I have a set of month old 150mm Pikes on my bike and I find they really struggle with big fast hits, they’re great at low speed but when things get a bit hairy/rocky I get some big spikes through the bars. On one drop I miss timed in the Alps, the fork didn’t reach full travel but it felt like a rigid fork. I’ve never had so many dents in a front rim.
Do these forks need bedding in like old Marz to free up the bushes or is there an issue?
I’m running two tokens, correct sag and sensible rebound.

Ive got no tokens in mine. I put 1 in and it was acting similar to how you describe. Took it straight out again.

150mm 650b

Try without the tokens.

Also how much low speed compression are you setup with,I found anything more than 3 clicks started to give a lots of feedback on larger bumps

I started out running mine with a lot of sag, added one then two tokens, gradually reduced the sag and then took a token out. Also had the rebound quite slow, then went much faster then slowed it down a bit. And took off some low speed compression. I’m now down at little more than 15% sag, they don’t feel plush or comfy but they’re better through real bumps (they don’t get all hard feeling deeper in the travel) and hold up better when braking or pumping and I can lean on the front hard in turns.

Two possible issues, well 1 issue one thing to consider.

The forks may be getting ‘stuck’ down. This is where the negative charges up as the transfer port gets blocked. It happens from time to time on Pikes. The effect is to mean you add extra pressure to the positive (without noticing) to get the desired sag, making the forks feel harsh. Check your sag indicators when the forks are static/unloaded. If they read 5>10% sag, you’re sticking down.

On the topic of sag, one thing to consider is that adding tokens when you don’t need them to prevent you blowing through the travel requires you to run more sag than without. This is because the additional progression will be harsh unless you drop pressures to compensate. One way to figure out what tokens is the right tokens is to keep letting air from the forks (no tokens in) until you get to the point where they are super plush but tend to blow through the travel too easily. Not so easy its stupid, but easy enough its kind of annoying. Then add tokens (same air pressure though) until you get to a point where full travel is only reached as often as you would like it to be.

IME different specs need different numbers of tokens… I had some 160mm 26er ones and tbh they were useless without tokens, 2 was the minimum I’d consider. But now with my 150 29er ones, 1 token is doing much the same job.

Tokens can causing spiking of the damper.

Cheers guys will have a play with the tokens. The forks aren’t sticking down, I just checked and slow speed is two clicks from fully open, and the drop they really spiked on was only about a foot but I was doing close to 30mph.
I put the tokens in and dropped the pressure as that was the set up that seemed to be recommended. My previous air forks were Marz 66 sl, which took much messing around to get right with the various chambers so I’m used to a bit of faff.
Ta

Just curious really as to how tokens which are on the left side of the fork affect the damper which is on the right side?

Different spring rate causes the damper to behave differently depending on where the fork is in its travel.

Different spring rate causes the damper to behave differently depending on where the fork is in its travel.

Really!?
Care to explain that in more detail?

Is the compression damping position sensitive like the rebound damping?

Ben, how would you set compression during theprocess you describe above? Leave it open to find that pressure?

My 130mm Pikes need 3 tokens to feel nice with only about 50psi. They came with 2 installed but anything more than a 2ft drop bottomed them out. Rebound is 2 clicks slow from the middle. i’m only 10 stone so leave the low speed compression fully open most the time.