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Very familiar with solo air Pikes, have ridden a lot, pulled many apart, sold quite a few. Have never even seen a dual air version in the flesh, much less ridden one strangely enough! Anyway...
Have been offered a dual position fork for a killer deal. It's a 160/130 travel fork, which I would end up running in 130mm travel mode all the time as that's all I'm after (it's going on my new 26" BFe).
Any downsides to the Dual Position air? Particularly if I was only ever running it in the 130 travel position at all times?
Seen plenty of claims/fears that DPA are not as plush as the normal ones but never seen anyone actually directly compare like for like and my experience with RS forks is the quality of the servicing is key to keeping them plush. I do all my own and am very thorough.
One thing I did see is that you need less bottomless tokens as the air volume is a bit lower due to the DPA gubbins and I can see the logic in that. It does need DPA specific ones.
I have the 150-120mm ones but not fitted them yet. Wondering about getting hold of the 160-130mm air spring as the frame will take it (650b version)
Yo! I've got both 🙂
There's bugger all difference in plushness, they ramp up a tiny bit more than the solo air, because of the extra gubbins. I run 1 token in my DPA, compared to 2 in a solo air. Now you can buy the DPA tokens there's no reason to not buy them.
EDIT: Lol, just seen Andy's post above agreeing with what I said.
^ bingo! 😀
I'd have thought running any fork in its stepped down position 100% of the time is going to compromise it's performance, but I'm guessing.
I'm not certain how a travel reducing damper works, but aren't you going to be losing the plushness of the initial part of the stroke?
Ah sounds ok then
But what about running them in the shorter travel mode exclusively? Does it alter spring rates and/or bugger anything up at all?
I'm running a 130 / 150 DPA pike on my Orange Gyro. I run it at 130 95% of the time and it performs beautifully. There is hardly any difference between the two modes unlike older forks.
[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/dual-position-air-pikescan-i-run-them-all-the-time-in-the-lower-setting ]I gon dun asked this exact same question...[/url]
My advice from fishers was... don't do it. However, it's likely to be fine..
DrP
I run them (I'm on my second set since 2013) and they are excellent, but in short travel mode they ramp up a lot. I'd not want to use them like that all the time.
My, soon to be 120mm, 100mm travel reba 29ers are the same fork as the 80mm and 120mm versions (markings for 80, 100 & 120 on the stanchions and 15mm axle) and have been run all their life at 100mm so far. I will be dropping in a 120mm air shaft and I don't see this as being much different to running a DPA fork in the lower setting.
Surely as long as you cycle it through the full range every now and then to make sure any lube is well distributed it will be fine. I guess you could risk wearing the lower travel region of the spring more than the longer 30mm bit but surely this is the same as the last bit of fork travel near bottom out that doesnt get used that often.
edit: I can see the ramp up being an issue. But it's probably like running an extra air token so leave one out?
It's different because yours are designed to run permanently at the travel, turning the DP dial adjusts the volume of the air chamber quite a bit and changes how the fork behaves pretty significantly.
I was meaning in terms of wear etc in response to the Fisher comment IFF that was their concern (hypothesising)
I think their concern was that if I want a 140mm fork, I'd be better getting a 140mm fork, rather than running a 160mm fork at it's 140mm setting (yes...fisher said it's NOT 30mm drop, but 20mm!!)
I can see the point. There were several statements online too. Granted, these were probably from nutjobs with no understanding of how to set up to forks, but in the end i found some 140mm forks for a similar price...Jobs a goodun.
IF the DP forks were, say, £350, then I could have lived with/ignored any possible theoretical compromise (Diving was a common comment..)
DrP
Personally, I found running mine at 130 nowhere near as sensitive. Ended up ditching them for non DP forks
Cheers for the responses guys. Decided to stick with what I know and get some solo air forks again.
That's what I did.
Basically, I THINK you can drop travel to climb, then open out for full benefits.
Buy the other way round..
DrP
I have solo and DPA, my DPA are on my HT run at 130 most of the time, I can't feel any notable difference!
Bfe ye say? I'd have been using them at 160.