Thinking about a 14" for my partner, she's only just over 5 ft and finds her current bike twitchy, I think its because of its short wheelbase and steepish head angle (70.5), something that seems common with womens specific bikes. Would like to keep her 100mm reba fork but i'm assuming summer season would still come up quite a bit slacker and thus be more stable and confidence inspiring for her. Any similar experiences running this length fork for on one of these frames, and what sort of build weight could she expect? Any thoughts appreciated. 😉

Ive just picked up a new 456 summer season in 14, im 5'6 tall and the first thing i noticed was the top tube is shorter than the inbred it replaced. Will replace the stem with a 80mm version as opposed to the 50mm its currently using. Dont know what the angle would be like with a 100mm fork, my fork is set to 130mm but will be set at 150mm at the weekend so it will be super slack.
I used to run a 125mm fork on the inbred which felt fine, have you considered this frame aswell as it was originally set for a 100mm fork (i think).
First ride out on the 456 up and down snowy/icy mountain track over Glencoe and I love it, you can throw it through corners harder than I used to on the inbred.

Built the GF a 14" SS up last year. She's a bit taller than your lady (5'5") but there's lots of standover. She runs a 60mm 456 stem and 2" rise bars. It's not the lightest build in the world but still sub 28lb, just.

With 100mm forks the HA comes out at 68 degrees (unsagged). I always thought that was the idea behind the SS … slack head angle with short forks, so I can't understand why everyone keeps sticking 130mm+ forks on 'em – that's what a 'normal' 456 is for.

Hope that helps

Stuart

Cheers, Sounds like I might be on the right track then.