So I’m still struggling to get my 26″ 160mm Pike RCT3s to work as I think they should. (bought second hand)

I’ve rebuilt the damper, as they were leaking out the foot valve (common issue), which has improved things.

Spring rate is now sorted – 1.5 bottomless tokens @48psi gives 30% sag(in the attack position), and I can just about bottom them out off big stuff.

My big issue is rebound damping. If I run the rebound at the speed I want it, the fork loses all small bump sensitivity – just spinning along on average fireroad feels like it’s locked out (99% sure they’re not packing down). Wind off 1 click of rebound and most (but not all) of the harshness goes, but then the rebound spikes massively on hard compressions – proper front wheel bouncing off the ground moments, which has almost caused a number of high speed wipeouts. At the best of times with this faster rebound setting it’s a bit more lively than I like, although on fast open Peaks stuff (so middling round edged hits) it feels absolutely brilliant, until I hit something big or land into some rocks when it goes haywire.

I always run the fork full open, floodgate wound all the way off. I’m about 64kg + kit

Now I’m really surprised that changing rebound can affect compression so much on what’s supposed to be a top-end fork. I know there’s a bit of an issue with rebound spiking (hence the FAST & Avalanche upgrades), but I’m not usually that fussy about fork setup, so I’m a bit puzzled by the trouble I’ve had.

Ideas? I can send them off to TF for a FAST upgrade, but that’s a LOT of cash, and a very significant chunk of the purchase price.

Ta!

Email TFTuned and ask their opinion/advice, they’re usually very helpful when I email them and happy to talk through options and explain stuff when I pop the forks in.

I always run the fork full open,

Depending how you ride, that could be a bad idea, as you’ll be running your air pressure higher to compensate for bottoming-out, and maybe running faster rebound so it stays high in the travel. Compression damping is there to be used – so use it 🙂

I run about 7-8 clicks of compression damping, 2 tokens, and pretty slow rebound.

How the fork feels in he car park doesn’t translate to the real world, as the rapid recovery means the rebound in the bottom of the stroke is a lot quicker than in the top. So run it slower than you normally would, get he right amount of sag, and wind in few more clicks of compression damping.

Try – middle position rebound, middle position compression, set sag to 20% – go ride for a good few trails. If it feels harsh and you’re not getting a good amount of travel, back off the compression. If the fork feels like it’s sitting too low in the travel aftr repeated hits, reduce he rebound damping.

Do that all one click at a time, as one click makes a big difference to the Pike.

Sorry to sneak in!

I have the same fork as the op and that was some interesting info there rickon, cheers.

Rickon – I’ve been riding this fork for about 6 months now. Switching the damper to “mid” effectively locks it out for me – it just doesn’t move unless I’m riding full tilt into kerbs. When open – adding a click or 2 of floodgate makes the fork feel harsh again.

I spent quite a lot of time experimenting with air pressure and tokens. 2 tokens, whatever I did, meant I couldn’t get full travel – usually a good inch short of that, even going off decent size drops, although it did feel pretty good to ride. 1 token made the fork feel over active and mushy for a given level of sag. Add in floodgate and it started feeling harsh, and still rather inclined to be soggy once it did start moving. The 1.5 I’m currently using is a decent compromise.

With the possible exception of my old coil Lyrics, I’ve never yet found a fork where I liked the feel of adding compression damping – I always end up running them wide open – bob has never been an issue, and I usually find if the spring rate & progression is right, then the fork sits correctly in it’s travel and I don’t end up with excessive dive either.

Out of interest Rickon – how heavy are you?

Try 25% sag in the attack position, all settings at 50%.

Switching the damper to “mid” effectively locks it out for me – it just doesn’t move unless I’m riding full tilt into kerbs. When open – adding a click or 2 of floodgate makes the fork feel harsh again.

