80 or 100mm rockshox reba?

Kerrmit1992

Hi guys,

So I'm building a new XC bike for next years racing. Can anyone tell me whether I'm better with 100mm or 80mm front forks on a 29er? I read somewhere that 100mm forks on a 29er make it quite bouncy on the front, is this accurate? Also, looking at my talon 3 which I have been using this year(I know It is not a racing frame) but it seems to have a higher front end with the 100mm forks and this can't be good for climbing surely? Oh, and it's an XTC 29er frameset I have :-)

Cheers
Craig

junglist_matty

I have (2012 dual air) 100mm Reba RLT's on my Kinesis FF29.... They're good forks, would suit a race frame, my 29er isn't strictly an XC racer, but it's fast, I commuted to work on it this morning (with 2.25 Racing Ralphs)...

http://www.strava.com/activities/76072985


The forks are not bouncy, you can obviously pump up the pressure to make them stiffer if your worried about them being soft, and also adjust the rebound and the preload, so there's no reason they'd be anything other than fully customisable.

rockmonkeysc

The 100mm fork can be adjusted to 80mm with a spacer.

supersonic

Not with newer Rebas.

jairaj

I'm not sure what you mean by make the front end bouncy? Surely this is down to suspension set up?

But anyways ... Giant sell the full bike version of the XTC 29er with a 100mm fork so I would guess the geometry is designed with a 100mm fork in mind. Putting a 80mm fork will steepen the all ready steepish angles further. Is that something you are after?

Kerrmit1992

Well if they sell it that way then that's fine :-) ... I'm actually struggling to find a set of 100mm reba :-( will need to ask the bike shop if they can get them :-)

jairaj

What steerer and dropouts do you need? There are a few Reba and SID 100mm 29er forks available on Merlin Cycles.

slowslowslow

Wiggle have a 100mm Reba. I have 100mm on my Whyte 29er. No issues at all.

Kerrmit1992

Yeah merlin was one of the only places I saw the 100mm as I need the tapered ones. The 100mm everywhere else is not tapered :-(

jairaj

If you don't the need the extra stiffness in the front end just go for a straight steerer with an adaptor or different bottom cup on your headset?

Greer_

Try bike-discount.de there's a lot of cheap tapered forks on it.