Exxotic. hylix, trigon these climax things on ebay?
My Exotic was ace, haven’t got a bad word to say about it. Not exactly stiff, but that worked just fine for me.
Had to get a shorter one for the new bike so replaced it with a Hylix, which is probably fine, but scares me a bit- weighs nothing at all. Good tyre clearance, 2.5 goes in no bother with a 26 inch wheel. Not yet tested it hard, but it does nothing untoward while rolling about.
Axle to crown- a 100mm suspension fork is usually about 475mm so deduct 25mm for the sag and you get 450-ish. But, there’s no real perfect answer, some folks say it should be shorter, more in line with the fork when it’s working. Also, there’s a bit of a tendancy to use big tyres which adds a bit more front height! I reckon the Hylix feels good. The 29er Exotic is 465mm so I used it as a “long travel” rigid in the Soul and 456, that worked well too. Don’t obsess on it, I would say.