djb

I might as well put this down Medic, thanks a lot for taking the time to put down your experiences and notes about replacing a fork. At some point my late 90s Rockhopper will probably need a replacement fork for its Manitou suspension one, and so your notes helped to understanding a bit more about the various ins and outs of fork lengths etc.
I will probably only do more reading to understand all this stuff when and if I get to the fork replacement point, but it does help having someones personal experience as a start to read up on the whole procedure (and frankly, to be more informed so as not to make a mistake like this fellow did. Its good to have more info to hopefully not go that route, or at least understand the diff parameters better when getting opinions from store people or whatever)

cheers

ps, re P clamps, I too agree that it seems that the key is making rubber bits from old tubes that make a big difference stopping slipping etc, thats been my experience as well with them in any case.