PUSH'ed forks

Has anyone on here had their forks PUSHed?
My pikes need a good service. I could do it myself except the bushings need replaced/resized.

CRC full service including bushings etc will be about £85 (no P&P as they are local to me)

TFT offer the PUSH conversion on pikes for £139 + P&P (£26!!!)

Is the PUSH conversion worth the extra?

not sure if this helps but i sent my 5th element rear shock off to tf for tuning and when they received it was damaged beyond repair
my first reaction was to buy another 5th element but tf suggetsed that a pushed VanR would be at least as good

having received it back, but only ridden it once, it feels awesome – plush and responsive
this is nt just because it has been serviced as i get all my shocks/forks serviced once a year

based on this i will get all my front forks pushed as they need a service

Yes definitely,I found my Float rlc's to be quite unresponsive compared to a set of old REBAs I used to have.PUSHing the fork reduced stiction.I have to say I can't fault TFTs service.

uses TFT to many times to count (wouldn't want to the cost would be stupid) they custom tuned my Kona A rp3 and it was sooo much better. my tftuned rp23 (one on each of my 2 hecklers) have been amazing.. while others were getting air loss and bottoming out my tft rp23 just kept going and going.. it's still in the alps now doing descents of les gets.
if anything i have been less impressed with their fork tuning, i had 2 x fox float rlc (02 and 05) both were done, they were better but not to the same "wow" level my rear shocks have come back from them.
i had my lyrik tft serviced after nearly 2 years, air can was loosing height, they swapped it to coil. very happy now.

Pushing pikes 'only' improves the rebound action of the fork. The stiction improvement will surely have been from the servicing i would have thought.

Great upgrade to the fork imho, they feel a lot better at speed afterwards.

they fit a different wiper seal retro it has less stiction.

I've thought about it but then decided not to as I can't really define what I'd like it to do better or what it does well

The mechanics used to hate me when I raced motorcycles & I used to come in with descriptions like "well it sort of goes a bit wobbly when …………"

From what Ive heard its not really worth bothering with – I think it works on some shocks/forks but less so with others. MBR (I think ) did a test on shocks recently inc a FoxRP23 that had been PUSHed & they didnt think it was as good as the standard Fox shock..

I heard it wasn't worth it on Fox, but was on Rockshox, I've been running Pushed Pikes for a couple of years now, considering the price of a standard service, which you effectively get as part of the upgrade, I think it is cost effective – there is a marked improvement.

what do MBR know….

their magazine is aimed at people who just about know the difference between an air and coil shock, never mind subtle differences in shock performance.

PUSH'd pikes are seriously better than standard – they improve the high speed rebound no end, they don't get out of shape in rock gardens anymore (not quite as good as totems but they don't have the decent hi\lo compression damping circuits)

As part of servicing pikes tf can fit a set of seals which lacks the oil seal that pikes usually have. These are the type fitted as standard on revelations, for example.

What i was trying to explain is that this is seperate to Pushing the fork, which on a Pike is replacing part of the rebound damper.

my brother loves his push'd pikes and on his Ti456 he says it/they are amazing..
as for MBR hahah if you believe them then you must be mad..
thinking/saying a std shock v's a custom (weight and suspension technology tuned) shock and the std win's! haha
even oranges shocks are tuned by fox to improve them over a std fox shock.

In my experience the PUSH upgrade is not worth it. I have had a PUSHed Vanilla R, a PUSHed Fox RP23 and PUSHed coil Pikes and I would say that none of them were a siginificant improvement over the original.

Also, before I went to Canada I sent my Lyriks of to them for a service and when I got them back I used the settings they suggested and barely got 100mm of travel out of them, even in Whistler bike park. I tried taking off all compression and lo and behold they worked superbly.

I picked up some pushed-pikes for my 456SS, really really helps them when pushing fast through very rough ground, but youve still got normal rockshox compression damping (which ive never been a fan of) that can feel a bit rubbish on normal riding (imo). Deffo made them a much better forks than stock tho. Would i pay £140 for it? prob not, if i could id get a set of 36's, but im not a huge fan of the feel of Pikes anyway (dont know why).

