I know there are various off the shelf options available but has anyone chopped down a 26″ fork to use on a 20″ kids bike?

I’m not talking about something from the ark or the awful Mag21 butcherings but something that looks 1/2 way decent. There are a few forks that have had bonded on dropouts and I’m wondering if one of them could be cut ‘n’ shut?

It would have to be air so that it’s light and can be tuned to suit Speeder Jr oh and disc only so there’s no ugly canti bosses evident as how it looks is as import in some ways as how it works (to me at least) .

Anyone done it or even got an idea of a fork that suits the requirement? I’m thinking Pace RC39s may work – if I can find one that’s not destined for a retro rebuild.

G

https://www.vitalmtb.com/product/feature/First-Look-SR-Suntours-20-Inch-Axon-Werx-Fork-for-the-Groms,321

I’m half way through doing a Manitou 3 cut n shut to 20″.

Yes! I did a cut and shut on an exotic aluminium fork. Chopped fork to the correct length and then bribed a friendly engineer at work to mill out the bonded fork sections from the chopped off dropouts. I then rebonded the dropouts using araldite. Provided the dropouts have not been damaged then you should have a good fit. The araldite epoxy is plenty strong.

Those Suntours are unobtainium surly?

Suntour do a cheap 20 inch air fork

Based on the fact that my 6 month old Pace RC37s unbonded the dropout from the lower while I was riding them in the late 90’s, I’d go with ‘anything by Pace from that period should be easy’ 😀

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Based on the fact that my 6 month old Pace RC37s unbonded the dropout from the lower while I was riding them in the late 90’s, I’d go with ‘anything by Pace from that period should be easy’

Good news – I’ll look out for a set.

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Those Suntours are unobtainium surly?

They were a limited production thing in 2105 when released. Add to that that they were something like $800 and yes “unobtanium” about sums it up.

The Spinner Grind is a good, cheap option but I’m sure there’s a decent market for a light, through axle, disk only, air fork with decent if unsophisticated damping for around £300-350 that would do a roaring trade at 70% of RRP on the 2nd hand market.in much the way Islabikes do.

I may have to investigate further.

Those axon werx are indeed unobtanium. There are a couple on bikes here in squamish but with the kids who shot the video with spawn/suntour/artbarn.

Ive seen a couple of inverted forks set up as triple clamp forks at 20″ shiver sc i think.

Here ,

https://goo.gl/images/9KH1ZM

Demo9 on mtbr was the first guy trying to solve little bikes for little rippers.

Ive also seen older marz forks with removeabke crowns cutnshut but guessing you have too.

The rc38 makes a great candidate with simple carbon tube lowers but you’ve also got to deal with damper and air shafts.

As far as off the shelf. The spinner grind is ok but needs pulling appart to get more useable travel. The 30mm version is better but has huge clunking when dealing with bigger hits.

Spawn have a seriously wicked air damped fork with real rebound adjustments. The ‘fork only’ option is 9mm qr 80mm travel but spawn do have a TA 100mm version on the Rokusuta 20.

Its a collaboration fork with Propain (1st ride) i believe

Cheaper options are the f1rst air but if your budget stretches to that carbon lowered brood/1st air theres really no need to look elsewhere. Probably no need for a TA either. You can still use a 9mm rws over qr and theres no kid pushing hard enough to need more than a qr on 20″ anyway.

Have fun

Thanks for the insight into the Spinners BearBack – they’re definitely on the list or things for project little ripper but I kind of fancy creating something a bit more special.  The idea of using a thru axle fork would be mostly about using up some spare parts I have lying around than my lad would “need” them but I can always use the q/r adapters I’ve got anyway.

The Spawn/Propain 1st Ride fork looks fabulous but it’s way out of the justifiable spend for his bike so it’ll be a little bit of an experiment.  Having said all that his riding is really not yet at a stage where he needs a sus fork yet but hopefully we can do something about that over the summer.

What about taking a shiver SC and cutting off the crown. Then machining some new crowns to make it a 20″ double crown fork?

White brothers do a swish 20inch fork

Spinner Air grind 20″ fork

Email I received from the polish distributor:
I have two Spinner models for 20” wheels on stock.
First one is Spinner Grind air 20” – 120 EUR, gloss black available. Second is Spinner 300 air 20” – matt black available – 125 EUR.

Spinner Grind air 20 offers 55 mm travel, air spring, hydraulic lockout, v-brake/disc brakes compatible.

Spinner 300 air 20” offers 80mm travel, PM disc brakes only, hydraulic lockout is also standard.

Prices already include shipping to UK.