Coil/U-Turn preferably, but air too.

I have a Planet-X hardtail with RS Domain uturn forks. It's wonderful downhill in it's 160mm guise but not great going up hill. You have to ride it a bit differently than normal, you have to be over the front a lot and push the forks. A strong rear wheel with a big tyre helps things a lot.

It is great fun though, I'm planning on riding Megavalanche on it next year

Cotic BFe here with Lyrik U-Turns. Great on the downs obviously and also fine up, either with the forks wound in, or as sometimes happens with them, wound all the way out to 160mm. You just get used to it and it doesn't really feel considerably slower than anything else I've ridden. This includes a Scott Scale. In fact, with the Cotic I not only noticed little change in speed but it is also a damn sight more comfortable on longer rides!

456 and 36 talas – top fun everywhere and ridable uphill talas'd down.

But, tbh, better with a lighter 140mm fork.

i have a evil sovereign with 160 vans, love it to bits, feels just right, very solid and planted and also stable
in the air. i also have a soul with 140 vanillas but havent taken it up the woods since i built the sov up,

Orange Subzero BH with knackered manitou shemans, but once I replace them it'll be flying again. Such a capable, confidence inspiring bike.

six hours of whistler XC, it was very f#$%%^ng difficult but more because of crap fitness rather than the bike 🙂

i ran my revs at 150mm (no u-turn) for a while on my Chameleon. Was great on the downs and didn't affect climbing too much even with a 40mm stem, but obviously you had to get a lot more forward!

Mine was built fairly light however, which didn't really work too well. No point in having all that travel and slack angles unless theres some big fat grippy tyres on there as well.

Another BFe wiith Lyric U-turns. Been all over the UK, and done quite a lot of alpine action. Mine's effectively a size too small for extra chuckability, but actually is remarkably user friendly uphill providing I'm feeling strong enough to grunt the 36/32 bottom gear. Downhill? Absolute hoot. Bit of a handful at times if it's REALLY rocky, but even then it's a giggle.

dmr exalt. sold it. bought a full suss.

not got the trails here to warrent it. it was nice but heavy. and felt liek a big bike when i wanted a little bike and a little bike when i needed a big bike.

the difference in head angle when fully compressed caught me out a few times to.

it was nice just not as fun as i'd hoped. the new full suss is much better and faster and more fun.

i just got a NS Surge, running 160mm 55s. Only had it a few rides

+ it's a lot of fun, it weighs a fair amount (probably 33lbs) but I don't really care about that. Its fast

– there's no need for 160mm travel (i had the forks lying about)-I love the angles, but I've not bottomed it out yet and I'm riding it pretty soft. As has been said, the angles get pretty steep when you're close to bottoming out, something that doesn't really happen on a bit fs bike. I think it'd be just as fun with 120/140mm forks, if the angles weren't significantly altered (ie a long fork)

I've run 160 Lyrics, 160 Zocchis and 140 Pikes on my Sov and prefer the Pikes at 140. It's just more "fun". There is a the big advantage with big forks that you can run them super soft, but I just found myself winding them down all the time to be honest.

have an Alpine with 2-step Lyriks…

a good combo so long as the fork is working. first time round it stopped dropping the full 45mm and in the end i was left with the full 160mm. sent it back and now the opposite is happening. the fork doesn't return to the full 160mm, and now i'm left with ~130mm when fully extended.

mate has the coil Lyrik and doesn't suffer any probs for a minimal weight gain. i've been waiting for ~2 months now for the parts i need in order to fit the coil/u-turn system.

the Alpine is a right hoot. big 2.4 tyre on a big thick (and heavy) rim run at relatively low pressure and you're quicker than any weekend warrior on his carbon Scott Genius, IME.

I've a Cotic Bfe with 150mm U-turn Revs. Fantastic going downhill usurprisingly, including very rocky stuff. Very good uphill too though, even with the forks wound right out. So much so that I now use it as my do-everything bike and my spesh epic has been consigned to the cellar for some time now.

Orange SubZero, usually with 180mm Marz' 66 RC2X (coil), but sometimes with 160mm Fox 36 RC2 (air). Both set-ups could be nicer in terms of climbing, but everything else is bags of fun. I don't know what to say about adventures, but the SZ has given me more grins than any other bike I've owned.

I've got a BFe with 130mm Revs and I have to say I love it on trails and DH – thinking about getting some Lyrik u-turns but I'm actually wondering if I need any more travel or whether I just get used to running it with short travel.

…obviously if someone can explain how an extra 30mm might benefit I'd love to hear.