Ps what sort of tires are you thinking of going with?
I'd go with something that has a nice flexible sidewall, will be appreciated.
First, thanks for the input on ride quality. My expectations aren't high. I personally like more-rigid riding, and if I don't like the way it handles, I'll polish up and swap some old parts back on, then try another frame. I will say, I had a Fisher before this that just wasn't rigid enough, it pissed me off. Even after rebuilding the fork with new seals/wipes/oil, at highest setting it seemed too soft for me. I'm not downhilling on this Cdale, at worst large gravel and roots.
On tires, I scored a good deal on a pair of Continental Mountain King (26 x 2.3). Seems Conti had a few viable options with the Mountain King, Cross King, Trail King, After reading around and looking at the weight, specs, sidewall, and tread of each, I settled on the MK over the others, although I was tempted to go TK. All are tubeless-ready, which I've no way to support at the moment. Nearly bought a set of Maxxis, EVO II? opted to save 30%, which I may later regret. Will see. The Conti tires support low inflation, I thought that would be the kicker.
Still need to nail down a wheelset though. I've got at least one line with a local BF'er for some mid-90s XTR M900s on Araya RM-400s. I'd prefer M950s or maybe M910s if staying in the 90s, TX610 or M590 if more modern, but at this point, I'd rather just put the wheelset topic behind me and casually hunt for another wheelset or new hubs to lace in later. I keep hitting walls at sites like ModernBike etc. - they'll have the front hub but no matching rear. Like, infallibly. Same w/shifters. Weird.
I've got several extra sets of NOS Forte Team linear brake levers and a used Avid 3 linear brake set, so I think that's the direction I'll end up going for stopping, ditching the cantis. I prefer linear over canti. Again, may update that later.