It’s been a little while since I last posted but I knew who to consult with this conundrum!
My 11 year old has just upgraded to a 24” Orbea bike bought off his cousin. It’s a really good spec lightweight bike with 10 speed Deore gears and upgraded with Magura hydraulic rim brakes. It has rigid forks which keeps the weight down and with my hair-shirt mentality I thought would help him improve his off road skills.
The bigger wheel size helps off road but I think a suspension fork would reduce fatigue and open up the terrain he can handle. I’m aware that most 24” suspension forks are found on cheaper bikes and are heavy with a lot of flex. I was wondering if it would be possible to run a 26” air fork with some increased sag to reduce the height of the front end. Can you buy (or make) adapters to move the brake bosses into position to use a 24 inch wheel? I’ve been keeping an eye out for an old Pace RC36 fork with bolt-on bosses! Would running a 26” front wheel slacken the head angle to much and mess up the handling?
The hubs are not disc and I don’t want to start rebuilding wheels and buying disc brakes. If my fork plan isn’t viable without throwing a lot of money at it it probably makes more sense to look at a small 26” bike.
Are there any other solutions?
