on my Stache was incredibly flexy. I replaced it with a Magnum Pro (a very different beast to the Magnum Comp some of them came with) as I couldn’t get a 29+ Pike anywhere and at the time nowhere seemed to be able to order them either as they were OEM only.

I’ve has the Yari on my Stache and agree with the comments above – it’s been an excellent fork. Ran mine at 140mm, just dropped it to 120mm for another project. Bought from Merlin a year or so ago when it was great value. I’d have another, , I’m not sure the massive uplift cost to a pike is worth it for a bit of weight saving and the posh damper.

Slight hijack. @slow – How do you find those Magnum Pro’s? I’ve just refitted them to my stache and I still find them somehow both harsh and a bit linear. What settings are you running? Also mine only have 100mm travel even tho fork says 110mm (mate’s are the same, think it might be to stop crown hitting big tyre), are yours the same?

I really like my magnum pro forks on my stache. Don’t find them harsh at all…. Pretty sensitive to setup though Alex and you must make sure you let the air out, flip bike upside down and pull up to extend the forks fully before pumping air in. Initially I lost about 10mm travel too but then I was pumping up with weight of the bike on the front end (negative chamber is primed in position unlike the rock shoxs that have a bleed through port)

I also needed to run relatively low pressure… About 20psi less than what it says on the leg for my weight and run more (3 click) of compression.

Rebound set fast…. Just a couple clicks from fully open.

If you are feeling them harsh also just unscrew the top of the air leg and try removing the air token (just like other forks you can adjust the air chamber volume to make the fork more or less progressive)

Seals also take a while to bed in fully.

Great forks once dialled in. Takes a while to set up properly as you are fighting the undamped squish in the large front wheel!

Thanks Don. That’s useful advice. Is that 3 clicks of low speed on the red adjuster? Doesn’t seem to make that much difference on mine (2nd hand but just been service by TFT and prob done 200 miles since as I ran 27.5+ for last year).

I’ll have a fettle in the shed later and see if I can improve things.

What Don said! There is so much adjustment on the Pro it can take a while to dial in. Mine are the 120mm ones. I actually prefer them to the Pikes on my other bike. The hydraulic bottom out is awesome when set up right and makes them feel (to me) like a mini DH fork. I upped the pressure in the front tyre to maximum in order to set them up and then tweaked the settings a little once the tyre was back where it should be which seemed to make things a little easier. No idea what my actual settings are – I’ve got them written down at home but I’m at work.

After a quick look, I found

– it’s a 140mm stantion and with all the air out does deliver 110m as advertised
– Under the air top cat are four tokens, two above a seal and two below. Assume the two below are the volume restricters to reduce fork travel. Left all as is for the mo
– Rebound 5 off fully slow (from 12)- still feels pretty fast. Taking Don’s settings would be mad fast!
– Added 75PSI for 25% sag (12st4 here), running the red LSC fully open and the threshold (black 2 of 5). Left the silver HSC fully open for the moment until I’ve ridden it on decent trails.

Feels okay, better riding it than just compressing it in the shed.

Be interested in your settings @slow

Sorry for the Hijack again!

Interesting conversation this. I have a 2016 Fox 32 Factory FIT4 fork on my SC Tallboy and I’ve never noticed any real issues with flexing from the front. Obviously, it’s a little hard to tell without having something to back-to-back compare it with, but I’ve never thought that it’s particularly sloppy.

Anyone have any experience here? How do the newer Fox 32 forks compare with other 29er options?

@Alex – I’ll get the settings for you over the weekend. You’re sure you have the Magnum Pro and not the comp? Just checking.

@Dearn – the Fox 32s must be stiffer. The Manitou Machete 32 I had you could see them twanging backwards and forwards on rough fire roads.

@slow – yep got the pro for sure

[url=https://flic.kr/p/VHYRXU]Fat Stache[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

Red LSC, Black Blow off, Silver HSC, Rebound on the bottom, tokens on the air side..

@slow – any chance of those settings? ta.

There is no point leaving the lsc (red) open if you are running threshold. The shim stack needs to be engaged by actually running some lsc (the two work together). Quite easy to experiment with this….. Open the threshold (hsc/threshold) black all the way (counter clockwise) then add in lsc (red dial). There will be no difference and the fork will not lock out at all.

Then add a couple click of hsc and try again. You will feel the forks stiffen up as the threshold is applied.

You absolutely will not be able to pump / cycle the fork statically by bouncing up and down on it fast enough to feel the effect of the compression adjustments (apart from the final couple clicks where the fork locks out). You need to ride it. Pick a segment and repeat trying lots of settings.

Also start with the HBO all the way out. This will confuse you and mimic a drop in travel initially as it works on the last 30mm of travel.

Oh and yeah my rebound is fast… But I like it fast. Fork recovers quickly and less prone to packing down on repeated hits. I would experiment with faster rebound as this could also be upsetting the feel of your forks as you are working deeper in the travel (never has time to extend to full length)

@Alex – sorry, couldn’t find my settings and can’t really find out what they are due to a broken wrist. Just off to the fracture clinic alas.

Eek! GWS 🙂