Which one of these are the better in terms of use, relability and quality of travel?

Owned both and much prefer the coil (airs got sold)

still own both and they are both good. Air are lighter if that is a concern.

If you want lighter weight, go for Pushed Air, otherwise std coil.

I have a set of pike coils and think they are very crude in their action. Having said that I doubt the airs are much better as its the damping that makes them feel crude.

Good strong and reliable tho

goin explain what you mean by “crude” TJ?
and how do you have them set up, your weight, spring weight, rebound, comp & floodgate settings?

I have rev coils.

For the sake of a couple of hundred grams, they are cheaper, more reliable and more consistent than the air forks that I’ve owned in the past.

GW. Poor small bump sensitivity, damping feels crude – tiny adjustment takes it from not enough to too much – like its got too much low speed damping but not enough high speed.
They are better since I serviced them but just don’t feel as nice as the ‘zocchi Z1s / MXpros / Vanillas I have

Correct weight spring for me. ( correct sag but don’t reach full travel) Poploc turned off as I disliked the feel of it. I am 12 Stone, comp damping just off minimum ( as I like it) rebound set as usual – as quick as possible without it getting boingy. I spent a fair amount of time setting them up and have serviced them. They are a few years old tho

I had DAs but definitely prefer the feel of coils.

GW. Poor small bump sensitivity, damping feels crude – tiny adjustment takes it from not enough to too much – like its got too much low speed damping but not enough high speed.

I was going to say that they are fairly crude (thinking you were comparing to Fox Floats or something) but compared to MX Pros and Z1s they are anything but! The key to their performance is proper setup of the LSC & floodgate IMHO.

Also, there should be virtually no stiction at all on a properly serviced Rock Shox fork, air or coil. Pikes take a while to bed in fully though.

Retro – the floodgate / poplock thingy is completely off. With it on in any way it just ruined the feel totally for me.

LSC? dunno what that is

They are a few years old and I recently serviced them which did improve them. they don’t have stiction – just poor small bump sensitivity. As i said feels like too much low speed damping on both compression and rebound.

Horses for courses?

LSC – Low Speed Compression.

Basically, if you only ride at low speeds (<15mph) then you need this on all the time, otherwise you need to use HSC

Horses for courses?

Sounds like it!

Only other thing I can think of is that maybe yours have the tight bushing problem that TFT mention on their site? That might cause something that feels like a lot of low speed damping and poor small bump sensitivity…

FWIW I currently run mine with about 40% on the blue LSC dial, and about 5 clicks from fully open on the floodgate. This gives controlled low speed action with not too much bobbing or brake dive, but active over bumps. If they’re not really active with the blue dial fully open i’d day something else is going on :/

LSC? Mine only has one adjustment – rebound at the bottom of the fork leg. Poplock is the remote on the bars one. so on or off with a floodgate adjustment that is continuous not clicky

I don’t think there is anything actually wrong with them – stripped of the spring / damper the fork moves easily so the bushes don’t seem too tight.

Disagree on crude point! IMO the coil Pikes are a brilliant fork, 100% reliable in the 2 and a half years I have ridden it (with one minor service as routine).

The fork is very supple, but the stock spring is soft… even the ‘firm’ is fairly soft for my 12.5 stone bulk – that said I like a fork that uses the travel so it suits me.

I would always go coil over air for reliability and smooth/supple travel, bit if you are heavy (over 14 stone) then airs may be better as the x-firm spring may be a little soft.

I did really like my old Marz DJ’s but the pike is a great all round fork and cheaper + more reliable than Fox (in fact most folk I know have ditched Fox for RS Pikes or Rev’s.

TJ do you understand how the floodgate adjuster works? it’s basically an adjustable needle inside the moco cart that sets what force is required to open up the compression damping circuit
I can’t be arsed typing out how it works so I’ll steal someone elses description:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=1498056#poststop

if you never bottom your fork it sounds like, even though you are 12st you’re riding is tame enough to actually go DOWN a spring rate and spend some time setting your damping to be working (resisting brake dive for a start) rather than the “oh, bugger it’s rubbish i’ll just turn it all off” setting you’re currently using.

GW – I did wonder about a lighter spring. I do like a soft and active fork

I do understand how the poploc works and what it does. I just have no use for it as I dont find dive or bob ever an issue – smooth spinning climbing and gentle braking. I like a fork with minimal compression damping. maybe with a lighter spring I would find a use for it.

Thinking about this further I think perhaps part of the issue is the other forks I ride with ( MXpros and Z1s) are air so progressive and the coils are more linear. so setting the air forks soft gives good small bump sensitivity without bottoming out. I have raised the oil levels in both to increase the ramp up

I can’t be arsed typing out how it works so I’ll steal someone elses description:

Yes, Kapusta’s setting ‘3’ is what I’m using:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?p=1498056&postcount=13

3) With a high compression setting (small damper hole), pressure builds up very easily at lower fluid speeds. The floodgate is set up to open at pretty low fuid speeds. This gives you a fork that resists bobbing and diving fairly well, but opens seamlessly up for any bumps. This is my favorite setup.

TJ’s experience of Pikes is nothing like mine.

I’d agree that the damping system is showing its age now, but I found on my Air pikes that its perfectly competent until you really start hammering it in the chop, then it can get a bit constipated since it can’t seem to recover quick enough between strikes. Having it pushed during a service, and re-sizing the slightly tight bushes also made a big difference to this.

IME the airs can be set nearly as plush as the coils so the difference is negligible, but they do need more regular lubrication to keep it that way.

LSC – Low Speed Compression.

Basically, if you only ride at low speeds (<15mph) then you need this on all the time, otherwise you need to use HSC

eh? I think you have your knick-knacks in a twister.

thanks gone for air as they were cheaper

Didn’t think you could air sprung Pikes now – aren’t they Revelations?

that website is very good at explaining! I love my pikes, yet freely admit to not fully setting them up right!
Next time i’m out on them i’ll give the floodgate a bit more of a twirl and get them even better…. 454 airs BTW

DrP

I have a set of pike coils and think they are very crude in their action

Ahhh. But as we establised the other day, you don’t properly understand how to set a fork up, do you TJ?
😉

I’ve had airs, now got coil. There is a difference in ‘feel’ between the two, but I couldn’t tell you which I prefer without riding them back to back on the same bike. Any other comparison isn’t worth the pixels it’s written on, IMO.

I’ve also got some 140mm Vanilla Rs, which are slightly better damped than the Pikes, but there’s precious little in it, and the Pikes do certainly track better and feel a fair bit more substantial…..

PP – WTF? I understand completely how to set up suspension unlike most on here – IIRC you had a load of fallacious bollox on that thread

Now now, no need to get insulting just because you were wrong.

😛

tee hee

‘…I understand completely how to set up suspension unlike most on here…’

That sir, makes you sound like an arrogant turd.

Oh! You are!
🙄

Have coils and airs. Airs been back on warranty twice. Still haven’t got the airs set up right which I freely admit is partly down to me not being great with manual reading, incremental changes etc

Would get the coils if I had my time again.

Interesting link to the MTBR info, ta.

And TJ, jesus h christ 🙄