UKC

Perhaps the question should have been which the fork, but that sounded better.
Anyway, Im looking for a fork to replace my Rockshox reba dual air, which despite being light and fairly capable, it just never felt right and was quite flexible. I previously had a RS Tora air which was good but heavy.
Requirements are for 26 inch bike with 1 1/8 steerer, any type of axle is fine, will be mostly used for red/black trails and xc rides. If you are really interested the bike is a Kona King Kikapu and I weigh 72kg.

In reply to Pesda potato:

How much do you want to spend? I've been riding a Rockshox Revelation dual position, which has me covered for all the riding I'm ever likely to do. Not as stiff or as much travel as the seemingly ubiquitous Pike, but I'd be seriously over-forked with one of those.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

i dont know how my bike would ride going from 100mm to a 150mm fork, plus I think £500 is a lot for a fork

In reply to Pesda potato:

Revelations come in all lengths, down to 100mm if you want, but all they are really is a slightly very slightly beefier Reba with a longer stanchion and air spring. A Rev is unlikely to be any stiffer.

What axle standard is your wheel? If it's qr now any 15mm fork will help a bit with lateral stiffness.

It's not really answering your question, but are you really sure the Reba is at fault? They're great forks, and neither a 32 or a velvet are particularly 'stiffer'.

You might benefit from any of 1 a change in tyres 2 going tubeless 3 stiffer wheels with a wider rim 4 a frame with a tapered headtube and forks to match 5 wider bars and a shorter stem to gain a lot of control.

All of these are things I would do before upgrading dual air rebas.

Or, to put it another way, if you don't see the justification for a pair of pikes and a tapered frame, rebas are not what is holding you back or making you feel insecure, if that makes sense?

In reply to Pesda potato:

Are you sure that the problem isn't with the way you've got the forks set up? I'm not coming at this from a position of superiority, fork tuning completely mystifies me.

In reply to Pesda potato:

could be setup, ill keep experimenting, someone on another forum suggested settign the -ve air higher than the +ve which ive not tried yet.

Thanks Neuromancer Ive got black flag expert wheels which are pretty stiff and the flex is in the fork not the wheel. These wheels can take any form of axle but currently my forks are 9mm qr.
Already got the wide bars short stem fat tyres tubeless. I cant see how having a tapered steerer is going to make much difference tbh.

Thanks for the advice, its good to know these things before spending loads.

In reply to Pesda potato:
You'd probably easily get away with upping to 130/140mm travel without it making the front-end too much of a handful on the ups (Reba are 100mm?).

For mid-market forks I'd look at the RS Revelations or one of X-Fusion forks. 2nd hand bargains can be had at 26" wheels.

On past bikes I've run RS Revelation, Marzoks, Fox's, X-Fusions Vengeance.

None come close to the current Pikes.

In reply to ChrisJD:

Increasing travel will make forks LESS stiff, not more stiff.

Tapered headtubes increase stiffness in quite an obvious way - the contact point from which the fork flexes is 40% bigger. Snap a pencil vs snap a thick bamboo cane?

A 15qr lower will help, and if you are unwilling to do anything else is likely the only reason to change your forks.

You could search ebay or a tuning company eg J-TECH and see if you can find some 15mm Reba lowers, or just buy a pair of Reba's off ebay with f*cked stanchions / broken internals and strip them yourself its easy.

If you can get a 120mm fox 34 (I don't think so)? You may be able to find a 1/1/8 lyrik that's got a 15qr that you can spacer down to about 120 - but you will be paying for it by increasing weight quite a lot.

Are you sure this 'flex' is actually affecting your riding that negatively?

There are a lot better ways to spend a couple of hundred quid - a reverb, petrol money, plane tickets, a new frame, nicer clothes to ride in etc etc

In reply to neuromancer:
Wasn't suggesting upping the travel on the Reba.

Talking about upping the travel by going for a longer travel fork (with thru axle) without screwing the geometry on his/her bike too much.

In reply to Pesda potato:
You could try and pick up a pair of Marz 55 and reduce the travel to 140mm (heard it can be done).

I used to run 55 RC3 Ti oil/coil that I bought 2nd hand for £200 (1 1/18) at 160mm on a 130mm Giant VT. The front end was manageable on the ups even at 160mm. They have 35mm stanchions.

You won't complain about flex - but you will go fast (down at least). Not light though

In reply to ChrisJD:

You suggested revelations. Revelations are the same chassis as rebas. You are doing nothing to solve his issue.

Either get over it, buy a set of 15qr lowers, or buy some secondhand lyriks.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Hot damn almost got another argument (debate?) going over forks, ace.
Got plenty of options now cheers all

In reply to neuromancer:
Why so aggressive? There is no need.

He can get Rev with thru axle on 1 1/8. And more travel will always solve everything.

The flexing was was one of two issues - the other was "it just never felt right"

In reply to ChrisJD:

Sorry you mistook my laziness to write it out longhand because I'm using a tablet for aggressuveness.

A rev won't feel any different to a Reba unless it has a different damping cartridge or significantly different tuning. Eg the rapid recovery rebound circuit being the biggest upgrade!

In reply to neuromancer:

140mm would feel different (and hopefully all round better) to 100mm though (rmebering the OP wants to ride Red/Blacks). And a thru axle would help improve things.

Not sure what year their Rebas are either, so a more up to date Rev could also help .

Also: I ran 140mm Oil U-Turn RS Revs for a good while and my partner is still running those same forks on her VT. Skinny 32mm for sure, but a low maintenance good performing fork (I'm not a fan of air, though do run Pike air forks, but have gone back to coil rear shock). Newer Revs are air - so an older Oil U-Turn Rev could be another option for the OP as these forks just keep going. No thru axle though (don't know if an RS made an oil/thru-axle Rev?).