[Closed] 2014 rockshox pike problems/advice

no, the only difference is in the RC you don;t have the pedal setting only open and lock.

Not quite; it's got eight or so steps of adjustable LSC damping between open and locked.

I've heard some (or maybe just one) claim that they could tell the difference between their RCT3 and RC but every available info point towards the internals being exactly the same except for the dial.

both the rct3 and the RC have LSC adjustment

Top end assembly of the RC charger damper is different to the RCT3

Budget buyers trying to pass off a oem lower fork as same 😆 😉

Anyone got a solution to this, I've tried stripping down the air side and cleaned out excess grease, tried pulling up on the bars with no pressure in and rode it hard yet it still sags in about 10% unweighted and there is a clunk on top out

Reports of problems like this were one of the reasons I opted for a Marz 350cr

don't think it'll affect suck down but have you tried this? there do seem to be air migration problems with solo air forks, my revs used to build up mighty pressure in the lowers, didn't know about this burping technique though

That video just shows the air being released from compressed lowers doesn't it? It might solve the 'can't get it to stay all the way down' non problem but I bet it'll introduce a 'can't get it to stay at full height' non problem. Xfusion makes a fork with little valves to equalise air pressure in the lowers with that outside but as far as I know: 1/ you do it with the fork extended 2/ it's more to do with dealing with air pressure changes when starting from the top of a great big mountain.

Edit: OK, I see what you mean now, air leaks from the air spring into the lowers? That's just crap then.

I guess if you suffer this problem you could ask Fisher to fit dual air internal with a part-contribution?

well my pikes have been back at sram now for over a week easily, I took them lbs 3 weeks ago today, and sram wouldn't allow them to send in until they gave the lbs a returns number

3 weeks today and still no forks, absolute dog shit of the highest degree

"Top end assembly of the RC charger damper is different to the RCT3"

what does that mean in real terms LoCo? I'm trying to decide if i build a bike which forks i'll fit, but can't see compelling reasons to buy the more expensive ones.

TBH would a everyday man like you or me really miss or notice anything different everyday?

If it was Fox 36 float R versus Fox 36 float RLC - yes.

Not sure Hora, thats why i was asking 🙂

I agree in principle though, most of the time these features such as travel assist and super damping are set and left alone at best, or not used at all.

Mine seem to have done this "sticking down thing". Without reading the thread i had already pumped up and cycled the fork and for the most it seems to have done the trick, though it's still set in by about 5%. The tokens seem to do a grand job btw...

"Top end assembly of the RC charger damper is different to the RCT3"

what does that mean in real terms LoCo? I'm trying to decide if i build a bike which forks i'll fit, but can't see compelling reasons to buy the more expensive ones.

Look at the blow up diagrams in the manual/spare parts catalogue. The top of the damper is different as the RC version doesn't have the threshold lever, so it doesn't need all the associated gubbins.

stamion - Member
Kind of same problem for my 160mm Pike Solo Air. Bought it a month ago from Germany and from the beginning the air pressure i used to get a sag around 25% was way off the one recommended by RS. Geared up i weigh 190lbs and the recommended psi for my weight is 80-85. Yet, i go down as much as 50 psi to get 25% sag.

I think the table is out, I weigh 180lbs and am only running 60psi which only gives me 15% sag, I think there is one token inside, but haven't opened them to check so not sure. They are the best forks I have ever had, I just run them fully open (DH mode) all the time and occasionally get full travel depending on how gnarly the descents are, or on big drops. They are very firm and ramp up quickly which is how I like to ride, although they are maybe a little too firm for slow techy stuff, they gobble up the rough and fast stuff with ease!

Hello one and all,

Ok I bought some 2015 pikes and have been using them for two weeks. Set the sag at 30% and thought I'd break them in for a while then add tokens etc

Anyhow, yesterday I noticed that the forks were stuck at around 25% unweighted.

Have followed this thread, pumped up the forks to 150psi and cycled them a few times. They are now stuck on around 5% . Is that right? Sorry for my nubeness. 150mm BTW

[img] [/img]

If you slide the end of a small zip tie down between the seals and the stantion (on both sides) when they are pumped up, does that fix the problem?

haven't tried that. but i guess my first question is that they are on 5%, that is not right? There is still air trapped?

thanks

Sitting at 5% with no load isn't right and it could be caused by a partial vacuum in the lowers (which you can check with the zip tie trick). But it could be other things too. E.g. a blocked transfer port and too much pressure in the negative spring.

zip tie trick worked thanks. Sucks (pun intended) that you have to do that to get expensive forks working properly. as a side note, i put a token in, dropped air pressure, forks work so much better

