As I’m happy with what I have and a lud, it looks like I’ll be ending my days in the 26″, 9sp, 1+1/8 untapered headtube world.

I’ve got two bikes
– one is oe 100mm forks, frame ‘capacity’ is apparently 130mm max
– the other later bike is on oe 140 forks

My current cunning plan is that Fox talas 100-140 adjustables would allow me to have a single spare pair.

Any comments or better suggestions, I’ve done a bit of preloading on headset/9sp stuff spares but there seems to be a massive drop off in the availability of new untapered 1+1/8 forks

You’d probably be better off with a Rockshox fork with U-turn. It’ll work better across the range of travel.

Having read this twice I’m not sure what your asking.

Do you mean having 1 fork and 2 bikes? Swapping the fork depending on what your riding?

Of course that will work but it will be a massive pain in the arse, you will end up riding the bike with the fork in.

Whats the difference between the 2 bikes and can their function not be combined into one better bike?

I tried this with wheels once, what a PITA and wheels are well easier to swap than forks, especially as the bike goes in my car boot with the wheels off!

I got another set of wheels eventually.

I think the bit where he says one spare pair suggests that, as the bikes already have forks, his single spare pair would be ready for either bike, as a spare. Obviously if two sets of forks end up dead then that is a problem but until then, sounds fine.

yeah – have two fully working,complete bikes – but looking at building up a set of ‘probably be needed’ spares – am aware that 26″ might die but it looks like 1+1/8 straight forks are on the way out – buying two different forks is a lot to have lying around doing nothing

I’d say having one set of forks lying around doing nothing is a waste. There will be 1 1/8 forks around second hand for a long time yet. Just relax.

If it’s a spare take a look at something you can adjust internally.

I’ll be ending my days in the 26″, 9sp, 1+1/8 untapered headtube world

Same here – three bikes with interchangeable forks and wheels. The only thing I’d say is that stiff forks do not make a stiff bike and in some cases going overboard with the forks actually makes things worse. One bike has U-turn coil Pikes and I think they are my favourite but tbh they spend a lot of time not doing any U-turns. 90 mm or whatever it is feels like a road bike and 130-140 feels like a chopper. Curiously have tried them on an allegedly slacker slightly longer travel frame and they still feel best at around 120mm.

Have toyed with the idea of fitting them onto a 100mm XC-ish bike but they are just way too burly – like a pair of forks with a bike attached

Would advise getting the most appropriate forks for your frames while you can and go with that

I reckon it’ll work but you probably need to think as much about spares and adaptors as you do the actual fork.

Assuming you’re thinking about a quick change in an emergency, then you probably need to take a bit of a tick sheet approach I guess.

Have you got the same Headset on both bikes? if so then make sure the standby pair are pre-fitted with an appropriate crown race,

make sure your spare forks and both bikes front brakes are easily interchangeable, best bet would be to have PM callipers on both bikes and make sure you have a the right IS-PM adaptor(s) ready if your different forks have different mountings.

Steerer lengths? are both frames similar enough that this won’t be a biggy? (probbly not an issue but worth double checking) just make sure you have a few extra spacers just in case there’s an extra 10mm of steerer on the spare fork you hadn’t remembered…

Any Star nut/preload cap compatability issues?

I assume Axles are all the same size right? If not can hubs be adapted or are there suitable spare wheels available?

As for the differing travel thing, It might make sense to space the Talas down to 130mm just to cover your bases.
Then again another option might be to look for a cheap and cheerful set of older Marz forks in the 100-120 range, remember its just a spare pair so ~£50 for a an old set of Bombers could make sense, or is having 2 sets of spare forks a step too far?