i have had my 2018 pike for bit over a month now and. so far i have been totally dissapointed with its performance.
my current setup is 65psi, no tokens, 190lbs rtr rider. 0 LSC, open position on 3 position dial, 6 clicks of rebound.
issues i have with the fork is: harshness when going fast over chunk (feels like rigid fork almost), not being able to get full travel (closest i get is 1.75"), LSC dial having no noticeable effect.
so far i have done 2019 debonair upgrade and oil change in the lowers. i read several threads regarding mods to old charger damper but so far there is very little info on charger 2 damper. from information i gathered, i decided to try: compression shim stack change, lighter rebound check spring, lighter oil. i put together this little step by step. please bear with me as i am still learning about suspension (thanks rockshox for producing crappy fork and giving me a reason to dive a little into suspension problematic). i am open for any advice.
1. to get started, remove your damper from fork leg per rockshox instructions.
2. unthread rebound head assembly per RS instructions and dispose of the oil in the tube.
3. clamp rebound shaft in soft vice jaws and unthread piston bolt. (my soft jaws are from home depot and hole diameter works well for rebound shaft, just make sure you clean both shaft and jaws with isopropyl to prevent slipping.
4. remove shim stack, piston head, check shim and check spring.
5. the only mod i did here, is softer spring i got from mx-tech. the original spring used is wave spring, and i had several wave springs on
order with different spring rates. the mx-tech spring is just a standard compression spring. (of course the wave springs arrived the next day
i did damper mod, so i will be opening it up again soon to use one of these instead.)
6. put everything back together and set aside.
7. to get to compression shims, first clamp your cassette tool in vice. flip damper upside down, set it in cassette tool and unthread red ring that secures bladder. do it slowly as the bladder will try to rotate with it. i sprayed some oil there so there is less friction between bladder and red ring, and while holding balder with one hand to prevent it from twisting i slowly unscrewed red ring.
8. now keep the damper set in cassette tool and start unscrewing black tube. the tube is screwed into the bladder assembly with piston bolt, so be carefully as the shims might fall out once unscrewed.
9. set shims aside and spread them apart. do your modification to the shim stack. what i did was removing preload and modify shims a bit.
10. it seems like the piston is screwed into the black tube. i did not attempt to remove it as i didnt feel its necessary. there is a check plate, spring and piston bolt on the bottom of piston (inside of the black tube). if they fall out when disassembling, just try to put it back, they lined up nicely when i kept drooping them in the tube one by one, i also helped them them to align a bit from other side of the piston with thin allen wrench.
11. now you will need a long dowel inserted in a black tube to push the piston bolt up (since there is a spring), and load the piston bolt
with shims. keep pushing up the piston bolt. now take the rebound assembly and while still pushing the bolt screw it together.
12. set the damper in cassette tool and screw on red ring.
13. now you can follow RS instructions to finish putting everything together, use your preferred oil, bleed, and install back in fork leg.
it took me about an hour, being careful, was worried especially about getting to compression shims but all went well and was easier than
expected. i have not had a chance to test the fork yet, but i will post my impressions when i do.
below are some images from the process, they are crappy, will try to take better ones on next rebuild. this is more of an experiment for me
so i expect to have the damper open several times in next few weeks.
![]()
rebound shaft clamped, top bolt needs to be removed to get to the piston assembly (shims, piston, spring etc)
![]()
cassette tool clamped in vice
![]()
damper set in cassette tool, first step is to unscrew red ring
![]()
red ring unscrewed, to unscrew bladder assembly i just held bottom black tube with one hand and unscrewed the bladder assembly with another
(this image is actually from assembly and you can see wood dowel clamped in vice to help to push piston bolt up)
![]()
bladder assembly unscrewed
(also image from assembly with wood dowel)
![]()
rebound and compression parts and pieces
![]()
up is rebound piston assembly, you can see original wave check spring on the right, above new mx-tech spring i used as replacement.
