Having read this months MBUK review of trail forks and seen their decision (Fox won). Anyone got an opinion on this? There are a few places still selling the Air u-turn pikes at under £400.

Fun Me. Not one person on this forum has an opinion on this. Think I’ll go and join bike gadar 🙁

Half term so noone’s at work to play in t’interweb.

Got both (well float R and Pike non-uturn air). Depends on use. At 16st Floats are too weedy in their QR guise for a full sus, but nice on the 456. The Pikes are nice on the full sus.

If you’re lighter (and most are) the answer might be different. Or on a different bike.

That might not have been that helpful reading it back.

maybe no ones owned both sets of forks to give you advice? For what it’s worth i really like my pikes but then they’re coil, i wouldn’t bother with air ones and i’ve never owned any fox forks!

have a look back a few days on stanchion wear of Fox’s as a starter.

I’ve not ridden “Fox Float 32 RL”s but have nothing but good things to say about my Pikes (Air U-turn)

I’ve got some 32 Float Rl’s (QR version) on my Trek Fuel ex8 but was thinking of sticking them on my Hardtail (dialled PA) and getting some pikes for the Trek.

Hugo – roughly what I did. I liked the result.

Iain

Cheers Iain

Does the extra 10mm of travel affect the handling at all?

The QR Floats can be a bit flexy if pushed really hard, but they’re significantly lighter than the Pikes. Pikes are a lot stiffer, but are significantly heavier than the Floats. You pays your money…

i’m just in the process of putting a set of pikes on my orange 5, replacing the fox float r QRs. they’re light, but i feel like they noodle about compared even to QR revelations. interested to see how the pikes feel.

Hugo – In a word, yes. But given the bike (Five 2005) was designed for 130 to 150mm travel (and who knows what axel to crown) not in a bad way. Doesn’t seem tpo affect the climbs noticable but just feels a lot more stable – ‘course that could be because the forks aren’t flexing as much (which they aren’t trust me) but that doesn’t explain why the Floats feel good on the 456.

RJ – Agreed spot on but at 16st guess which is more noticeable, flex or weight?

I guess like I said on another thread on this topic (it is a perennial isn’t it?) this is choice that depends on riding style, size, bike etc. There is no “right” choice only the choice that’s right for you. Do what I did and borrow a set off someone to test- there are enough around.

Now Hugo, what you have to ask yourself is are you feeling big and heavy?

Iain

note that the fox’s are longer a to c by about 10mm i think. probably bog-all difference in the real world.

I got 454 air Pikes for my 5Spot. They’ve been back twice under warranty for weird knocking / leaking oil / compression lockout coming loose etc. This all happened after very little use. They are working again now and nice enough but if buying again or if I had know what I know now would get 454 coil.

Coil 426 Pikes on another bike have been fine from secondhand and much more use.

Not ridden Floats.

Personally really like maxle / bolt thru’.

Not at all impressed with the QR Float 140 RLs. I’m under 12st and mine felt quite wobbly.

If you can take the weight, then the air Pike makes a lot of sense, otherwise what about the air Rev with maxle? I got some for £450 from CRC recently, don’t know if they’ve gone up now though.

my 2007 Orange Five came with Fox 32 Float 140 QR forks and they were VERY flexy, i quite often found myself fighting with the steering as they did not track very well, nice and plush but 140mm travel and QR’s didn’t do it for me

now running pike air u-turn forks and these are much better, the increased axel to crown height of the pikes is not an issue, and according to the orange 2007 website this model of the five is best suited to a 150mm fork and warrantied up to a 160mm one

no experience of the fox 15mm TA model

I’ve got both. The Fox has the better suspension action. The Pike is stiffer. The Fox has behaved itself. The Pike has not. The fluid leaked out of the u turn adjust. The lowers were wobbly and didn’t hold the wheel stiff enough leaving loads of movement so I had them replaced on warranty BUT it took Fisher Outdoor 7 odd weeks to come up with new lowers. Then we found that the uppers were out of alignment so they were replaced. The suspension action was poor so I had them pushed by TFT. And the suspension action was still poor…….so I’ve kinda given up on them and got a second hand RC41XCAM from “allthegear” on here….And the Pace knocks both of them into touch for tracking, stiffness and suspension action.

Ive had both and the Pikes win, The foxs are ok but flexed too much for my liking and my coil pikes feel better

Can’t fault the Floats on my 06 Enduro. Don’t actually know anyone who doesn’t ride Fox so can’t comment there but have no personal knowledge on ANY issues apart from on here. Not a hard rider but pedal much of Afan descents and see no problems.

I can only compare the Floats to qr Revs.

Floats: Lighter, better suspension action with a more linear stroke.
Revs: Slightly stiffer.