The reviews only really seem to cover pre 2012 and post 2014.

I know the original talas was notchy in performance and alot of people converted to floats.

Anyone had experience of 12/13 36 Talas?

Doubt there’d be much different to the 2010 36es, it wasn’t until 2014 they did much with them.

Did the Float conversion thing on my 2010s and didn’t notice much, if any difference, never been notchy though.

Unless you really need travel adjust I’d suggest going for a float or vanilla as the performance and reliability isn’t as good with the Talas tbh. (also more expensive to service)
The current Talas 5 system is an improvement on the older systems but the floats still feel nicer.

Got some on the Alpine. Very good fork indeed. The suggested pressures are way too high though.

They’ve been really reliable & only needed a dribble of air every so often. I’ve done the seals & wipers just a couple of times in 3 years. I spoil the stanchions / seals a bit with a float fluid wipe down after every clean though which stretches the life considerably.

The talas system is pretty good. Not sure it actually knocks 40mm off the travel though – more like 30. Lockout / blowoff works ok. i really should spend some time fiddling with the settings to get the blowoff circuit tuned into a more set and forget mode.

I had a set, they were decent forks, no real notchyness to speak of. Travel adjust and lockout was moderately useful for me. tended to blow through travel and dive abit on steep stuff though.

Have switched to some marz 55 rc3 ti forks now, these are miles better in terms of performance, but heavier.

Another thing the RC2 damper is a better unit as well

I spoil the stanchions / seals a bit with a float fluid wipe down after every clean though which stretches the life considerably.

I did this religiously too with my 36 Float R’s that I had for two years in two of the worse winters of gritstone in the Peaks. Never had any stanchion wear.

Float/RC2 may be slightly better however its marginally more expensive too. Pricewise these are a steal.

£399 for new ones (NOS) is good no? I considered RC3T Pikes but the stories on here and riding mates who had travel sucking down and knocking ontop kinda puts me off abit.

I saw you sold your “unique” 55s

Why not try the Manitou Mattoc Pro?

Tried Manipoos once. Never again sadly.

I had a set of 2010 TALAS 36 RC2 (thats the ones with the old style bladder that can’t be serviced anymore). I really loved the idea of the 160-130-100 travel to suit my ‘do it all’ Slackline.

They were very ‘meh’. I had them serviced and converted to the newer inverted FIT RC2 by Mojo at a very good price (as they were very understanding that Fox’s decision to make a 3 year old damper obsolete was pretty crappy).

They were still pretty ‘meh’.

I then changed the TALAS to a FLOAT spring (and spaced down to 140mm). Now they are nice forks. The sort of fork you don’t really notice – in a good way.

On my other bike I have a set of Dual Position Pike RC3’s. They are much better forks that the Fox. But you won’t want to hear that, or believe it. No sucking down, no top out clunk…and if they did develop those faults I’d get them repaired.

Even getting a good deal second hand, the 36’s cost me a lot more money, by the time I had them sorted, than a pair of Pikes would have done and aren’t as good. Really wish I had just gone for a set of Pikes in the first place. Especially now the cheaper RC’s are around as I can’t see any disadvantage over the RC3’s.

Why did you sell your wondrous 55’s?

I dont buy into the rockshox internals being way better in pikes than what theyve had them in previously.

Sold the 55’s as I couldnt climb at all with them. Even in 150mm with rheir longer a-c. I always jumped off and push.

I had my Fox36 floats set at 140. I can always do the same with the 36’s at any point. To me 399 new is a great deal for me.

Plus your one of the lucky ones. No need to add spacers? No need to return to germany etc for warranty repair? Too high a chance of top out or sucking down.

It’s the same old story; hugely popular product is always going to have some people with issues and they are going to be the ones who bother posting about it (see also Reverbs). If everyone who had perfectly functioning Pikes posted in every Pike thread you’d have an extremely long and boring thread.

Also your comment about spacers – do you mean the bottomless tokens? If so then you don’t have those with the dual-position (which I assume is what you are after as you are talking about TALAS).

Ok dual post (posted on another thread just now)-

RCT3 Solo Air Maxle Lite Taper 650B 2015 or 150 or 160 are 500…

should I go go for it?

There is a 26 option- I suppose I could run my current 26 front wheel with 650b for now.

This morning I also asked another stw’er who I trust on his opinion (who has had problems with his Pikes) and he still said Pikes all the way.

For 500 – should I go for it/150mm or 160mm?

This morning I also asked another stw’er who I trust on his opinion (who has had problems with his Pikes) and he still said Pikes all the way.

If you can be persuaded by one person they are now fine, did you really have you spend the last six months spamming every Pike thread about how they are crap/creak/knock etc.?

If you want more Pike advice I suggest you first go though your posting history for the last year and in every thread you’ve slagged them off, just add a post admitting you and a f*cking idiot. Ta.

I’m not a big fan on when forks go wrong. The reason why I lent towards Fox was simply because I never had an issue with Fox forks.

I’ve had issues with almost every Rockshox and Marzocchi fork that I’ve owned.

Looking at posts in the last month. The latest on stanchion wear.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/search.php?search=pike&advanced=1&exact=1&posts=1&highlight=1&users=0&located=3&forums%5B%5D=1&maxcount=100&age=31&direction=0&sort=date&order=0

Can you see there is quite a few Pike issues on STW alone? You may argue well people shout when theres an issue but the vast majority of Pike owners wont even visit forums let alone just STW.

I pointed out the issues because (A) its fair game and (B) its the next big thing that isn’t fault free is it?

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one:

just add a post admitting you and a f*cking idiot

No read what I’ve just typed. Then zip up your mouth. Tight.

Sold the 55’s as I couldnt climb at all with them. Even in 150mm with rheir longer a-c. I always jumped off and push.

lol – that is all.

Is the following comment on a pair of forks you’ve never owned (or perhaps even ridden?);

Pike’s have fantastic internal technology, they come with KNOCK Tech and can actively detect when you need to reduce travel via their SUCKDOWN (TM) technology.

a) Helpful advice

b) Being a smug tw*t

🙄

This morning I also asked another stw’er who I trust on his opinion (who has had problems with his Pikes) and he still said Pikes all the way.

If you can be persuaded by one person they are now fine, did you really have you spend the last six months spamming every Pike thread about how they are crap/creak/knock etc.?

If you want more Pike advice I suggest you first go though your posting history for the last year and in every thread you’ve slagged them off, just add a post admitting you and a f*cking idiot. Ta.

copies this for future use on the 3 threads you have running on ‘i hate pikes, no wait i love em after all’ 😯

Pike’s have fantastic internal technology, they come with KNOCK Tech and can actively detect when you need to reduce travel via their SUCKDOWN (TM) technology.

err that was a joke post following previous posts on that thread.

Do you get personally offended over all inanimate objects or merely outraged but confused.