Hey, did everything recommended(on here and by leisure lakes) Pumped it full of air, stretched it out, let all the air out, stretched it out, put in 10 psi,bounced it every 10, still no change! Last resort(didn't have any faith in it ), did the small zip tie, under the seals, hey presto , hiss, and it worked !!Thanks alot! now rides like a dream..me 160 solo rc Pike,12st,70psi, 1 token, 7 clicks compression, 6 rebound

same issue here with a SID World Cup XX. Fork didn't want to move past 80mm even with 150psi.
Solution:
I pumped to 175psi.
Then while holding it wide open I pressed the air valve. Then I pressed all the way down and took all the air.
Then I open it all the way up again and pressed all the way and took the air.
It seems that the bottom and upper chamber equalize when the fork is at 100% open, so it felt like, equalize, then press and release air.
Repeated it 10 times, then pumped to 60psi and it stayed at 100mm as it should.

Funny that this thread pops up now, after I read through it last week suffering a similar problem.

In my case, no amount pumping, emptying, cycling and squashing would get the chambers to equalise. I opened up the air chamber, pulled it apart ([b]WHUUMPF[/b], don't forget your safety specs!) and cleaned up some of the masses of grease inside the air chamber blocking things up.

Right as rain now.

Hey, I have a similar problem on my Revelation Solo Air (2014). The uppers won't come out all the way. They sit (unloaded) at around 5% of the sag-scale.

When I noticed this and an overall bad behavior of the fork, I did a full service. I didn't change any sealings/hardware but took everything apart and put in new grease, damper-oil and lowers-oil. The fork seems to respond much better now but it still sits at around (little lower than) 5%.

I then tried every suggestion I could find online for this problem (burping the fork, pulling etc.). Nothing helped. Only when I release the air from the lower "hidden" (under the air bolt at the bottom of the lowers) air valve, the fork pops back up all the way. But when i but weight on the fork and release it, it only goes back up to around 5 % again.

Finally I took everything apart again, checked that I didnt put too much grease in (blocking of the air bypass) and put it back together - no luck.

While I still do not fully understand how the airflow in the upper tube works, my only suggestion is now to change the seals - does that make sense? Could it help?

By the way: When I cleaned the air tube, I noticed some debris (not sure if thats the right word in English?) on the inside of the tube on some spots. I wasnt able to take a pic... It was really hard to clean (using alcohol and a rag on a dowel) and I was not able to get it all off. I can only imagine, it is rubber that came off the seals (but they looked OK...). Any suggestions how I can get that stuff of? Maybe this is part of my problem...

I would really appreciate your help 🙂 Looking forward to your answers...

Hey, i got a little update to my post above.

So, now i got a basic service kit for my Revelation and installed new seals on the air-side. The with the new inner-sealing of the floating seal head it feels a lot firmer. I thought that may have been the problem. But not - after putting everything back together I have the same problem. The uppers are sucked in.

I took two pics. One with the uppers sucked in (after pumping the fork up to the right sag and pushing it in a couple of times). The second pic shows the uppers after letting air out of the hidden valve under the bottom-bolt on the air-side.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Is there anything else I could do besids sending it in for warranty?

Thanks!

Buy some Fox's 😉

Any other suggestions? I just also measured the distance from the dust wipers to the top of the stanchions. It's around 125mm as opposed to 130mm.

If you look back to the first page of the thread it is clearly explained that the problem lies inside the airspring. The airsping lies entirely inside the LHS station; any tricks involving letting air in/out of the lowers will not affect the working of the airspring. There are two plungers inside the airspring that form two air chambers. When the fork is loaded in a particular position the air in the positive chamber can move (via the air transfer dimple) into the negative one. If the dimple is blocked with grease then the two chambers can't re-equalise leaving too much pressure in the negative chamber. Rockshox do put too much grease on the plunger O-rings.

any tricks involving letting air in/out of the lowers will not affect the working of the airspring

Not true, undesired pressure in the lower pushes up on the workings of the air spring too hence the problems it causes. Look at a schematic of the air spring

So, enough pressure in the lowers to affect the airsping pressurised to 6 bar? How would the fork compress with all that pressure in the lowers?
Clearly some pressure is generated in the lowers when the fork is compressed and this might cause some issues but the suckdown effect is caused by the issue with the airspring.

If you look back to the first page of the thread it is clearly explained that the problem lies inside the airspring.

Thanks, but I think I was working at the right place. The "hidden" valve lets the air out of the negative chamber. I also changed the seals in the air-spring and I took out lots of grease to prevent the blocking of the dimple.

I think the bypass dimple works. Because when (with the lowers off) I push and pull the air shaft, I hear some "air sound" when the airshaft is nearly fully extended - i think that happens, when air passes trough the dimple. Right?

