Rock Shox Reba. Can I fit 26" uppers to 29" lowers ?

I'm still trying to get round the problem of the steerer tube on my 29" Rebas being too short for my new frame.
As there seems to be a shortage of second hand 29er forks, I wondered about buying some second hand 26er forks with a long steerer, swapping the uppers over, then reselling the 26er forks with the short steerer.

I asked TF Tuned when I saw them at SITS and the guy told me to phone him in the week.
I did, but he didn't have both in front of him to compare, so he looked them up in his parts book and they are different part numbers.

Does that mean they are not interchangeable ?
The lowers are obviously 1.5" longer, why would the uppers be different ?

I can only guess that as the longer lowers create more leverage, the 29er uppers are also longer to give more overlap.
If that is the case, then as I want to run them with 85mm travel anyway, I should have enough overlap for safety.

I reckon Tazzymtb will be able to help you, he's butchered his rebas and has intimate knowledge!

yes you can it's and easy job.if you get an older reba you can take the travel adjust spacers out to make a 115mm 26" fork which will give you an 85mm 29er (spot on for most 29er frames) a newer version reba will give you 120mm so a 90mm 29er.

I now use a revelation air u-turn upper as I can change the travel from 70-100mm 29er with nice remote lockout so I can run the forks to suit which ever frame I'm using.

if you want a more detailed chat about it email me (in profile)

Anyone know if you can get 30mm 29er lower leg assemblies ( I think the minute is a 32mm) as I've got some old manitou R7 platinums that would make an ace frankenfork.

cheers
taz

Thanks Taz, it's always nice, when asking a technical question like this, to go straight to a "Yes you can, I've done it" answer. 🙂

So I will end up with a pair of 29er forks 30mm shorter than standard, but as I want to run them with short travel that won't make any difference, except that the overall length will be 30mm shorter, making the head angle a bit steeper.

I will also end up with a pair of 26er forks 30mm longer than standard, so when they are set to 85mm travel they will be the same overall length as if they were set for 115mm.

Have I got that right ?