[Closed] Pike or Revelation for general trail riding

I've both. Pike every time. Rct3 is nice to have, but by no means essential.

It depends on a few things, your weight for one and your riding style will also have some effect on whether or not you find a fork flexy.

I had the old Pikes 32mm stanchions with a 20mm maxle and they were awesome, tracked well and never felt that they were flexy. Swapped to some X-Fusion Sweeps 34mm stanchions with a 15mm maxle type axle and as good a fork as they are I just found they didn't hold a line well enough in rough stuff at speed and if I was pushing it felt they weren't stiff enough. Now on new Fox 36's and they are miles better and I ride them for everything, general trail riding, enduro and even some dh stuff and they do it all equally well.

I'd suggest seeing if you can try out both and make your mind up from there. However if it's not an option then my money would be on the Pike as SLX is pretty decent kit anyway and can be upgraded at a later date much cheaper than a new fork.

I've not ridden current Pikes but really like my Revs. They replaced some original Pikes and track much better, I think part of this is moving to air though and not having a slightly too firm spring.

I think it can be a case of what you don't know you don't miss.

I've not ridden current Pikes but really like my Revs. They replaced some original Pikes and track much better, I think part of this is moving to air though and not having a slightly too firm spring.

I definitely agree with this - new ish Revs are pretty good, mainly I think because the damper is way better than on original Pikes. Over chundery stuff they do go in a mostly straight line.

But new Pikes are better still. It's been a bit difficult to compare current Pikes vs Revs since the Pike only has the charger damper and the revs only have MoCo, even though RS confusingly call them both RCT3 dampers. They're not the same thing - I haven't heard any mention of bringing the charger damper to Revelations. Have you heard something different, OP? Anyhow, my impression is that the chassis stiffness is far better on Pikes and the dampers are probably fairly similar with a slight edge to the charger.

So I think Pikes are the better fork, the only downsides are weight and price. If you're on a budget or you're a fairly relaxed rider like most people are, I suspect you'll be very happy with Revs, and you'll save a decent amount of weight, too. If you're looking to ride harder, then Pikes are worth the extra.

The answer is always Pikes!

I'm 12.5 stone.

I think both the pike and revelation come with a 15mm maxle?

I've got fox fit 32 with qr on my current Anthem which I can't say I've found flexy, but I probably just don't know any better. Both the pike and revelation should be a big improvement. I've tried the killi flyer with a 120mm 32mm x-fusion velvet fork, which felt good and definitely better than my current fox, but wasn't used in wooded/technical area. I tried a Transition Scout with 140mm 35mm pike in the woods and loved it, but can't therefore really compare the two. I somehow preferred the feel of the killi flyer (possibly because I know the scout is out of my price range!).

Thanks again

I have both in 29er flavour, both RCT3.

The pike is stiffer, sits taller in its travel. It's damping is pretty composed and it's very fluid and responsive to inputs.
The Rev is not quite as stiff, tends to be a bit more plungy on steep slow tech and does not quite as readily give its travel in normal use, feeling a little bit more platform damped. I completely acclimatise to the differences in the forks in under 5 minutes when I switch bikes.

That's it really. If they were both the same price it would be Pikes every time, but they're not. There is now a significant price differential. I'm not sure the performance gains the pike gives are with 150 -200 extra quid at this time. Maybe if you like air time, but I'm not a jumping monkey.

Unless the Mynd has been hit by a huge earthquake since I last rode there then I'd go with a Revelation. I used a 29er Reba on the North Shore of Vancouver for a year and yes, it wasn't stiff but not horribly flexy either. I've also had a 650b Rev and it felt fine. Sure my Suntour Auron is stiffer but it's not a deal breaker. The Long Mynd climbs are pretty long so I'd rather knock a few grams off the bike and go with a smaller fork. To be honest, last time I rode there, I was on a borrowed GT Zaskar with a Marzocchi Z2 and that felt fine!

BUT, if you are thinking of banging out some laps of the old DH lines at Eastridge and the like then the Pike would start making more sense. Depends of what you see yourself riding in the future.

If you can afford the Pikes get them, if you can't Revs are pretty damn good second.

Ive just bought some 2015 revs,for my hard tail & going out on them first time later,so i'll tell ya ,theyre 27.5 150's !!!.. 😉

[i]If you can afford the Pikes get them, if you can't Revs are pretty damn good second. [/i]

This.

I've 150mm 2014 Revs on my HT and 160mm 2015 Pikes on my FS, both 26".

The Pikes are brilliant; stiff plus really hold up the front end and they weigh the same as the Revs.

FWIW the Pikes replaced a pair of 150mm 32 Talas, better by a country-mile.

I've got Revs on 29er wheels and weigh about 11st - they're great - take all the sort of riding I do. I'm not super quick or anything, but they were absolutely fine in the Italian Riveria rocks recently. I'd still be tempted to upgrade to Pikes at some point for the stiffness at some point if I had the (spare) money.

I sold my Pikes but kept my Revs. (Partly because my Pikes were worth a few hundred quid and my Revs are worth ****-all but still). I never really got on with the Pikes and didn't really want to put the time and maybe money into making them better- imo other than weight the performance was quite far from my Lyriks so I went back to them.

For me the Revs are stiff enough and I've got them working how I want (which, to be fair, did take time and effort).

None of them is a bad fork though and these differences are all opinion stuff so ymmv. But I was pretty underwhelmed by the Pikes, overall, especially after all the hype and five stars.

Interesting comments from NW on the lyrics. I don't own any, but a colleague has some and I've ridden his bike. They did indeed feel better than the pikes.

Thanks everyone.
Going with the revelation RCT3, which Im told now have exactly the same internals as the pike.
For my style of riding and weight, the revelations should be more than capable and 200 squid cheaper.
Just got to decide on tyres now, but thats a completely different topic ! Im thinking the new nobby nic 2, or trail king protection, or high roller 2.
Cheers
Craig

Going with the revelation RCT3, which Im told now have exactly the same internals as the pike.

Either way I'm sure you'll be happy with the revs.

Went from a 150mm Rev to a 150mm Pike on my 26" Five. Wouldn't swap back. My Pikes are the basic model, £320 online from France, and they're mint at everything and weigh nowt. Revs were good, just not this good when the going gets really rough.

What travel are you planning on running the forks at on the kili flyer? I'm thinking of getting one myself and they all come with 120mm forks, would be interesting to hear someone's experience of them with 140m or so forks

I bought Northwind's Pikes... 🙂

I bought Northwind's Pikes... 🙂

They've replaced the Revs on my Rocket. No, they're not as good in terms of suspension performance as the old coil Lyrics I have floating around, but with my 63kg on board they're almost as stiff and WAY more solid than the Revs, and they don't make the bike feel heavy the same way the Lyrics do.

I've still to get the "perfect" set up, but they're pretty good now - certainly more comfortable more of the time than the Revs. It's about getting the right balance of LSC and spring rate so that I can get full travel when needed, not have them overly divey, but also not have the harshness that comes from too much LSC.

Kili Flyer owner here, agonised at length over which fork and after talking to the guys from Saracen I decided on 130mm Fox 34's, with smaller wheels and relatively little travel, The 34's feel easily stiff enough and I'm far from a small chap. Bike handles beautifully, knock spots off old Trance-X on the descents and isn't noticeably slower on the way back up.

If you're going to be riding anything that 'requires' Pikes or 36's you probably should be looking at a more gravity focused frame.

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