It will have an inch less travel than the frame, and steepen the HA.
Going to sorta disagree here. I have been running a Pike Dual Air on my trail ridden 08' RFX for the past season. I have owned quite a few 5-7" SC forks. Had a SC Bullit before the RFX, built in trail trim , I ran a Fox 36 Van & Float, Z1 FR 150mm & SL, Marzocchi 66 RC2X. My RFX has a 68 degree HA, as measured w/ an angle protractor. The air spring rate / adjustability is superb on the Pike it rides higher in its travel than the coil forks I had yet has good small bump compliance. harsh bottoming is never an issue. I'd try another 6" fork if the Lyrik came in a Dual Air - the Pike can feel a little underpowered in extended rock gardens. I rode a Solo Air Lyrik and I liked the Pike better.
It won't drop the front end by an inch unless the A2C measurement is a full inch lower than the other fork being considered. I have a friend on an RFX with the Pike 454 and while he likes the adjustability, he recently had me put on my 36 Vanilla RC2. It brough the front up a good bit, slacked the head angle and now the bike is much better suited for true all around riding, including fast long techie shuttle runs and moderate freeride 4'-5' drops with no issues.
bingo! good point es. just outta curiosity, whats the a2c diff between a 36 and a pike?
keen, im glad ya dig yer setup but are you the odd man out. is this some kinda trick to get the spot owners with 160mm forks back on their pikes? you sneaky bastage!
I have a Pike on my Spot. Great fork. I've had a 66SL on my 6Pack kickarse fork.
The Pike is really a stunningly good light & supple air fork. Fantastic for trail duty on a well matched bike. IF you're planning on using your RFX as a long legged trailbike, for fast rollling terrain, long climbs and long swoopy decents on smoothish rip-railing trails I think the Pike will be fine. OTOH if you plan on taking the aggro up a notch, and will be charging axle-deep rock gardens, doing medium drops, possibly into chunck, upping the learning curve to the point a more forgiving fork will save your arse, then I think the Pike will not be enough.
Switching btwn the Spot with the Pike and my Pack with the 66 was night and day. I could feel the confidence in the fork and how it would ignore stuff the Pike would sweat.(obviously the bikes play a role in this but the fork perfomance differences were clear)
The Pike is fantastic for what it's designed for, a solid light trail fork, it'll likely make your RFX feel more nimble and responsive, but at the same time it will feed back more of the trail and will require more effort to hold a hard line, and it'll respond to less input than my might like in techy situations.
bingo! good point es. just outta curiosity, whats the a2c diff between a 36 and a pike?
keen, im glad ya dig yer setup but are you the odd man out. is this some kinda trick to get the spot owners with 160mm forks back on their pikes? you sneaky bastage!
36 is @ 545mm, Pike 518mm. Don't be fooled by numbers alone - on a steep descent the Pike will ride higher in its travel , or close, to most of the 6" forks I have run. Like mentioned when you hit some real chunk the Pike can get overwhelmed but i'd rather step right into say a 66 for such chores. My Z1's and Fox 36's seemed to have too broad of a use range - they were not the best trail forks nor were they good light FR/DH forks.
I ran a Pike on my '02 RFX for a year or so. It was fine up to a point, but it was a bit of a handful on steep technical stuff. Nice on twisty singletrack though.
The bike rode much better with a 150mm Z1, and then better yet with my current Lyrics.
wow. thats a bigger gap than i thought it would be. though it may ride higher, once it starts to use up the final 2" or so, that suckers gonna feel mighty short and start to plow once ya turn the bars givin ya that rider to bike sepperation anxiety kinda feeling. all the joys of a lonely puppy chewin up the house but without the rolled up newspaper solution. no wonder it gets overwhelmed. swan is right bob, youll be shoppin in no time.
i feel very differently about the 36's ability to handle trail duties. at least for the stuff ive done, my '07 rc2 has been very good from mellow xc rides all the way to med sized drops of 5' or so and was a blessing in the steep super chunk with its torsional stiffness keepin the front wheel in line with the stem. 1 thing ive come to appriciate is how easy it is to lift the front end and plow through the crap due to its lack of heft found in most other offerings of the same travel. last year i even asked it to be a dh fork. not that it was stellar by any means but it held up through the weekend none the less and worked as expected.this year i got it a '07 super t rcv which was far better for the dh stuff and helped me win my class. that fork is now for sale with the dhr/boxxer bein added to the fleet.
my fox has had no seal failures, no knobs fallin off, no broken dampers, no cracked lowers, no loose crowns. i have no problem reccomending this fork to rfx owners. and after a rebuild.... this thing is as plush as i can dream id want from a 160mm fork. squish did a helluva job and so did fox for that matter.
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