Pike 454 to 2011 Revelations – upgrade?

I’m guessing that most RS parts are interchangable as long as the lowers diameter & thread are similar.

Mostly I think, with a few exceptions – I just swapped the inners from a set of Pike Air U-Turns into the chassis of my Pike Coil U-Turns for example, but there are a few things that won’t work. There’s a difference between air and coil air u-turn because the insides of the fork tubes on coil or u-turn forks isn’t – supposedly – smooth enough for the seals of an air set-up to work with. And obviously, if you put 140mm coils in a 150mm chassis, you’ll only get a 140mm fork, albeit, I guess, with more overlap between stanchions and lowers. But mostly it’ll work ime.

Just in case anyone’s interested, I’ve just stuck a Black Box rebound damper assembly in a Sektor Coil U-Turn fork – the original Sektor damper does, as people have told me, include a negative spring which sits kebab-style on the damper rod. It’s a pretty feeble spring, to be honest and I wonder how much it actually achieves, maybe a little car park plush on the initial spring movement.

Anyway, after some thought, I popped it back onto the Black Box damper rod on the basis that it fitted okay and I can always take it off if things feel wrong, and screwed it all back together.

Haven’t ridden it yet, so I have no idea what it’ll do the fork in real life, but all being well, it should basically upgrade the high speed rebound so it copes better with repeated high speed hits – flat out through rockeries etc, which is where non Dual Flow RS forks tend to choke and kick around.

Will hopefully get out on the Pace tomorrow somewhere rocky and fast and will report back. If it works, then it’s a 70-quid upgrade to a fork that only cost me around £300 that should give it a bit more high speed control and make for a very nice trail fork.

I also have a spare Pike MoCo which I might bang on for the added flood gate adjustability, but I’m not sure it’ll make any real performance difference.

Just in case anyone’s wondering, the rebound damper transplant is a dead easy, 15-minute max job. Basically pop the lowers off, undo circlip with fork legs inverted to stop damper oil pissing out, slide out rebound damper assembly, lube o-rings on new damper assembly, slide back in carefully, reinstall circlip making sure it’s fully seated, pop legs back on and add some lubricant to compensate for any you’ve lost in the process. Job’s a good un.

BadlyWiredDog – Member

Just in case anyone’s interested, I’ve just stuck a Black Box rebound damper assembly in a Sektor Coil U-Turn fork – the original Sektor damper does, as people have told me, include a negative spring which sits kebab-style on the damper rod. It’s a pretty feeble spring, to be honest and I wonder how much it actually achieves, maybe a little car park plush on the initial spring movement.

Interested to hear how well this works on the trail. I thought that spring was more for a soft top out rather than being a negative spring in the air-fork sense.

Possibly you’re right about the top out, I guess I’ll find out tomorrow, but as I’ve transferred the spring, I’d expect it to feel similar to stock… Feels fine on a quick blast around the block and some high speed kerbs, like a normal Sektor in fact, which isn’t any great surprise. Fwiw, my experience with standard Pike and Sektor is that mostly they’re fine, but if you really gun it down something like Potato Ally in the Peak, the front end gets distinctly lairy. Hayfield side of Jacob’s as well, that sort of thing.

In fact, it’s actually a ‘top-out spring’ rather than a ‘negative’ one. That makes sense. I need to think harder…

Is the top out spring just loose on the damper? My pikes could do with a softer top out so adding a spring could be the answer.

Yeah, it just sits on the damper rod so you can slide it off, the only thing to be careful of is what it’s seated on I guess. Pikes have a second spring in the coil leg already. Never had a problem with harsh top-out on either of my Pikes, are you sure you don’t just need a touch more rebound damping?

Possibly yes, I’ve only just got them so not really finished tuning to my tastes yet.

Just whoomphed the black-boxed Sektors over the Jacob’s Ladder track, feel ace, compliant and very composed at high speed, which was where they were a little iffy before.

As good as my Pushed Pikes, I think, which I really rate. I stuck the original top-out spring kebab style on the new black box rebound damper, no issues with harsh top-out or anything else so far.

Just a very nice 150mm coil u-turn fork that seems on a par with Push upgrades and the latest Revelations, both of which I’ve ridden. Nice upgrade, worth doing if you ride fast rocky stuff in the Peak etc.

It’s bloody hot out though – lovely 🙂

Feel good with the BB gubbins in don’t they 😉 just been sending a few rebound assms. out today for various 32mm Rockshox.

Yeah, I’m chuffed, for 70 quid for the damper and 15 minutes of straightforward tweaking, I’d say it’s a pretty good upgrade, Cheers to the fella who posted the eBay link further up the thread 🙂

£70 pricey 😉

Cheers for options and feedback on the black box damper – definately ordering myself some Revelation RLT Ti dual air in 150mm. Looking forward to trying to find their limits!

Cheers for options and feedback on the black box damper – definately ordering myself some Revelation RLT Ti dual air in 150mm. Looking forward to trying to find their limits!

You won’t be disappointed. I’m on my 4th week on the RLT Ti’s having replaced my Pike 454’s. You need to play around with the setup much more, and I run 150psi compared to 125psi on the Pikes, plus I actually use the compression damper which I didn’t used to.

They seem very plush compared to the Pikes, with much better small bump sensitivity. Currently experimenting with the best combo of air pressure, compression damping, gate and reboud to get the best set up for me

£70 pricey

So what are you charging for a BB rebound damper? Might be buying another one.

Oh, and are there any issues with sticking a Pike Air U-Turn assembly in the chassis which originally housed a Coil U-Turn?

Only problem now is I seem to have half talked myself into a new frame to hang the forks on! Frame is likely to come with tapered head tube but can’t find the Rev’s in the UK with a tapered steerer.

I guess the non-tapered steerer is more versatile and easier to sell, plus can go on my Meta now while I make my mind up if I am going to change the frame!

5 months of dithering and I finally picked up some 2011 RLT Ti’s this week. Fitted last night and there’s a decent weight saving – about 430g.

2005ish Pike 454 Dual Air U-turn are 2200g inc Maxle.
2011 Revs are 1770g inc Maxle after cutting the steerer (1800g uncut).

Will hammer them this weekend to check the damping and chassis strength!

430g?

Wow. I have a set waiting to go on my bike, plus crest rims replacing DT 5.1s, and will be going tubeless too. Could be losing two and a half pounds, by the looks of it.

I’ve just gone (as of last night) from coil 454 Pikes (20mm Maxle/1.125″ steerer) to 2011 RLT Revs (air, 15mm Maxle, tapered). The Pikes (with a sizeable crown race still attached) weighed in at 5.45lbs…the Revs came in at 4.00lbs 😯

Will be off out tomorrow to see how they ride, can’t wait!

I’m going to have to wait for a ride as I didn’t realise the post to post mount would need an adaptor for my 180mm rotor. First ride on Sunday.

I saved about 650g off the bike earlier in the year and it made a big difference (seat, post, bashguard, about 200g in the wheels) so hoping it’ll be good but really looking forward to hitting some fast rocky stuff and testing what I’ve heard about the damping.

Hi, I have some Recon 351 Solo air 140mm 2010, does anybody know if the BB rebound damper will fit? Thanks