Hang on, if you are setting the lockout lever to the middle position then you are indeed effectively locking it out, that is the threshold mode, it won’t move unless you ride into a kerb/rock, that is what it is designed to do – lockout until a sufficiently big hit breaks the threshold and the fork moves.

Aside from that your rebound issues sound like you’ve borked the damper unit when you rebuilt it to be honest! The compression and rebound assemblies are seperate so I don’t see how they can interact unless something is wrong.

By floodgate are you referring to the low speed compression dial in the middle?

Try 25% sag in the attack position, all settings at 50%.

This is just going to make the fork stiffer? As I said, I’m happy with the spring rate.

Hang on, if you are setting the lockout lever to the middle position then you are indeed effectively locking it out, that is the threshold mode, it won’t move unless you ride into a kerb/rock, that is what it is designed to do – lockout until a sufficiently big hit breaks the threshold and the fork moves.

Sorry, that was me misreading Rickon’s post – I thought he was telling me to try the fork set there when he said “middle position compression”. Obviously he actually meant floodgate.

By floodgate are you referring to the low speed compression dial in the middle?

Yup.

Aside from that your rebound issues sound like you’ve borked the damper unit when you rebuilt it to be honest!

I didn’t actually touch the rebound damper itself, other than to pull it out the lower seal head and then put it back in again a few minutes later – all I actually did was replace the shaft seal in the seal head which is what had been leaking, then reassembled and rebled the damper.

The compression and rebound assemblies are seperate so I don’t see how they can interact unless something is wrong.

Exactly my thoughts! Although there must be a return circuit for oil flow through the rebound piston, and I wonder if that’s somehow restricted/compromised.

Get it sent off to J-tech for a full service and custom tune to your weight/riding style. Had mine done for my 29er and it is mint.

I often run mine full open too (rc version).

I just add two clicks for pedally enduro stages or flat rides.

Also rarely get full travel but I’ve been putting off faffing with setup until service time – which is next week.

I realise this isn’t much help, but I’ll read the thread with interest anyway.

This is a good read and pretty useful http://nsmb.com/rock-shox-tuning-camp/

Sorry, that was me misreading Rickon’s post – I thought he was telling me to try the fork set there when he said “middle position compression”. Obviously he actually meant floodgate.

I think he may have the RC version of the damper, which I’ve also had, so he’ll be referring to the low speed compression which is the small dial on your forks, but is a lever on the RC.

You might cause confusion referring to floodgate, that was the name given to the adjustable compression blow-off threshold/gate on motion control damped forks, I’m not sure it is valid with the Charger damper forks.

Have you checked if you have air pressure build up in your fork lowers? It’s a common problem on RS forks, air leaks out the -ve spring into the lowers and makes them feel odd, and lose small bump sensitivity. Been a few threads on here and mtbr, basically you can release the air through the hole in the fork lowers or carefully sliding a small zip tie under the dust wipers to release the air, though you can damage the seals doing that if you aren’t careful.

Have you checked if you have air pressure build up in your fork lowers? It’s a common problem on RS forks, air leaks out the -ve spring into the lowers and makes them feel odd, and lose small bump sensitivity

Having played this game with assorted Sids, Rebas and Revs I’m well aware of that one!

It’s not this though, as riding on level gravel fireroad I can feel the difference in harshness that plus/minus one click of rebound makes.

If I could get rid of the spiking on hard impacts, I’d be very happy with the faster rebound setting, as it does work beautifully on mid sized stuff.

Im surprised you need any tokens at your weight.

I run 1 token, 30% sag, 1-4 clicks off LSC depending on terrain. No idea on rebound, just slow enough that its not like a pogo but fast enough to push back up a little. I’m 100k btw.

Stupid question but you are turning the LSC the right way? All the way anti-clockwise is off, clicks clockwise is adding.

Yeah I’m probably not far off 90kg kitted up and ran one token on 26″ pikes. With two I just wasn’t using the last inch of travel. I found the Pike fairly sensitive to pressure, few psi too much and things started feeling harsh.