I have decided to try again at the ultimate all round bike.

Most my riding is a mix of freeride and downhill singletrack. I have been riding my dream custom Orange Patriot since 2001 but have dearly missed the option for tricky hoppy trials type riding and the ability to tackle long winding uphills.

My Stiffee frame arrived today and I have parts on order to begin phase 2. I have 100mm RS Reba Dual air forks ready to go, but question: is this too little travel? Does anyone have feedback after trying this combo?

I think that if you are a freeride/ DH guy as you say then they are really. The Stifee was designed as a longer travel frame. I loved mine and ran it around 140-150mm and it was great. The only bike I ever regretted selling

I have seen pics where people have run them with full on DH triple
Crown forks as the frame is so strong.

I think to run them with 100mm forks will mean that you’ll have a steep head angle and won’t be using the frame to it’s potential

I think the Stiffee FR was originally designed around 100 mm fork which was longish travel back then. I don’t know if they changed the angles around 2009 but it used to be 100 mm to 120/130ish travel for the sweetest all round handling.

Although strong the standard Stiffee wasn’t warranted for a triple crown, that was the Stiffee MX (I think) which was more jump/ freeride focused and became the Foreplay.

to go back to your question if you all ready have Reba 100’s why not take the internal spacer out, run them a 120 mm and see how you get on.

Think latest ones are 140mm as a base. Seen them with 160’s on, but imagine they’d be a little too much like a chopper

Just a though, why not ask richiethesilverfish.

He’s been selling them long enough now to hopefully know whats what

Thanks guys, I’ll try it and see.

Sodajim, that was my thought too. Anyone ever tried changing fork travel? Found a nice
how to but looks a bit fiddly.

Let testing commence..

After running a few different forks in a few different guises, I have come to the conclusion that something with adjustable travel is perfect for this bike, I’ve got some u-Turn Pikes on mine currently.

Tackles all sorts and is very confidence inspiring at 140, but is rather wandery when sat down hauling up hills, being able to wind it in seems to cure the wander.

Would probably handle more than 140, but that is just the range of the current fork on it.

*high five* for another old-school Patriot owner 🙂 ( yr 2000 over here..)

110-140 U-turn Revs work great. The 140mm on new frames makes uphill switchbacks quite difficult, but dropping to 110 makes it a bit easier. I don’t think you’d get so much out of the frame if you had just 100m travel. You really need the u-turns to make it an all rounder.

I had one. A pike was ideal, 120-140mm.

I tried it with Marzocchi AM and 36 TALAS and they were too long.

post-2005 stiffee fr frames were warrantied up to 150mm travel fork, prior to that 130mm. mine’s a 2005 with 130mm marzocchi z1 freeride3 fork on it and admittedly it’s not the best at climbing, but it copes and is ridiculous fun going down stuff.

The geo change was a long time ago. Latest Stiffee’s (using 30.0mm seatpost) can run 150mm no probs.

I love mine.

I run a set of 150mm 36 Talas for Jump/AM/FR/DH duties and have never felt the need to shorten the travel for XC stuff.

Had a previous Stiffee (up to 130mm version) and bought a set of 32 Talas with it. Started off running 100mm travel ended up running it at 130mm all the time.

It’s never going to be an top class XC racer but then again it isn’t supposed to be.

I had 95-140 pikes and now have 110-150 sektors on mine. Wonderful down and when the forks are wound down, climbs pretty well too.

Another Stiffee owner here. As the others have said, with 100mm you prob won’t see the benefits of the Cove frame. I’ve run mine with a set of 130mm Bombers for and just swapped for a pair of 150mm Rev’s. I use mine mainly for general trail riding / trail centres and messing about in the quarries and to be honest I’m tempted to get the Rev’s adjusted to 140mm. The only downside to the longer forks is the bike wanders slightly on climbs.

xiphon – I have a 2000 Patriot in rather a sorry state sitting in my shed! Brought it a couple of years ago to use as a cheap play bike but still yet to use it!

@ Sodajim

Bring it back to life! Still make fantastic bikes, in particular the ‘LT’ model (6 inch bounce) combined with 6 inch forks…

…. I think they call them ‘All Mountain’ bikes these days?

Mine’s now getting a refurb 🙂

I built up a 2009 Stiffee frame with Fox Float 130mm forks a couple of months ago and it feels really good to me, but I think 100mm is going to be too short for the frame as it’s going to pitch your weight too far forwards. With the 130s it doesn’t wander much on the climbs, is responsive on flat singletrack and feels almost as stable as my 160mm full sus on the decents. I’d like to try it with longer forks but I’m worried about upsetting the feel as at the moment it feels quicker than a number of XC race hardtails I’ve had in the past, plus the cost of decent forks is pretty frightening these days! My advice would be not to build it too heavy as you might loose some of the responsive feel.

Here’s a photo of mine to give you an idea of the angles with a 130mm fork:

xiphon I know I should revive it really! It’s a shame but it doesn’t quite look as nice as yours! I think mine one is the standard 5″ version though someone along the line seems to have fitted a vanilla that’s a tad to long so the swing arm rests on the seat tube. It clears it when you sit on it but I wouldn’t fancy taking a bigger hit on it!

It also looks like its had a spot of welding around the BB under the several layers of paint!

I’ll have to strip it down over the winter but I’m not sure I’m enough of an Orange fan to warrant what I suspect wants spending on it

Sorry to go off topic by the way!

@ Sodajim

Let me know if the frame needs a new home…

xiphon I’d be happy to sell it if you really want it. Realistically I doubt I’ll ever do anything with it. I don’t know how long it will be before I can strip it down take photos etc, just moved house last weekend and my Mr’s is due to give birth ermmm… tomorrow!!

No rush 🙂 Might be useful as spares for mine, that’s all.