RockShox

Pike RCT3 Solo Air 140 Boost Fork - 29/27.5 Plus - 2017

As the industry continues to improve suspension design, big hits are no longer anathema to big wheels, so the 5.5in travel of RockShox's Pike RCT3 Solo Air 140 Boost Fork for 29in and 27.5 plus tires isn't just a novelty parlor trick. Anyone who's had the opportunity to try 27.5 plus tires and Boost front axles know that the fat bike-cush and stiff, line-holding 148mm axle are no joke, either. When all of this tech is housed in RockShox's peerless all-mountain fork, you can expect things as big as your bike's wagon wheels.

While the Solo Air model sacrifices the Dual Position Air shock's variable travel, it does still come with some adjustability. This manifests as a three-position RCT3 switch, which lets you choose discreet amounts of lockout for big hits and fast roll-overs, rock gardens and root lattices, or locked-out speed for climbing and sprinting. While riding the fork open, the Rapid Recovery feature indulges the Pike's terrain-gobbling tendencies by keeping recovery short between hits, so you'll always have that cushion, even through successive bumps.

The axle is designed according to the Maxle Lite technology, which basically involves alchemy. While we don't understand exactly how they did it, the sorcerers at RockShox took a regular ol' axle and made it both lighter and stiffer. This means it requires fewer watts to move it, and the watts you do send its way are more efficiently transferred to going up. The Power Bulge feature involves a questionable naming convention and a reinforced lower leg and oversized bushing, which further increases stiffness without increasing stanchion size.