Toronto Streat Solutions: Review – Rockshox Pike 426 Air U-Turn

The product that can survive my riding for a year and keep begging for more is rare; the product that can survive my scale is even rarer. We’ve all read a review of the this fork somewhere, maybe ridden our buddy’s Pike around a parking lot, and we’ve all seen Pikes bolted onto the front ends of decidedly not all-mountain bikes. Which brings us to my Pike.

Having broken my Dirt Jam, I was casting about for replacements, and the Pike seemed like an obvious choice: burly, 20mm through-axle, adjustable, light. Perfect for a street/cross-country (strange mix, I know) rider in Toronto. Wading through the options, the choice was fairly simple: Take the weight penalty for the solid crown and strength of the 426, keep the weight low with an air spring, and keep it all adjustable with the U-Turn travel adjust feature. So on she went. After a quick bit of fiddling around with a shock pump, I had it dialled in for my mix of urban and trail riding. I may be in the minority, but I think that air is the way forward in fork applications like this – 5 minutes with a pump is infinitely preferable to about an hour swapping our springs.

Does it do its job? Yes and no. Technically speaking, the Pike more than fulfills its responsibilities as an all-mountain fork. The bump sensitivity was up to expectations for a smaller fork; with air removed it ate up the bumps and ruts and held a line fairly well, with no harsh bottoming during low-speed compression no matter how little air it contained (this probably wasn’t the best idea, but I was curious). When removed from its home environment, with a fair amount of air added and the travel dialled down, the fork did a fantastic job on the pumptracks and streets. No popping or pumping energy wasted, but none of the harshness or stiff, unwilling compression the traditional jump forks (Argyles, Dirt Jumpers, etc.) tend to exhibit. Durability, however, is where this fork hangs up. As Chris Taylor or any “Wednesday Night” regular can attest to, I’m a fairly abusive (I prefer the term “progressive” or “demanding”) rider, and Rockshox obviously did not have me in mind when designing the fork. Structurally, the fork has held up well. I have noticed some flex when preloading and carving into spins aggressively, but there are no cracks or breaks so far, and I’ve never felt afraid for my well-being on this fork, which is pretty damn important when landing backwards from 5 feet up. However I have been blowing through seals at a ridiculous rate. Luckily Terry at Solutions has kept the fork and I plugging, but he really has his work cut out for him – this fork, when the seals go, leaks more oil than the Exxon Valdez. Interestingly it still holds air and performs well for a few months after the seals first go (again, don’t try this), but I can’t deny being disappointed when every few months, the fork starts to glisten. I also somehow broke a Maxle, the amazingly handy 20mm QR system. Through my own stupidity, I snapped the threads off, but the fork amazingly still held the wheel firmly in place.

After about a year of use, I started to modify it. I had Terry drop it from 110-140mm to 80-110, to better suit my frame (the fork has at time of press outlasted 2 frames), and the fact that I can retain the travel adjust even with the fork dropped is a godsend. I shaved the gawd-awful PopLoc mount off the crown (every Pike comes with an unsightly cable guide for the optional handle-bar mounted lockout system), and put a sticker over the resulting silver patch, to prevent further wear and cable rub. I have noticed a bit of “King scoring” on the steerer (from my Chris King headset, no doubt), but nothing major.

For the pure all-mountain rider wanting a bombproof fork to shred the mountain up and down, the Pike will be absolutely perfect. Freestyle riders, street and dirt jump alike, know what you’re getting into when you buy this fork and you will not have any cause for regret. Although RockShox has supplanted it on the freestyle side with the Argyle, on the freeride side with the Lyrik and Totem, and on the all-mountain side with the Revelation and Reba, the Pike still has a place on my bike, and I suspect it will outlive many more frames, even if I end up putting Terry’s kids through college in the process.Some visuals: