Heard these are great for making Pikes (and others) a bit more stable, supportive and controlled on big hits and choppy ground.  Anyone know?  Anyone used one? My Pikes are 140mm, the posh model, if that makes a difference. Thanks.

I’ve had a Luftkappe in my pikes for just under a year now, don’t really notice it now, prob just used to it! but impressions are –

Less diving with same plushness

Takes away that shitty first clunky 10mm feel of the travel

It just works

Quite a few of us have them, there are some situations they work better in that others.

In short they give you much firmer mid-stroke which allows you a plush top end without bottoming out every time you touch the brakes.

As the others have said it does what it’s supposed to and does it well the only drawback I’ve found for me and it’s a personal thing is that by design it wants to run a deeper sag when set up correctly and then moves easier into next portion of the travel which is fine for me on flatter areas but I like the front end ride height to stay higher on steeper stuff.

An alternative upgrade that could yield similar results cheaper is to retro fit  the newer rockshox 2019 debonair air spring for just over 40 quid.

I’ve got it in my 130mm pikes, it definitely allows you to make it more plush at the start of the stroke, but being supportive and not diving through the travel. Worth it imo. I’m still playing with pressure but it’s better set up now than pre luftkappe.

Can’t comment on pikes, but recently fitted one to my fox 36’s and definitely worth the £80. Less wooden feeling when not pushing it hard, better small bump, better mid stroke support. Nothing to not like

I think the only caveat I’d have is that if you’re running a fork at its max travel (like a 27.5″ Pike at 160mm) then it will be quite progressive even without any tokens.

I like it, particularly on my Zero AM hardtail with 150mm Pikes. Good on my Spitfire with 160mm ones too, even though I’d rather have a bit less progression at the end of the stroke (but I do ride fairly off the back). I didn’t try it in my Zero’s Pikes when they were at 130mm but I bet it would have been a ton better – they felt really soggy in the midstroke.

If you look at the spring rate curve for most forks, it’s U-shaped when they’re set at short travel, becoming J-shaped at long travel (ie the first two thirds of the stroke is the same but they ramp up more). With the Luftkappe it’s like you’re multiplying that shape by this shape / and as you can imagine, that helps the U curve a lot but can make the J curve too extreme.