I had PUSH'ed pike on one bike & unPUSH'ed on another. The unPUSH'ed were better & haven't been serviced for a few years.
Sold the the PUSH'ed pikes recently & got 09 Rev's instead & these are much better.

dasnut/fozzy have either of you read the article? If yes then your comments are relevant, if not then go away read the article & then comment..Commenting on something you havent read is kinda pointless dont you think?

Unfortunatley the £139 price on the page about rock shox fork pushing is old pricing and the actual cost is £169 – which makes my mind up for me.
Total cost for me being in Northern Ireland would be £195 – Absolutley no way.

Leaving them into CRC tomorrow to get the bushings done

Yes i have, have you had any push tuned shocks or forks? else i would suggest any input you have is pointless other than you trolling or posting "something you have read"!

repack, yes I have read the article, and seen the graphs

if you want to talk to Darren from PUSH, hes over on the mtbr forums as PUSHIND

Is the PUSH conversion worth the extra?

Yes, if you ride hard on rocky terrain – mine are ace, but you only really notice it when things get gnarly and you're at about 80 per-cent and above. The rest of the time it doesn't make much odds, but one of the best upgrades I've ever had. What Mountain Bike had some Pushed 09 Revelations I think and thought broadly the same.

If you're not particularly aggressive and/or you're happy with your Pikes as they are, then leave 'em standard. A full service will make a world of difference anyway. And at almost 200 quid for you, it's a lot.

Always makes me smile when folk compare stuff they've not serviced or maintained for a few years with new kit and decide the new stuff is miles better, well, doh…

New tyres grip better than worn out ones. Forks with new oil, bushing and seals tend to outperform ones where they're all knackered, ditto shocks etc. That's my take on it anyway.

@fozzy

Really? Your reply indicated that you hadnt read it as reading MBR was a waste of your time.

As for have I had any forks/shocks pushed? The answer is no because all the bike shops Ive spoken to have suggested that its not really worth doing. I read the MBR article (or whichever rag it was) out of interest & to find out more about this service (rather than just blindly following the latest fad). Interestingly enough they thought that on Fox gear it wasnt worth doing. Ergo I wont be bothering with it either.

ps just because I have an opinion different to yours you instantly label someone as a troll?? What gives?

dasnut thanks for your reply – polite & helpful.

As for have I had any forks/shocks pushed? The answer is no

so following your rule of judgement your view is " kinda pointless dont you think? " to quote yourself.
Edit: oh and i'm all for differing opinions i just hate armchair critics who read some BS in a mag and believe it without question.

did my fox 05 talas RLC's dive heavy under braking YES
did the push tune help this issue greatly YES
did my standard "manufacturer supplied" rp23 blow though all it's travel even though it was correctly setup (and checked by a mojo employee) YES
does the TFT push tune remove this issue YES

so personally the views of MBR to me are rubbish (other armchair critics are free to give different views, everyone is entitled to an opinion..) but saying i read an article and it said no therefore i say no is not valuable input your just expressing a view by proxy!

PUSH have redesigned their PUSH damping system for 2009, which is probably why the price has gone up. Greater oil flow, better shim stack etc etc, don't know if it'll be much different in practice but the initial reports on mtbr were positive

Basically it speeds up high-speed rebound so the fork reacts faster when you're using more travel i.e. when slamming into things at speed.

Oh – just to preempt a flaming: I had my rp23 PUSHed and it made a big difference to my 575 but I think nearly 200 quid for PUSHing revs is a bit steep. I'd rather put it towards a new set of forks 🙂

Ric i totally agree push tuning is astronomical now. Specially on top of service costs..

To be fair to MBR (where's my flame suit?), they did lab test the air shocks with help from some university boffins and the final riding tests were done on a control Orange 5 which had a load of data logging equipment attached.

fozzy – RTFT. (edit there oops sorry das)

I said Id checked a number of different sources (3) & all were in agreement that it wasnt worth doing. So, coupled with the fact that its not the cheapest option around Ive decided not to do it.

What in heavens name is wrong with that???

yes CXI on a rp23 on an orange 5 that was customised BY Fox for the Orange 5…

Wow you read from 3 sources and never tried it yourself..
i bow to your better wisdom!

I asked if TFT can supply the PUSH kit without having the fork serviced and they said no, mainly because the tolerances are so fine they have to customise the shim-stack for each fork. Plus they're probably not allowed to by their contract with PUSHind.

