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Dual Position Forks for Climbing

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cmrocks

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Are dual position forks better for climbing?

I'm strongly considering a 160mm Pike Dual Air fork for my carbon Bronson. Most of my trails require a climb up either an overgrown fire road or a single track trail to get to the top then a straight ride down the mountain. I do find myself suffering quite a bit on the climbs. I find it hard to keep weight over the front end on steep pitches.

I'm considering a dual air Pike so I can drop the front suspension to 130mm for climbing. Does this make a big difference? I would imagine that the bike climbs a lot better with the steeper head angle and lower travel.

I've noticed that most people seem to run solo air Pikes so I'm wondering if there is maybe something that I'm missing?
 
#2 ·
I have a Bronson with 160mm dual-position Pike and it helps a ton with climbing. Front end wander is a total nonissue. For me the only weakness is on rides with lots of short steep climbs and descents where I don't feel comfortable changing the travel on the fly.

I have read comments by others who have less confidence in the additional parts for the dual-position, or the weight penalty.
 
#3 ·
Not a fan of dual position forks, have not felt them to be a significant advantage overall.I like set and forget approch even under racing conditions and yes the are more complex internally and more expensive to maintain,cannot use bottomless tokens either.
 
#4 ·
You definitely feel the difference of the 1.5 deg change in head angle with the dual position Pikes. This does help with technical or steep climbs especially on a slacker trail bike.
 
#6 ·
I used to have a TALAS 36 and still have an old U-Turn Pike. Lowering the front end helps a great deal to keep the front end down and on the straight and narrow. I got rid of the TALAS feature in search of plushness and have not missed it. I found my climbing technique adapted to the longer fork over time. I've never been on a Bronson though so maybe you should give it a shot. You can always sell or modify it later.
 
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#8 ·
Marzocchi was way ahead on this...

...sadly no one else has had a similar system as the Extension Travel Adjustment that were on the Bombers of old. The ETA worked great and was incredibly simple. Some of them blew up and just stopped locking the fork down. However, when they did work a flick of the easy to reach lever on top of the left fork leg would lower your front and still give you approximately 30mm of fork movement. It surprises me that other fork manufacturers did not cop this design. :bluefrown:

:devil:
 
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#10 ·
I have a 150mm Talas on my Bronson. Dropping the travel helps with the climbing but I reckon it climbs really good at 150mm anyways. I'm probably going to replace it with a 150mm Pike

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk
 
#11 ·
i had a bomber on my heckler, a pike on my 853 and RCT3 on my anthem and i have always enjoyed the ability to drop the front end for long sustained climbs and run full extended for the long downhills. The 'Zochi' was simple and awesome in its time but it dropped the front all the way and left you with no "oh crap" movement, the Pike was infinitely adjustable but a pain to crank up and down, the RCT3 is a flick of a switch for 30 mm up or down. The head angle changes combined with a dropper post really make a one bike fits most scenario. I have had no issues with reliability with any of these forks or noticed a weight penalty but i am thorough with P.M. and no weight weenie.
 
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