Currently I have 140mm travel on my filing cabinet forks and have seen a good deal on some pikes with 160mm travel.

Will I notice a massive difference to the handling/ geometry with the 20mm travel increase?

Anyone else done similar?

1 degree slacker HA, raise the BB a bit (all whilst static).

For around £40 you can buy a new airshaft for the Pikes and run them at 140 or 150 travel, the DebonAir version is the one to go for.

Also, if you look at the filing cabinet archive it shows max fork travel.
https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bike-archive/

Is that on a Five? Stage 5?

If the new fork has the Debonair shaft and the old one doesn’t then it’ll sit a bit deeper and use that early travel up easier anyway.

If you haven’t already, offset bushings or an angleset will lower your BB and compensate a bit for the higher fork.

My Stage 6 is perfect with a 170mm fork and offset bushings (but that’s only 10mm longer than recommended).

Its a 2015 Five.
I’ve seen some pikes RCT3 solo air for not much money.
On the orange website it states 150mm max.

It’s pretty easy/cheap to change the travel on pikes, if you really can’t get on with them.

I think if you’re keen on the Pikes as a general upgrade just go for it.

I don’t think the extra fork length will completely ruin the bike, you’ll probably just notice it’s different and adjust accordingly.

If it does really not work for you as is, there’s the option of a new air shaft, angleset, and offset bushings to tweak the geometry back to what you prefer.

I say this as someone running a mk1 Saracen Ariel, which is a 26er designed for a 140mm fork, with a 160mm 650b fork and offset bushings 🙂

Has your warranty expired anyway then? I reckon it’s be pretty great with 160mm fork and offset bushings – as the 20mm travel mis-match is so good on my S6.

And remember when the Five AM was a big thing? The 26in Fives with the 160mm Fox 36.

I popped a pair of 140mm forks on my hardtail replacing some 120mm that were recommended for the frame. I couldn’t really tell any difference except the forks feel better, but that was the reason for an upgrade. I’m sure I will probably die when the head tube rips off and everything else explodes, but so far I’m loving it.

It will be fine. My Segment is meant to be 120mm max but I picked up some 150mm Fox 36 in the CRC ubersale a while back and they are ace on it. I run them reasonably soft and have noticed to ill effects what so ever. Had 140mm Pikes on it before that and they worked well too.

I ran a 2016 Five with 160mm Yaris a while back, was fine.

Thanks for all the advice.
I’ve gone out and bought some 160mm travel Pikes for £375 non boost.
If anyone’s interested I’ll post a psa