I have a set of Dual Position Pike RCT3s bought in 2013. They were serviced about 5 months ago and have been working well up to now but I noticed last night that they seem to bottom out at about 2/3s travel. It’s not a solid feeling bottom out and I thought riding would get full travel but on a ride last night everyone else was bottoming out properly and I wasn’t getting close.

I’ve had this before on original dual air Pikes where an internal seal had gone and splurged oil into the lower legs causing hydrolock but this feels different. When the old Pikes went there was no damping for what travel remained and the bottom out was very harsh.

Any ideas please? There’s no bottomless tokens in there as the Dual Positions don’t take them.

Sounds like a seal is damaged like you say and is causing oil migration resulting in lessening of travel, lover leg service might sort it – 5months is about right especially with it having just been summer.

Cycle the air in/out, if that doesn’t make a difference then whip the lower legs off. If the leg ‘pulls’ up, they’ve grit in them.

Then call Loco, or the like.

B r- I’ll give that a crack, thanks.

It’s unlikely to be oil transfer in modern Pikes due to the design.

Drop all the air out and refill & check travel.

Check functions of damper to see if that is causing issues.

Is the lock-out adjuster working okay? There’s a known issue with Pikes where the sealhead at the base of the Charger damping cartridge leaks oil into the lower fork on the damper side of things, which screws up both the damping and spring at the same time. The most obvious symptom when mine did that was that the three-position RCT3 lever no longer stiffened up the compression in the way it should.

If you drain the oil from the fork lowers and there’s more than there should be on the damper side, it’s probably that.

Mine did this. Some air had made its way in to the damper so the bladder was expanding to much and pressing against the sides of the stanchion. I bled the damper and it has been fine. I suppose if it does it again I will service the damper with new seals.