I’m after a fork upgrade. I’ve got 120mm Rebas on my 456 Evo and quite fancy something with a bit more travel and a bit stiffer.
I’ve had my eye on some used Pikes, as they seem to tick all the boxes: more travel, chunkier stanchions, U turn and 20mm maxle.
I know you can get Sektors and Revs for not much more than you’d pay for a used Pike, so how do they measure up to more modern forks?

More modern ones should have better damping and are lighter, but aren’t as stiff for the most part.

I picked up a set of used pikes off here for £75 a month or so ago, they are the first generation model but I’m very impressed with them. No nonsense, very solid and have a good feel out on the trail. I don’t clai to be one of thsoe suspension experts and I’m sure more modern ones have more sophisticated internals and weigh less but for a stiff, reliable fork I think they are well up to the task.

I had some pikes til recently and now have sektors. The pikes were a bit stiffer but the sektors are lighter, still stiff enough and feel much nicer/plusher. Pikes are still great though imo.

Got a pair of little used pikes in fantastic nick, just been serviced by j-tech suspension.
Were on my 456 ti which has been stripped and sold as I have aquired a fireline 29er.

454, u turn, air with enduro seals fitted 217 steerer.
£165 posted
can do pics

Pete 8)

The coil Pikes I had we’re decent enough but weighed as much as a tank, saying that its the weight made them feel so invincibly solid on rougher trails IMO.

My pikes feel great on my BFe in all but one respect, the damping. I love the the coil uturn and the 20mm axle but the compression damping is crap. The only new fork out there that looks like it might fit the bill as a possible alternative is the X-Fusion Slant but that only comes with a tapered steerer.

So, those of you with them, do you think modern Sektors and Revs are as stiff as classic Pikes?

Got some uturn coil Pikes on a Santa Cruz Nickel and while they are old, not sophisticated and a bit battered they still do a mighty fine job for XC and playing in the woods duties. No where near as good as the Lyriks on my Rocket but still great forks all the same despite the weight and the age. They are way stiffer than Rev’s or Sektors but no where near as stuff as Lyriks. Agree that the damping gets erratic if pushed hard but if you can pick a set up for less than £100 like I did (paid £60 on here) then they are still a great fork.

Think I will be selling mine soon (Teams) along with the rest of the bike… kinda fancy something different this winter!

Cracking forks though which put up with so much and just keep going!

This is what you want. 😀
My 426 air u-turn pikes with RCT3 and dual flow dampers.They are absolutely superb.Think it would be hard to replace them with anything that can match them.
They just feel so right.The damping is right up there and track a lot better than my 2012 revs.
As was said above the bit of extra weight adds to there performance as well.
I could have bought a new pair of forks for the price of the upgrade but really glad i didn’t…

So, those of you with them, do you think modern Sektors and Revs are as stiff as classic Pikes?

In a “car park test” they probably feel a bit less stiff but honestly I don’t notice it when riding, the Sektors feel like good forks.

franciscobegbie – Member

So, those of you with them, do you think modern Sektors and Revs are as stiff as classic Pikes?

They’re not… But for me they come under “stiff enough” at which point I don’t really care. Noodly XC forks like a Fox 32 can bother me but Revs do the job.

I have 1st gen Team on my 5 Spot. Yes, they are a bit weighty but they are fantastic for the sort of money they sell for nowadays.

Pikes…love ’em. I’ve three pairs in service on family bikes, plus a set of Revelations on my XC bike.

The Revs are very nicely dampened and very light, I feel I can ride anything on them but I have had a couple of instances where the air spring has burped. I’ve replaced the seals on the air spring side so hopefully all is okay there.

As for the Pikes, the Air spring is the one to go for IMHO – the coil feels nice but it’s heavy and tuning it means buying a stiffer/lighter spring. The damping is okay – they’re not as good as Revs – but the stiffness means that they’ll track anything. Weight-wise if you go for the 454, with an alloy steerer and an air spring then they’re not as heavy as you’d think – circa 2000g and about 350-400g lighter than the steel steerer coil Pike 426.

You can upgrade them with a new damping circuit, either off the shelf Rockshox or a PUSH unit. Loco is your man here.

My Pikes are looking tatty these days, I need to repaint the crown and lowers, but there’s not a trace of stanchion wear after seven years and otherwise they’re perfect.

[ninja edit] I bought my 454s in early 2006 for £330, at a time when Rockshox was trying to shake off it’s reputation for poor reliability. It’s one of the few purchases I’ve gotten right first time, within a year you couldn’t find a 454 for less than £450!

Big Pete – i’m interested in your Pikes if the OP isn’t. Email in profile,
Cheers.

Stevede – go for it. I don’t have the cash at the moment, am currently selling stuff on ebay to raise the funds!
I leaning towards coil rather than air. Mostly as I’ve never ridden a coil fork before.

I think that they’re OK – I had a pair of the first U-Turn Coil ones when they came out and didn’t like them that much. The U-Turn used to undo itself and the damping seemed pretty basic, especially on repeated hits. However they were cheap so were forgiven.

I had a later pair of air ones (none U-Turn) that I liked. They just seemed to work.

They do seem to sell for a lot of money secondhand given what they cost when new. I’ve just managed to pick up a cheap pair for my other half’s Chameleon, so hopefully once I’ve chucked in a light spring she’ll be away.

If you can get them cheap enough, I’d get a set but I’d struggle to pay much more than £120 or so.

Big Pete – I am also interested in your pikes if they are still available.
Email is in my profile mate.
Cheers. Paul.

trigrwoods – sold to me i’m afraid, bought em last night, sorry!

Damn it! Too slow!!! Cheers for letting me know mate, have fun with them.