Currently got pikes, more than happy with them, they are on my “freeride” bike that i use for uplifts/alps/DHing, being aware that the lyrik and 36 should be more suitable for this application, im pretty close to buying either.

Im swaying towards the lyrik for the little extra stiffness and reviews saying they’re good at taking away some of that bike park hand pump fatigue whilst still being very supportive, it’s niggling me that the 36 might be even better and remember it being a real advantage on my van 36 rc2 having the high/low compression to dial it in to the conditions and bolt up lowers.

Just don’t want to sell myself short by not going with the fox, but i’m sure in reality both forks are very, very good and incrementally better than the pikes for the riding i’ll be using them for.

Who has tried all 3?

I have had all 3 of them so here goes.

The Pikes I owned were initially unreliable until I rebuilt the damper and changed the seal in the damper head, felt like a vast improvement on my Pushed Fox 34 I was running previously. It was both stiffer, better damped and with a more controlled feel.

Then came the 36 RC2, initially I was blown away, felt great and considerably stiffer than the Pike. On longer rides I found myself suffering from hand fatigue so I started playing round with them and doing a bit of digging. Mine had the very early tune in the damper so I changed it to the newer tune. It seemed to make very little difference to the feel of the fork overall. I have tried a lot to get the initial small bump compliance I want and I had from the Pike but its just not happening. I am going to try one last thing and see if that helps but I am not sure it will. Also after its sat even for just a few hours it takes a bit of a pop to break the initial stiction.

I now have a Lyrik at 170mm and I could not be happier, its stiffer than a Pike, not quite as stiff I don’t think as the 36 but not far off. It is very plush off the top (even more so than the Pike) and it stays high in its travel. There is no initial stiction even after its been sitting for a few days and up to now its been totally reliable.

Out of the 3 I would go for the Lyrik.

its stiffer than a Pike

Have you had a close look at the lyric? do you know where the extra stiffness is coming from? I see both the pike and lyric have the same 35mm stanchions, interested to understand what they’ve done to the lyric to make it stiffer than the pike.

The lowers are quite different and they now extend down to behind the dropout, the brace between the two legs is far thicker, thicker stanchions and a slightly beefier crown.

Old post but… The “zero breakaway feel” advertised for the lyrik is real. It’s smooth as hell. Zero static friction to beat. Sits high in the travel and takes all the jumping and downhilling and crashing I throw at it.

Does the Lyrik suffer from the same problems as the Pike in terms of air in the lowers?