It's an expensive frame so it's being built up with what I've got, so thats some 120mm Blacks. I know its 'optimised' for 140 but I'm just wondering how much the shorter fork will steepen the head angle and whether anyone has any experience with this issue. I've got a burly full suss bike for bulldozing the descents in the peaks but I'm riding down south quite a bit whwre a big fork is not essential. Any ideas?

the clue's in the name = 456 (inches) … that's 100m / 120m / 140mm .. guess you'll be fine

I've got a 120mm Reba Team on mine at the mo – feels fine to me. Make sure you have a long enough steerer to run some spacers/high rise stem/high rise bars as the headtube is short it could be a little too low at the front. It handles fine @ 120mm though.

Thanks. Got enough steerer for spacers if it comes to that. I know that it's supposed to be capable of running anything between 4 and 6 inches but was just concerned that a stepper head angle combined with a 60mm stem might make it a bit twitchy.

I run an 80mm stem – sometimes think about trying 90 or 100

A friend has 115 rebas on his 18" Is a bit arse-high-nose-low for me, but he likes it like that.

Maybe I'm swallowing the whole 'Nu Skool Calderdale' thing a bit, but the 18inch has a long top tube. Wouldn't a 100mm XC stem just stretch you out too much?

im a nats over 6 foot with long legs, ride an 18" 456 steel with an 80mm stem, and use fox talas 100-140 forks. Most of the time the fork is at 120mm – too twitchy at 100mm, way too slow at 140. 140 is great for steep stuff or rocky descents, 100mm is ace for climbing, and 120mm is a great all round singletrack/xc and general do it all level with my set up.

nixon_fiend, is that what you tell 'her' six inches is too?

Maybe you're right – I used to run 140mm forks on it with a flat 70mm stem – when I switched to 120mm forks I just felt the need to go with a slightly longer and higher stem – Inbreds have always had long toptubes but I know plenty of people running 90-100mm stems on them. I may try a 90mm just out of idle curiosity, cheers James.

120mm is about the sweetspot for all round riding on a 456 IMHO. More is definitely nicer for the descents tho… 😉