He scored three goals in a month at Ninian Park before the Cottagers recalled him owing to an injury crisis, but a training-ground injury would change the course of Pike's career forever.
"I had terrible, terrible back pain," he remembers. "I was virtually paralysed.
"It was done very innocuously, just while training, I twisted and felt something go in my back.
"I lost all feeling in my right leg.
"They tried everything for about six months before they operated, that didn't work, then I had a year of rehabilitation and another operation.
"The second operation damaged a few nerves and, basically, I didn't have much reflex on my right leg, I had lost about 50 percent of my reflexes and five yards of pace."
He jokes that he went from a lung-busting flyer to "about as quick as most centre halves" during that testing time in the late 1980s.
Still in his early twenties, Pike was faced with a devastatingly stark realisation.
"It meant I couldn't then play at a higher level," he says. "I was going to be transferred to Chelsea for quite a lot of money before all this happened at Fulham.
"I was out for two and a half years with a back problem, when I got back I was virtually uninsurable.
"Because I'd lost five yards of pace, I was unable to play in the top division."
But Chelsea's loss in 1986 became Cardiff's gain just three years later.
The Bluebirds had been monitoring his situation at Fulham ever since that impressive loan spell.
Pike played a little more than 40 games in four years at Craven Cottage and admits he was concerned if he could ever string together a run of performances ever again.
He even thought about a contingency, probably becoming a PE teacher or going back to university to study something in sport.
But he needn't have worried.
"I think I scored 23 goals in the first season," he says, "but unfortunately we were relegated.
"But from a personal point of view it was great. I didn't realise I could play at that level again, it was nice to realise I still could.
"I had to learn a different way to what I was used to, more of a target man rather than running in behind.
"I was getting problems with my back, so I could never go any higher, but I was just enjoying playing for my local club and helping them out best I could, really."
Pike topped the goalscoring charts in his first three seasons at the club, the last of which he shared with Carl Dale, who would become a good friend both on and off the pitch, with both marksmen scoring 28.
It was during that period Eddie May took over from Len Ashurst as manager and Pike remembers his first reaction to the fiery cockney.
"I said, 'Oh my God, he's got a face like a lion!'," he laughs
"We used to call him Lion Head! He looked a bit like a lion with his big mane of hair and he had a bit of a growl on him."
In fairness, that assessment seems fair and hilarious in equal measure.
Heading into that fabled 1992/93 season, Pike remembers feeling that something special was afoot and speaks fondly of the characters at the time.
"They were an eclectic mix of people," he laughs.
"Neil Matthews goes down as legendary in those days, as does Paul Millar. Both loved the craic and enjoyed life to the full, shall we say, not model professionals in the modern sense!
"Fantastic team-mates who would go through a brick wall for you."
1991
Chris Pike (L) pictured in 1991
The attacking ranks that year were something else. Dale, Pike, Nathan Blake, Cohen Griffith and not to mention Phil Stant, the uncompromsing goalscorer who came in halfway through the campaign.
"They were all smashing fellas," he says.
"Me and Nathan used to take the mickey out of each other something wicked, but we had a huge amount of mutual respect for each other.
"And me and Carl were very close. Cohen was a lovely fella. We were nice people and got on, which always helps when you're playing."
There was a feeling within the dressing room, Pike says, that the Division Three title was theirs to lose that season.
"We had by far the best squad in the division," he remembers. "We had the best squad to aim a division or two higher.
"The pressure mounted towards the end of the season, there were a couple of hiccups, but we weren't surprised we won the league, especially when you took a look around the dressing room.
"We were going out, playing teams who we thought were not really able to cope with us if we were playing our A game."
In search of Cardiff City's most loved team: The class of 1992/93
They were the Cardiff City team that defined a generation. A group of players who sparked something within the Bluebirds fanbase few others have been able to replicate since.
In 1993, Eddie May's side delivered promotion for his barmy army at the end of a season those who were there will never forget.
This was the team of Dale, Stant, Blake, Searle, Pike and the rest. It was the year of that glorious, iconic kit.
Over the coming weeks, WalesOnline will be tracking down the men who became heroes 27 years ago to hear their stories of yesteryear and discover what became of them.
You can read about Carl Dale, the cult striker who became an electrician here.
Here, we tracked down Derek Brazil, the Man United kid who became a Bluebirds hero.
Pike finished the season the club's top league scorer again with 12 goals.
It represented a special moment for him, personally. Not only had he played a huge part in a title-winning campaign, but he had proved to himself that he could do it, and back it up, year after year following the heartache of those horrific injury woes at Fulham.
In doing so, of course, he helped his beloved Bluebirds reach promotion. That, in itself, he says, was the pinnacle.
"I used to watch Cardiff from the Canton Stand as a kid," he says. "Me and a couple of mates would go, so it was always a dream of mine to play for my local team.
"I always wanted to play for Cardiff at some point in my career.
"Even if I hadn't have had the back problems and played at a higher level, I'd have loved to have played for Cardiff later on in my career.
"It was a dream really."
Pike left after that season. He had a frank conversation with Eddie May and decided his back couldn't hold up to the rigours of Division Two football.
He went to Hereford for a season, where of course he was top scorer, before moving on once again to Gillingham for a year and, you guessed it, he was top scorer there, too.
His record, when you really look at it, is pretty remarkable. After leaving Fulham in 1989, he scored 86 goals in 213 league games over seven years.
And to think he doubted whether he could still cut it.
He went back to Barry Town after Gillingham to fulfil a promise he made to their chairman a decade before. Typically, his record there reads 46 goals in 82 games.
Pike, now 58, finally hung up his boots in 2001.
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