In recent years forks with on-the-fly travel adjustment have fallen out of fashion, and rightly so. Most riders don’t want to change the length of their fork, and the geometry of their bike, mid-ride. However, from time to time travel adjustment is useful. You may wish to alter the geometry or attitude of your bike or you may have bought a new frame with different suspension needs and you may want to transfer your current fork over to it.
If you have a RockShox Solo Air fork then changing the travel is pretty easy and a relatively cheap option. For around £70 (the price of a new Solo Air Spring Assembly), and an hour or so of your time, and you can have any fork travel you need. It’s also an easy mod — the only special tools needed are a pair of circlip pliers.
In this guide we’ve converted a 29-inch 160mm Pike to 130mm, but if your fork is in good condition and you don’t mind swapping a few more parts over you can buy an air shaft on its own for half the price of the air assembly. If you simply want to service your Pike fork, check out our how to video here <clicky>