What else could it be?

When you filled in the damper, was the rod pulled all the way out? If you miss this, when the rod is fully extended it will create a vacuum in the damper which opposes the airspring in the other leg, causing the sag you have noticed.

So, enough pressure in the lowers to affect the airsping pressurised to 6 bar?

Yes, that's the whole basis of this whole trapped air in the lowers problem. The pressure is high as it's fed by the high pressure in the -ve spring. Google 'pike burp' for more, it's a common problem, not just on pikes.

I think the bypass dimple works. Because when (with the lowers off) I push and pull the air shaft, I hear some "air sound" when the airshaft is nearly fully extended - i think that happens, when air passes trough the dimple. Right?

Easiest way to tell this is if you can feel the effect of the -ve spring, ie is the initial stroke nice and easily initiated, ie good small bump sensitivity. If you totally empty both chambers and pump straight up to say 80psi without cycling the fork, the -ve spring won't have had a chance to fill up so the initial stroke will be stiff, as you pass the port some air will go through, you might be able to hear it I can't remember, and after a few cycles the inital stroke should feel easily activated because the -ve spring is helping over that first bit of travel.

Were the air and damping leg shafts fully extended when you slid the lowers on?

Also, with the lowers off, does the damping leg shaft extend fully out and stay out? I seem to remember once I had put the damper leg top cap back on with the shaft partially inserted and when I tried to pull it out it would suck back in, because it would create low pressure in the damper - this might be enough to pull the forks down a few mm. When you empty the -ve chamber via the valve, the greater force from the +ve spring can push the fork to full extension despite this slight sucking from lower pressure in damping leg.

If you totally empty both chambers and pump straight up to say 80psi without cycling the fork, the -ve spring won't have had a chance to fill up so the initial stroke will be stiff, as you pass the port some air will go through, you might be able to hear it I can't remember, and after a few cycles the inital stroke should feel easily activated because the -ve spring is helping over that first bit of travel.

When you filled in the damper, was the rod pulled all the way out? If you miss this, when the rod is fully extended it will create a vacuum in the damper which opposes the airspring in the other leg, causing the sag you have noticed.

Were the air and damping leg shafts fully extended when you slid the lowers on?

Also, with the lowers off, does the damping leg shaft extend fully out and stay out?

I can't remember if I fully extended the damper before filling it. But I am pretty sure I did. Anyway, when the lowers are off, the damper fully extends and does not suck back in. It also doesnt suck back in when I unlock it by hand (my RL is in lockout when I take the remote off). In that position, the damper shaft is a fair bit longer than the air shaft.

What I do know for sure: When I installed the lowers, both the air shaft as well as the damper shaft were extended. I filled the air shaft beforehand so that it doesnt acidentally move back in when installing the lowers.

By the way: Something else with my damper may be wrong. I tought it was leaking but I am still not sure. When I took the lowers back off (couple of days after installing them, no riding during that time) it seemed like there was more oil in the damper side of the lowers than on the air side. Plus, it was leaking oil trough the middle of the hollow damper-bolt at the bottom. This would mean there would actually be two leaks...strange.

Then I had the lowers off for a while and let them stand/hang on the workbench for a while. At first there was some oil under them but later not anymore. So i think i acidentally got some lowers-oil in the damper shaft when I filled the lowers with a syringe, which then made its way out over time. The part that closes off the damper chamber (where the internal snap ring is) was dry during that time. So probably there is no leak...great.

But the lockout still seems strange. It seems to give the fork too much travel. There is a noticable difference between locked and open, locked just doesnt feel firm enough. (I checked the motion control thing. It touches the oil - so that should be OK but just to make sure i may refill it again.)

Anyway, I think that this (possible) problem could not cause my air-side problem, I guess, right?

If you've had a damping oil leak and lost a few ml you will have a mushy lockout with a few mm travel before resistance.

One other thing that might cause your sag is putting a floating piston back on the air shaft upside down, it's quite easy to do as the pictures are sometimes not clear on the service guides. It might be something to check anyway, I'm not saying it would definitely cause sag, but might. Or maybe something else is on the air spring assembly slightly out of order like the big bumper o ring

One other thing that might cause your sag is putting a floating piston back on the air shaft upside down, it's quite easy to do as the pictures are sometimes not clear on the service guides.

Yes, the pictures in the manuals are really confusing. As for the Revelation - at least for my specific version - they dont show the right parts. I had the Floating Seal Head in there the wrong way after the first time I had it open. But now (and before that) it's right. I checked this website where you can order a new air shaft. I assembled it as the picture shows: [img] [/img]

But regarding the sag it didn't actually change anything.