below is original compression shim stack
![]()
and my modified compression shim stack
![]()
compression portion put back together, ready for oil, rebound rod assembly and bleed.
my current setup is 65psi, no tokens, 190lbs rtr rider. 0 LSC, open position on 3 position dial, 6 clicks of rebound.
issues i have with the fork is: harshness when going fast over chunk (feels like rigid fork almost), not being able to get full travel (closest i get is 1.75"), LSC dial having no noticeable effect.
so far i have done 2019 debonair upgrade and oil change in the lowers. i read several threads regarding mods to old charger damper but so far there is very little info on charger 2 damper. from information i gathered, i decided to try: compression shim stack change, lighter rebound check spring, lighter oil. i put together this little step by step. please bear with me as i am still learning about suspension (thanks rockshox for producing crappy fork and giving me a reason to dive a little into suspension problematic). i am open for any advice.
1. to get started, remove your damper from fork leg per rockshox instructions.
2. unthread rebound head assembly per RS instructions and dispose of the oil in the tube.
3. clamp rebound shaft in soft vice jaws and unthread piston bolt. (my soft jaws are from home depot and hole diameter works well for rebound shaft, just make sure you clean both shaft and jaws with isopropyl to prevent slipping.
4. remove shim stack, piston head, check shim and check spring.
5. the only mod i did here, is softer spring i got from mx-tech. the original spring used is wave spring, and i had several wave springs on
order with different spring rates. the mx-tech spring is just a standard compression spring. (of course the wave springs arrived the next day
i did damper mod, so i will be opening it up again soon to use one of these instead.)
6. put everything back together and set aside.
7. to get to compression shims, first clamp your cassette tool in vice. flip damper upside down, set it in cassette tool and unthread red ring that secures bladder. do it slowly as the bladder will try to rotate with it. i sprayed some oil there so there is less friction between bladder and red ring, and while holding balder with one hand to prevent it from twisting i slowly unscrewed red ring.
8. now keep the damper set in cassette tool and start unscrewing black tube. the tube is screwed into the bladder assembly with piston bolt, so be carefully as the shims might fall out once unscrewed.
9. set shims aside and spread them apart. do your modification to the shim stack. what i did was removing preload and modify shims a bit.
10. it seems like the piston is screwed into the black tube. i did not attempt to remove it as i didnt feel its necessary. there is a check plate, spring and piston bolt on the bottom of piston (inside of the black tube). if they fall out when disassembling, just try to put it back, they lined up nicely when i kept drooping them in the tube one by one, i also helped them them to align a bit from other side of the piston with thin allen wrench.
11. now you will need a long dowel inserted in a black tube to push the piston bolt up (since there is a spring), and load the piston bolt
with shims. keep pushing up the piston bolt. now take the rebound assembly and while still pushing the bolt screw it together.
12. set the damper in cassette tool and screw on red ring.
13. now you can follow RS instructions to finish putting everything together, use your preferred oil, bleed, and install back in fork leg.
it took me about an hour, being careful, was worried especially about getting to compression shims but all went well and was easier than
expected. i have not had a chance to test the fork yet, but i will post my impressions when i do.
below are some images from the process, they are crappy, will try to take better ones on next rebuild. this is more of an experiment for me
so i expect to have the damper open several times in next few weeks.
rebound shaft clamped, top bolt needs to be removed to get to the piston assembly (shims, piston, spring etc)
cassette tool clamped in vice
damper set in cassette tool, first step is to unscrew red ring
red ring unscrewed, to unscrew bladder assembly i just held bottom black tube with one hand and unscrewed the bladder assembly with another
(this image is actually from assembly and you can see wood dowel clamped in vice to help to push piston bolt up)
bladder assembly unscrewed
(also image from assembly with wood dowel)
rebound and compression parts and pieces
up is rebound piston assembly, you can see original wave check spring on the right, above new mx-tech spring i used as replacement.
below is original compression shim stack
and my modified compression shim stack
compression portion put back together, ready for oil, rebound rod assembly and bleed.
