read a review from 2012 maiking it sound quite problematic.
would be ideal for round where i live but seems not widely available.
opinion please

I have it, and had it on my previous set of Pikes too. For a normal rider it works perfectly well with no noticeable affect on performance at full travel. If you’re super sensitive or a really top notch rider you’ll notice a difference I’m sure but for an average user there’s no downside.

I’ve had no issues with them breaking or anything like that.

I have a 120/150 Pike DPA bought because it was cheaper than a solo air at the time and I thought it would be a good idea on the hardtail. It has been absolutely fine. I have to admit I hardly ever use the 120 setting and when I do I suspect there is less resistance to bottoming out but I’m really not sure. If the prices were equal I’d stick with the simplicity of the solo air but that’s because I’m cheap and not really all that bothered about the DPA bit.

A lot of the early grumbling was because you couldn’t fit air spacers, but they’ve changed that now so you can disregard anythng along those lines. I think it got a bit linked in people’s heads with the old 2-step air as well, which was a reliability disaster, but it’s a totally different system.

I’ve got a 2012 vintage Lyrik 120/160 on my Meta AM. It’s perfect for what I do. Helps a bit on climbs or long fire road sections but shoots up to gnarly slope slayer at the turn of a dial.

I’m probably wouldn’t notice a lot of difference between that and a new spangly fork though…….

Edit: Actually mine could be a 2-step, I’ve no idea. See i’m not the right person to be answering this question!!

Can you whip out the DPA air spring and swap in a solo air? The ordinary air springs are prettty cheap.

you definately can’t with Sektors/Revelations – what i’ve been researching for my sektors. it states clearly and repeatedly in the 2017 RS spares catalogue that dual air and DPA internals are not compatable with solo air CSU, and vice versa. bit annoyed cos i thought for i minute i could just do the swap and jobsagoodun…

so it looks like i’ll need to afford a pike at some point.
well i knew that already…
ho hum

<not an actual fact> I’ve heard that the fork uppers in Pikes are different and mean that the air springs aren’t interchangable- a transfer port or something. Which is annoying because dpa CSUs cost basically nothing, £35 or so compared to hundreds for solos.

yep, i’ll be sure to get dual positions from the off if i want them.
annoying too for those that decide it’s too much hassle and would rather swap to solo air. no go.

so what is different about the CSUs which prevents dual in solo and vice versa?
anyone know?

AH, found it- I had it the wrong way round but, the solo has a transfer port in the CSU which the dual position lacks.

There were some really good deals on Amazon for pikes the other day

I have no proof of the specifics, but i suspect the spring rate curve of the DPA differs compared to the solo air in ways that you can’t tune out with spacers.

The DPA balances the positive and negative at topout. The solo balances them when the main piston seal traverses the transfer port which is a little way into the travel. This implies the DPA will have preload that the solo air won’t have. Numbers run by someone else suggest about 5kg.

Depending on how you optimise the rest of your setup this could be a good or a bad thing. I just don’t think it is appropriate to expect 100% parity between two fundamentally different designs.

Caveats.

The interwebs will provide world views:
1.stick a coil in there; everything is better with a coil; linear innit?!
2.add bottomless tokens to get plush up top and support; progressive innit?!

FWIW,I have a DPA Pike (came with the bike) and I’ve (recently) learned how to get it to my liking: less sag; fast rebound; lots of lsc. This tamed the braking bumps in Morzine sufficiently and I was enjoying my high speed riding more than ever.

YMMV