Im am not at my bike until the weekend. But then I will doublecheck and maybe take a pic of my airshaft. Maybe you can notice anything thats wrong.

Hi, I have a Pike RC 27.5 that came on my 2015 specialize enduro. I am having the issue where the fork will not equalize which I notice because slowly overtime I lost 1.5 inch of travel. I tried many of the suggestions in this thread and the only way I could release the air was to take the air shaft out. I followed the manual except I just cleaned everything out (as some suggested in various posts), I did not replace any parts, I cleaned, greased and reused them. It is still doing the same thing, if I put air in the negative chamber 9as per the manual when putting back together0, it will not allow me to pull the air shaft out and the air remains trapped and the shaft rebounds back up when you release it. So, I took it apart and put it all back together leaving the shaft fully extended but now when I pump it up it will not read any higher than 55-60 psi (I tried 2 shock pumps) with the air shaft fully extended and no tokens. I've taken it apart a couple of times and double checked the manual; still doing the same. Any suggestions? My thoughts are to buy the air shaft rebuild kit and go from there. I don't want to send for warranty as I will be bikeless for too long. Grrrrr. Any help is much appreciated!

I got an update to my problem: I cheked my fork again on the weekend. I am pretty sure that the equalization of air works. To be really sure I even tried it once without any grease on the air-side. I just lubricated the seals slightly with oil. The fork still doesnt come back out. But from how it is behaving, it seems like the airflow works (I sometimes hear the equalization, air comes out of the previously empty negative side once the fork went into travel, and it feels soft when I push it down).

When i didnt have any air in the fork and the top cap was taken off, I noticed that even then its hard to get the full travel. I have to pull and it doesnt stay extended, always goes back to where it was in my first pic above. So the only time it really fully extends (my second pic above) is when the positive chamber is filled with air and when i then elt air out of the negative ("hidden") valve. This even works when there was no air on the negative side (afer reassembling it). So i think, full travel is only acchieved when the positive air is strong enough to compress the rubber parts on the air shaft in order to press it further down (i.e. against the snap ring).

I guess, thats why it doesnt come fully out after engaging travel, as the top thing of the air shaft is already past the equalization dimple at that point. Is that normal?

So, I took it apart and put it all back together leaving the shaft fully extended but now when I pump it up it will not read any higher than 55-60 psi (I tried 2 shock pumps) with the air shaft fully extended and no tokens.

When i didnt have any air in the fork and the top cap was taken off, I noticed that even then its hard to get the full travel. I have to pull and it doesnt stay extended, always goes back to where it was in my first pic above.

I wonder if something is the wrong way around on the air spring or something. Are you sure they are supposed to be set at 130mm and you aren't looking at the wrong scale?

@rtwynn I don't fully understand what is happening to yours but a good local bike shop or sending it to somewhere like loco tuning should resolve it

I wonder if something is the wrong way around on the air spring or something. Are you sure they are supposed to be set at 130mm and you aren't looking at the wrong scale?

I am reading the right, 130, scale. And I also double checked with a ruler. It only comes out to about 125-127. But it is a 130 fork. I think it comes out too far when I let the air out of the negative chamber. I guess it should be somwhere inbetween, like just above 130. Really strange.

I'm also not totally sure if it has always been like that. But I suppose it hasn't, as I think I would have noticed when I first got the bike and adjusted the sag...

My rockshox revelation 29er dual position fork has just developed this. I serviced them before doing the pedal North c2c and they worked perfectly. When I got back I cleaned my bike and turned it upside down briefly.

After I turned it over I noticed the lockout had stopped working and I had fork suck. I let all the air out but I could not compress the fork past the last 2 or 3 cm.

Before I turned it over I was getting full travel as I wasn't travelling particularly light on the c2c.

I've tried the zip tie trick which strangely fixed the lockout issue to a degree (trail mode feels the same as lockout) but I still cannot get full travel and they still have fork suck.

I will drop the lowers off again and give them another service.

Do you think one of the seals has gone which has caused the problem whilst upside down? Is it worth replacing them all?

Thanks

I have some news. First I took the bike to an LBS. They said, everything is fine with my fork. But they weren't really convincing...

Then I e-mailed the manufacturer (which is also the seller) the description and my pics. They then called me and suggested to send it in for warrenty (they will forward it to Sram). So I am excited what's gonna happen when I send the fork there next week. I will let you know once I got my fork back...

Do you think one of the seals has gone which has caused the problem whilst upside down?

I have just one more question:

Maybe some of you guys could meassure their solo air forks and tell me how far the fork comes out and how much travel the fork should have (e.g. mine comes out around 125-127mm and its a 130 fork).

Thanks!