Yeah well I thought it was better to spend 30 minutes of my time asking a few questions & speaking to a few riders & then browsing a mag at the cafe, rather than spending over £300 on getting my suspension fettled & then finding out it wasnt worth it. What do you think?

RicB

good point on the new system. Just checked with TF and they are able to supply that (in fact are supplying that on my new coil PIKEs) so I will be able to compare old PUSH'd Air Pikes (what I have now and going onto my hardtail) with new PUSH'd Coil Pikes.

MBR are a bunch of idiots

Back on Topic.

I've got PUSHed Pike forks! They are the coil "Team" fork from a good few years ago and have had a hammering. Two years ago I got them serviced and PUSHed after blowing the damper – something to do with a 20ft cliff drop 😈

I had been servicing the fork myself to that point with no problems – they are very easy to do.

First up – the Enduro Fork seals that TFT use are ace – no crap gets into my forks any more where it used to before this was done.

I have Medium and Firm springs at my disposal and have changed them over a few times.

No PUSH
With the Medium spring and without the PUSH my Pikes always ran deep in the travel with a tendency to bottom out with a clunk. With the Firm fitted they rode higher in the travel but never felt very supple.
They often felt like there was no travel and things would feel very odd with repeated hits in rock gardens etc.

I discussed the above with TFT who said Pikes have very slow rebound which means the fork packs down unable to react to repeated hits – the PUSH chip fixes this.

With PUSH
With the Medium spring and with the PUSH my Pikes feel really supple but with about 40% sag so they run deep in the travel – no bottom out. With the Firm fitted they ride higher in the travel and feel very supple and controlled.
I have to agree with TFT – the fork is much improved nd now does what it should have done all along.

With the Puch and the firm spring I have to run my Pikes at 120mm because of geomtery issues – but they feel ace like this now and I am really happy.

If your not having issues with the Pike I would not bother – but if you think the performance can be improved the £160 spent on your Pike's is cheaper than selling them and buying Lyrics or 36's… with the bonus of the Pike being lighter that a Lyric.

Funily enough Pike's seem to fetch a good price second hand though…

cxi – Member
To be fair to MBR (where's my flame suit?), they did lab test the air shocks with help from some university boffins and the final riding tests were done on a control Orange 5 which had a load of data logging equipment attached.

Didn't they only ride each shock for a total of 6 minutes – 4.5mins climbing up the 1st Whites Level climb and then 1.5min drop down to final Skyline descent. Just so that they didn't get too tired I think they said in the mag.

I have had 2 sets of 454 u turn pikes doen and they are much better on fast rocky stuff.

you can hold the front brake on slightly and the respond with as much compression as you like, dependant upon how much brake you use. On the rebound they return to the same position and settle very quickly with no packing down.
They are slightly harsher on slow speed stuff, but you can't have it both ways.

Well worth it in my opinion.

Agree with above the above statement, if you don't push the forks to the limit ie not very many rocky drops than maybe it sn't worthwhile doing.

Seems to be a few people comparing rear shock push with Fork push I have a pushed 2006 RP3 that was undoubtedly worth it, and some late 2007 454 pikes that I'm less sure about.

The RP3 in 2005 and 2006 was known to have fairly stodgy and wallowy damping, but I understand that the last gen RP3 and the RP23 are much better since and perhaps its not worth it anymore. Having my RP3 changed the ride of my bike from a dog dragging its arse on the ground, to something more sprightly and perky. I've not had cause to replace it since, but when it eventually does need replacing, I'll ride the new shock as stock for a good few months before I decide.

Push on my pikes is definitely better in the chop at speed, and its less plungey on large slow compressions like steep steep tech descents, but its a tradeoff – the small bump sensitivity can feel a bit constipated at times. I feel this most on fast trails with small stuttery stuff, where the fork could do with opening up a bit.

I'd not push shock or forks unless it was part of a service, or you bought new already pushed from TFT – then you get the benefit of a subsidised 1st service too.

I don't understand how it can affect brake dive or small bump performance, it merely allows the fork to rebound quicker if you hit something hard enough to open up the shim which the mod adds.

It shouldn't affect compression in the slightest.

had my 426 Rev's pushed from new at 30 quid upcharge or there abouts. I like the forks a lot, but no idea how they would have ridden without the Push mod's.

My name is Peter………….I am an aggressive rider.
(in an 'aa' stylee)