I didn’t get chance to take a photo but at Aston Hill today a guy was riding with an old Kona Stinky 26″ but had squeezed some 27.5 wheels into it. Clearance looked fine in the rear but his Marzocchi’s (think they were 55’s?) couldn’t quite hold chunky DH tyres without grazing the bridge. So apparently he used a dremel to shave away some of the underside of the bridge so the tyre had clearance.

I had a look at it and he’d probably ‘dremelled’ away about 2-3mm of material away from where the centre knobbles of the tyre would have originally grazed the bridge. It wasn’t a great amount but I said that surely he’s affected the integrity of the fork. He didn’t seem concerned and said worst case scenario is he’s shaved a gram off his bike. Who’s right?

No one knows, I’d say he’s probably ok.

More interesting when he bottoms out the fork and the tyre hits the crown and stops dead. OTB at speed.

More interesting when he bottoms out the fork and the tyre hits the crown and stops dead. OTB at speed.

This.

I remember seeing a publicity campaign by Fox a few years back, when 29ers started appearing about this very thing.

It’s an interesting combination of trails literally coming alive but fork and seat tube potentially dying

I’m certain he will die.

I think jimbobo’s right. Sad but true. He’s probably already pushing up the daisies.

Wonder if this guy has had new teeth yet?

http://forums.mtbr.com/santa-cruz/heckler-26-now-29er-894136.html

Chumba, when it was owned by that Lawyer, had issue with a chap that went OTB because the frame was poorly designed with an incorrect shock choice. I think the ride broke his arm and tried to sue them. The story is somewhere on MTBR and there’s a video too.

There were quite a lot of people taking tools to fork crowns to accommodate 29×3″ tyres and the like.

Assuming the axle and the crown more-or-less hold, you’re not going to die if the arch/bridge cracks. Or at least, you’re not going to die any more than if some other fairly bad thing happened to the front end of the bike.

(I wouldn’t do it, but there seems to be quite a large margin for idiocy built in really…)

i would have thought that given that he has now removed the paint from the underside of the fork brace its all exposed now so will start to corrode and then eveltually lead to some sort of failure…how long this will take is anyones guess.
as for the wheel hitting the underside of the crown when the fork bottoms out…this is possible but if he’s going in a straight line when the fork bottoms out i would have thought that the rear of the tyre would hit the underside of the downtube first…resulting in an OTB
either way….death is imminient!! 😯

Wonder if this guy has had new teeth yet?

http://forums.mtbr.com/santa-cruz/heckler-26-now-29er-894136.html

😆 thats my Dad 8)

no new teeth, he was riding it round dalby the other day

https://video-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xfa1/v/t42.1790-2/11108507_10153430930437193_147967635_n.mp4?oh=30e809f1f73e6734eb15ffaaad588c56&oe=55702B71

Should be fine if he’s wrapped the modified area in duck tape.

I saw a video where Rob Cooksley did it to a 55 RC3ti to fit 650b wheels, and he would have given it a thorough testing afterwards (and is probably still alive).

Not sure why you’d want them in an old Stinky though? I’d expect them to have a high BB anyway.

It will probably be fine TBH, all this fuss over tooth loss and inevitable death assumes the bike is going to be tested right up to it’s limits in the first plae but really what’s the point?

Despite now having the bang on trend wheel size I doubt an old Stinky with bolloxed forks really piqued the interest of the car park bitches…

I Blame MBR…

TBH if people are going to start looking for ways to crow-bar tweener wheels onto 26″ frames/forks I’d expect the market value of old USD forks to go up a smidge, anyone got any old Shivers or Dorados in the shed?

That Heckler… 😯

I’m all for bodging in the name of enhancing the ride (anglesets, offset bushings and the adaptors for PF30 setups to change BB height/angle), but eventually you’re going to run out of suspension travel if you fit bigger wheels. You could get away with a USD fork (as Trek did with that awful 69er aberration) with spacers fitted to shorten travel and prevent bottoming out, but there’s not a lot you can do to sort the rear suspension, especially if tolerances are tight.

And going back to that Heckler, the bottom bracket is a danger to low flying aircraft.

thats my Dad

no new teeth, he was riding it round dalby the other day

If you really loved him you’d buy him a 29er frame for his birthday!

If you really loved him you’d buy him a 29er frame for his birthday!

^ this 😆

Shall we organise an STW whip-round?

You would assume that Maarzocchi had made the bridge the thickness it did for a reason – and if it could have been thinner in the first place, wouldn’t they have done it?

if it could have been thinner in the first place, wouldn’t they have done it?

I’d guess it was as thin as it could be to avoid an unacceptable rate of failure across all forks sold.

That doesn’t mean that failure is guaranteed if it’s made a bit thinner, just that the odds of failure rise.

🙂

A month or so ago I met a lad at a jumping spot whose fork steerer had come lose in the crown. Instead of buying new forks or sending them off for warranty his step-dad had drilled a hole through the crown and steerer and hammered a thin pin in there to stop them rocking. They had just started rocking again the lad told me.

If I see him again I’ll offer to give him an old set of forks just to not see him risking his face on every jump.

Marz 55s are not skimpy, lightweight items.

I’d be more relaxed about it than I would about doing the same to a new Pike.

(as Trek did with that awful 69er aberration)

that was an bloody ace singlespeed, went like a rocket, handled beautifully and Travis Brown and lots of other fast singlepseedy types did remarkably well on it.

USD forks and lefties have also been modded for use with fat bikes for years successfully. If you know what you are doing you can make some fantastic forks for interesting applications.

if you don’t then Darwinian theory will soon sort you out.

his step-dad had drilled a hole through the crown and steerer and hammered a thin pin in there to stop them rocking

😯

Note it was his step dad.

that heckler 26 thread cracked me up.. the sawing of the boxxers gave me the heebie jeebies

ahhahahaha! 😀 Still alive and kickin with all my teeth
… “now 29er” is still running superb, I don`t need a new frame, cheers anyway!
only component change is a 222mm DHX Air shock

Bring back the old bolt-on arch Bomber design. You could just replace them or bend them flat again after twisting them. Or maybe buy a new one from BETD to fit the tyre you wanted.