24 inch wheeled kids bikes with forks

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 mike123 22 Aug 2019

I've just been looking at old posts/ threads on here and found this , it won't accept new replies so I've started a new one .

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/biking/24-inch_wheel_kids_bikes-582243?v=...

i have two 24 inch wheeled bikes , a beinn 24 and boardman chartreuse ( possible spelling error ) that I just got for a steal . I want to trick out one of them with forks. (  I know there is some debate about wether this is worthwhile and I respect the view that it's not  but that's not what what I m asking ) . I'm erring towards the boardman as it has cable discs front and back which work quite well although I may swap them for hydraulics . The only  24 inch forks I can find with disc mounts are some sun tours xcr s on Ebay.

i m after thoughts about what folks have done. Also the bike on the photos in the last post on the above thread has some really nice looking forks . Does anybody know what they are ? 

Edit : I've emailed Jon from that thread , if anybody knows him could you let him. Know about this thread please .

Post edited at 08:08
Rigid Raider 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

You'd do better to go and ask on the Singletrack forum.

 summo 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

RST f1rst is one but at 1700grams it's still not light for a kids bike. 

 the sheep 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

Don’t know where you live but someone round my way (south Leicester) was selling a Mekk frame and forks for £5

its in good nick, I went to buy it to finish off for one of mine but ended up getting a complete bike from them 

OP mike123 22 Aug 2019
In reply to the sheep: can you remember which forks they were and do you have details ? I might be close by next week

 felt 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

With kids' bikes, the answer is always Islabike, whatever the question.

 subtle 22 Aug 2019
In reply to felt:

> With kids' bikes, the answer is always Islabike, whatever the question.

It certainly used to be, however Frog and Hoy bikes are now crediable/comparable alternatives - so much so in fact we swapped from Isla Bikes to Frog for our kids, sold the isla bikes on a bought the fleet of frog bikes at little additional cost

Rigid Raider 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

Surely fitting suspension forks to a kids' bike will almost double the weight of the frame?

 felt 22 Aug 2019
In reply to subtle:

Ah, that's good to know. I do like a short brand name on me down tube. 

 the sheep 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

Sorry, just seen that its a MTB, the Mekk was a gravel bike type with rigid forks and discs. 

 Jon Greengrass 22 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

a 24" suspension fork has typically has 410-430mm axle crown length. I would save the weight of a suspension fork that is barely going to work with the weight of the rider and fit a rigid 26" carbon fork, and wheel shod with a fat 2.4"-2.8", low profile tread 26" tyre.

 jethro kiernan 22 Aug 2019

In reply 

I found this for my son, we got the previous years model, it seemed the best value kids bike, not too heavy and good forks and kit.

https://winstanleysbikes.co.uk/saracen-mantra-2-4-24-inch-2018-kids-bike?gc...

Post edited at 12:30
 Exile 22 Aug 2019
In reply to Rigid Raider:

Make sure it's an air fork.  Maybe give Islabike a ring and see what they use / if they can source you one.  They are very helpful.

 jon_bee 23 Aug 2019
In reply to mike123:

Hope you got my email Mike! I could split that bike if you only have need for bits of it.

For 24" forks the most promising 'off the shelf' forks I found were Spinners. Maybe a bit hard to track down but I did get proces direct from their European importer. The Grind Air 24 would be the one:

http://bluepill.pl/Spinner%20GRIND%20AIR%20LC%2024/9/13/

I did have a bit of back and forth with them about getting a 20" air fork made to fit an Islabike Beinn, as it would have needed a 1" steerer. They were communicative but it never happened.

The head tube dimension is the biggest issue with fitting any sort of non-spec fork to an Islabike Beinn as they're all 1" which massively limits what's available for them (unless you go seriously retro). I don't know what the Boardman frame you have has?

What I've seen a few people do is use a short travel 26" fork - which is tempting as there's a good choice of nice, light 26" air forks about secondhand (or in the shed). The risk obviously is that the axle to crown is really long and jacks the front of the bike up a bit. With a suitable sized headtube (1 1/8 or tapered) you could help this with an angle headset or slackset, but that's getting a bit faffy. With a short enough fork run with plenty of sag it may well be fine as it is.

You can get carbon 24" rigid forks (made for the BMX cruiser racing market I presume) which would be a good alternative - but again needs a 1 1/8 headtube:

https://www.carboncycles.cc/?p=197

Also if disk then you could run 24" wheel in a 26" fork - which you may have a chance of finding in 1".

On a 20" bike I just ended up going with as fat and light a tyre as I could find (2.25" Kenda Small Block 8) which can do a long way to making rough stuff more manageable. If you can bodge them tubeless then you'll be able to run lower pressures too.

 ChrisJD 02 Sep 2019
In reply to Rigid Raider:

> Surely fitting suspension forks to a kids' bike will almost double the weight of the frame?

Doesn't necessarily mean it will become a 'heavy' kids bike though.

This modded Isla Beinn-26 (only the frame, cranks & rear wheel are original Isla) weighs in at c. 24 lbs with 2nd hand eBay 100mm RS SiD forks

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nr8uwkw10lbu4g7/20190531_164408.jpg?dl=0

We also previously had a 2nd hand Isla Creig-24 that was really light as well.

Post edited at 17:07
 nikkiss 22 Sep 2019
In reply to mike123:

did you found a source where you can purchase them?


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...