Sorry if this has been done before, but I couldn’t find anything.

I have a dual air Reba 120mm fork on the front of my 29er. I was pretty confident I’d got it set up well for my weight and with the 20mm axel it’s has always seemed stiff enough. However, I recently demo’d a 27.5 150mm bike with a pike up front and was astonished at how sensitive and plush it was. I know there are huge apple and orange style variables here, but could you all pile in with a verity of personal opinions as to whether some of that Pike like feeling would be findable in a new 120mm 29er fork, or is the shorter travel the difference I’m really noticing here? I’m 193cm and about 100kg, if that would be relevant.

Ive got a set of those Rebas and when serviced and working well they are as plush a 120mm fork ive used. Newer 150-160 forks feel plusher just as a function of travel and thicker stantions. Remnds me i should dig those forks out and service them 🙂

The new single air Rebas aren’t as plush as the old dual airs. Pikes have a different (more advanced) damper than the Rebas, hence the plusher feel. The Reba is on the XC side of things so designed more for speed / efficiency than comfort.

Ok, so probably worth getting my forks a proper service, rather than busting out for new pikes. Thanks for the money saving advice.

A longer fork will feel plusher than a shorter one so some of that plush feeling will be in the travel.

Another good point above about servicing the fork. Even a lower leg service and just cleaning the internals will give a notable benefit if it hasn’t been serviced for years.

You can play with the setup of the dual air spring. Back when I used to have a dual air spring I used to prefer adding an extra 10 psi to the negative chamber. This would make the initial bit of travel more supple without affecting the mid to end of the travel too much. I think RS used to state the negative chamber could be +/- 15 psi compared to the positive chamber.

You can also upgrade the damper circuits. The PIKE has more advanced damper than a 2012 Reba had so you’re not going to get the same performance but you maybe able to improve it.

Not sure which damper you have in the Reba but when I upgraded my Revelation RL with the newer dual flow rebound damper and then later the RCT3 compression damper I noticed the fork felt more fluid and less spiky over repeated bumps.

If sending the fork of for a service see what upgrade paths there are for you might be more cost effective than getting new forks.

Thanks everyone