140mm fork on 120mm camber evo?

buffoon

Was thinking about putting a 140mm Pike on my camber evo (currently with stock 120mm reba) for some added fun factor. Spesh manual is ridiculously conservative, stating only 120mm for this bike, but not sure i believe that.

Anyone tried this before? Does it work? Will i explode? Or will it be riding Nirvana?

.blitz

Have got some olde u-turn 90-140 Pikes on a bike designed for 120 mm the difference is noticeable

90 is good for uphill but everywhere else it feels like the fork's collapsed

140 is confidence-inspiring going downhill but feels like a chopper on the flat and makes climbs way more difficult than they should be.

rockmonkeysc

A mate fitted a 140mm Pike to his Camber Evo 29. It ruined the handling, front went light on steep climbs, front wheel few vague and it lost stability in corners. I tried it and it felt wrong.
He's now dropped the Pike to 120mm and it feels great, the extra stiffness has really improved it. With the correct length fork it handles properly.
It makes sense that Specialized designed the bike to work best with the fork it came with, why would they compromise it with a shorter fork?

buffoon

Interesting responses - thanks. i Take the point about spoilt handling, although others have stated that larger forks often improve their bikes.

You can actually buy a bike with a 120mm pike fitted, but unfortunately you cannot buy a 120mm pike on its own. As you say, you can reduce it down to 120mm, but it seems that this requires fair technical expertise (iv enever taken forks apart before, and wouldnt like to shell out £500 on pikes only to start ripping them apart when they arrive.)

Since it seems money may not solve this issue, It looks like I will have to improve my skills instead(unlikely)!

shindig

You can buy a Pike from TFtuned and they will set it up with the correct travel. I have just purchased a 130mm pike for my Whyte 901 from them. Give them a call.

Caveman_Chris

In the back of my mind, a 130mm RS revelation doesn't change the head angle when upgrading from 120mm. I know it's not exactly what you asked but......

CC

rockmonkeysc

Dropping the travel is a really simple job. The instructions on Rockshox website explain it in simple steps and make it really easy.
29er Revelations flex like a wet noodle.

buffoon

So i just discovered that you can also buy a 'dual position' pike for a 29er, changeable between 150 and 120mm on the fly. I wonder if this be as good as the solo air pike fixed at 120mm? Presumably there must be some kind of compromise involved, otherwise they wouldnt bother selling the fixed-travel version at a similar price?

rockmonkeysc

The fixed travel version has a lower rrp than the dual position model.
I had the Dual position air Revelation. There is a slight difference in damping at the lower position but it's not too bad.

buffoon

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Dropping the travel is a really simple job. The instructions on Rockshox website explain it in simple steps and make it really easy.
29er Revelations flex like a wet noodle.

I found this procedure online for changing the air shaft on a pike:
http://blahblahbikeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ ... o-air.html

And in video form here: http://youtu.be/7WcCIFguChA

Doesnt seem overly simple if you havent done it before. However, Pike forks are considerably cheaper on CRC, so it is tempting to buy fork and air spring and try adjusting myself.

Can buy 120mm version from US but import duty makes it uneconomical.