As title really, what forks (and set at what travel) are you using on your Life/Breath/Soloist?

I'm rather liking the look of the Breath my LBS has in stock and I'm wondering what forks/lengths suits it best. I'm thinking it would replace my four year old 456 and wanted to get something a bit lighter and sprightlier so I may also end up replacing my Pike 426 U-turns with an Maxled air Reba or Revelation. Any thoughts appreciated.

Mate is running Float 140's on his breath, he rode a 95km route with us across Wiltshire downs and didn't have any probs, thought it might bounce a bit climbing but seemingly not.He was behind me on the hills though!

Recently got a Soloist and got a nice pair of Revs to go with it. Not built yet but can not wait to try it.

Reba SL 100mm on my Soloist, seems to match it quite well, the Soloist is listed on Sanderson site as suited to 100-120mm forks

Running Reba SL 100mm on my Breath at the moment but have used 130mm u-turns with no problems.

buy it!

top frame. run 100-130mm Revs. usually stick it around 120 for general duties. on the bigger hills 130.

i've got a breath. great frame. nice and sprightly.

Right so my Pikes would be OK until I've saved up for something lighter…

Rebas – 85-115mm.
Spend most of their life at 115mm. I reckon 120mm would be ideal, unless you have lots of steep climbing to do (which my Life does really well at 85mm – let down by my lack of fitness/talent)

Thanks guys.
A couple other things: Can decent size tyres fit in with decent clearance? I like to run Conti Mountain King 2.4s most of the year and WTB Timberwolf 2.3s in the winter. Sizing wise I was thinking of getting a 16", as I'm 5'10" with 32" inside leg. Does that sound about right? I've got an 18" 456 and think it's almost too big for me so getting a 16" Breath made sense, in my head at least! Do you agree?

i'm 5'7" with a small. not sure what size that is but it's what i ordered and what i got. if small is 16" then you'll have a lot of post showing; i've already got enough for people to comment (although they are mostly germans who ride with the saddle touching their colon). tyre clearance isn't bad. used to run Maxxis Advantage 2.4 which i consider to be a 'fat' tyre. did have an issue that the tyre could rub the front mech in the corners when on on the smallest chainring. sloved the problem by tightening the spokes on one side in orderto move the wheel across a touch.

in it's current giuse. bar needs to be wider and flatter and a no rise stem to give it a more XC kick.

What's your inside leg measurement though, just to get some idea how much higher the saddle would be?

If its the same geomotry as the Soloist I reckon you will be more like an 18", i am exactly your size and went for an 18", it has a lot of seat post showing and would be way too small in a 16" for me.

The geometry is almost the same, except the Soloist has an inch shorter top tube than the Breath. How much seat post do you have showing? I've got 175mm of a 400mm Thomson post showing on my 18" 456 so I'd have roughly 225mm showing on a 16" frame. Is that too much?

Depends what you are into really, i guess mine must have around 2/3rds showing of a 410mm Thomson. i went through this with the Soloist i looked at the geom and nearly went with a 16", glad i didnt really.

Where are you buying from ? Might be worth dropping them a line and see what they think ?

Rebas – 85-115mm.
Spend most of their life at 115mm. I reckon 120mm would be ideal, unless you have lots of steep climbing to do (which my Life does really well at 85mm – let down by my lack of fitness/talent)

I've not bought a Sanderson but I did buy a Singular Hummingbird this week. Sam recommended a Reba 85-115mm fork and, on not finding a reasonably priced Reba above 100mm, I found a pair of 120mm Magura Durin Marathon suspension forks on ebay. I've ordered a pair and there's one pair left.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150366153896&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I was going to buy one of these and spoke to the guy who runs bikepedlar.co.uk – really helpful bloke and offered to let me have a spin on his small. Probably worth giving him a bell.

Life owner here. Used to have Rebas @ 100mm, then upped them to 115 ish. Just swapped for a XMC130s. The geometry is definitely different with the later (locked down v similar to Reba 100s), opened up they are about an inch (or 1 degree?) slacker. Seems to work ok.

TT length is longer than most on the Life (and Breath?)

Breath/Life have long top tubes – more of an issue than seatpost showing I reckon.

Thanks for all the replies. The sizing is something my friend and long-time riding buddy, who works at my LBS, where I'll be buying it from, and I have given a lot of thought to. We're happy that I need a 16" over an 18", although if they did a 17" that would be ideal! I'm going to put my Pikes on it for now and see how I get on. Watch out for pics in a couple of weeks, once I've had time to buy it and do the frame swap 🙂