26 inch forks with 24 inch wheels

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This topic has 9 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by gonzy.

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26 inch forks with 24 inch wheels
thomasthetankengine
Free Member

Looking for decent kids forks, been covered, yes, but seems the 24 inch wheel variants are rst, grind etc. Was looking at kids full suspension bikes to see what they are using and they seem to be speccing RS 30 golds at 80mm or silvers at 100mm. These are, as far as I can see, 26 inch forks. Did I miss something? If not, then they obviously work. Opinions or real world experience feed back would be appreciated.

Mondraker 24

Posted 8 years ago

poah
Free Member

The RST first air is a decent air for for 24 inch wheels but the size of the bikes are designed with short A2C lengths so you can’t put a 26 fork on without **** the geo up. the current crop of decent FS kids bikes are designed with 26 forks in mind.

Lewis’s ripcord comes spec’d with a 100mm recon silver TK but even though they are air forks, the damping is still designed for adults making them a bit crap for light weight kids. I’ve had Lewis’s SID and monarch retuned for his weight which makes a world of difference

Posted 8 years ago

thomasthetankengine
Free Member

Yes, had done some investigation on a2c and chucked the numbers into a bike Geo calculator. Was looking not so good, and you just backed that up. Oh well.

Posted 8 years ago

nre
Free Member

My daughter has a pair of rst xmo air forks on a carrera luna24, they are within a few mm of the axle to crown of the original suntour forks, seems absolutely fine! Forks were 35 quid and 1.5lb lighter… An early pair of sids should work too…

Posted 8 years ago

Junkyard
Free Member

I use old 28 mm SIDSon both my kids 24″ bikes
as they air forks the suspension is fine for their weight – its not like i get my forks tuned for my weight and if i did i would simply use lower viscosity oil in them.
Mine get near full travel – its only 63 mm and 80 mm – to suit the A-C on the rough stuff we ride so function well.
A-C was within a few mm for the forks

Works well and weight is under 3 bs.
THink it was sub £100 for two from ebay but took month and months of bidding as they went for stupid prices.

Posted 8 years ago

uphillcursing
Free Member

Light weight short travel 26 forks on the smallest Cursings bike with 24 inch wheels. The only way to go for me at the time of building (about 3 years ago)

Posted 8 years ago

poah
Free Member

as they air forks the suspension is fine for their weight – its not like i get my forks tuned for my weight and if i did i would simply use lower viscosity oil in them.

no they are not unless they are designed for kids. there is far too much damping to give good performace. The tuning that Jtech did on lewis’s SID and monarch made a huge difference to the performance.

Posted 8 years ago

Junkyard
Free Member

Sorry my mistake poah knows better than me whether the forks my kids use work or not just like I know better than him whether the tuning for lewis works or not 🙄

As I said its good enough though I do agree an individual rider tune would improve it for kids as it would for any rider

Damping can be adjusted externally[ compression and rebound] and by altering the viscosity of the oil if you care.

Its not really helping the OP to have you insist on things like this which will improve the fork but are not actually necessary.
I accept you disagree lets leave the thread to being useful for the OP rather than a spat.
lets leave it there please

Posted 8 years ago

poah
Free Member

Its not really helping the OP to have you insist on things like this which will improve the fork but are not actually necessary.
I accept you disagree

he asked for real world options

These are, as far as I can see, 26 inch forks. Did I miss something? If not, then they obviously work. Opinions or real world experience feed back would be appreciated.

I gave mine

Posted 8 years ago

gonzy
Free Member

ive used 24″ wheels wit 26″ frames/forks in the past.
they sit slightly lower to the ground…but this will also depend on tyre size. i used the same 24″ wheels for 3 different builds using 3 different tyres brands/sizes…ranging from 2.3″ to 2.6″
the larger tyres made the bike handle more like a 26″ but they were heavier.

this build had the Intense SR50 tyres which were 24×2.35″ at the rear and 24.2.5″ at the front

this build used Tioga Factory DH 24×2.3″

this build used Maxxis High Hollers 24×2.6″

Posted 8 years ago