I want a Huge front wheel and I can't afford a Pugsley

I’ve been riding a 26″ Inbred with a 29er front wheel and a 2.55″ WTB tyre for ages, and I love it. ‘Puffer Lite, the beach, and now lots of snow. That’s a Pace 26″ carbon fork in case you care.

So, I can’t afford a full-on Surly Pugsley just yet, but I fancy an even huger front wheel. Something like this Salsa Enabler fork build:

What’s the best way to do it chums? I think the minimum purchase is fork, rim, tyre + tube, which is about £300 with spokes + hub I reckon. Surly or Salsa fork? ISON list the Salsa fork at £89, the Surly is similar.

Cheers, al.

Didn’t someone on here bodge himself a fat tyre fork?

You might get some rubbing, but you could just try pumping up your current tyre ? 🙂

epicyclo built one out of an old pair of ‘zocchis
Pics here[/url]

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Curious: what’s the appeal? It Shirley won’t ride on sand/snow etc as the rear tyre is std, so is it just about making the front roll better?

I think the minimum purchase is fork, rim, tyre + tube,

You’ll also need a 135 hub.

won’t ride on sand/snow etc as the rear tyre is std

Actually the front makes all the difference in soft stuff. The narrow rear will drive, but without a floating front you just dive, can’t steer, have to push. Big front works.
Loving the bearded one’s fork bodge =)
And yeah, I know I need a rear 135mm hub for the forks. I’ll find one in a skip!

al.

It’s worth doing just for the fun of riding such a daft looking bike. 😉

It’ll never catch on;

Flashes: So, that’s the Surly with the funny-shaped fork to accommodate the rear hub. Marvellous, marvellous, marvellous. You have the Pugs frame too?
I do lots of beach riding so this is dead on!
al.

I’m still waiting on stu selling me his fat front 😉

Allan, best order up a Surly Pugsley Adventure fork whick is a normal 100mm hub fitting fork for an inline (regular) laced wheel capable of taking the 4″ surly tyres and a regular front disc caliper,
the framesets as pictured come with the offset fork for a rear hub but the Pugsley Adventure fork are also available. any Ison dealer can get them, the fork will cost about £89, then add a wider rim of at least 47mm (trials rim cheapest) and because your local i can lend you a Endomorph tyre to try out though i recommend a Larry long term… 😮

i still have a kona Humu frame to build with this set up with a 3″ rear so can take friends beachriding so they can see it is the future 😉
get in touch for a shot at John Muir or Peffersands sometime 😮

Interesting, is that how it works then?

You can just slap a big front end on and it’s all
good?

Why go for the 100mm fork? Would a 2.5 tyre do on the back?

If you bodge up your own fork, you can use a standard 100mm front hub.

If you’re going to buy a fork get the Salsa Enabler which uses a rear hub. The advantage of that is that you can then use a 100mm wide rim for maximum flotation. (It’s nearly impossible to get a 100mm rim and fat tyre through 100mm OLD dropouts).

But you can try the whole thing for the cost of a fat tyre and tube if you do it my way.

Of course if you really really want a huge front wheel, then you could try this

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My recumbent fixed wheel folding Penny Farthing – bodged up from assorted parts.

Edit: another advantage of bodging up your own fork is that you can tailor the front ride height so there is less effect on the geometry of your bike. A fat wheel is like sticking a 29er front on your bike – ok if it’s a 29er, but slackens your headangle quite a bit if it’s a 26″.

Hi Al, yep you need the fatbike fork (whatever make) for a surly 4″ tyre to fit, 100mm would be cheaper if you already have a front wheel and some DH rims may already be wide enough, a 2.5 rear seems to spread quite wide on a wide rim,
im planning on using a Vredestein Black Panther 3″ on the Kona, unavailable here in the UK but my (kind of) ex in Holland will buy me one and post it, there really light for a 3″ tyre…
heres a thread on a fat front bike with tyre info…
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=655762

Allan – you can borrow my homemade fork if you want. (At your own risk – it is a bodge) 🙂

I can post it, or if you’re not in a hurry, pick it up at the ‘Puffer.

Rims 80mm for €50 from Classic Cycles in Germany

Anyone know if a 80mm rim and 3″ tyre would fit in a karate monkey fork

Al I’ve seen a endo tyre on 80mm rim in a bonty switchblade fork

Tyre widths:

Surly Larry on a 32mm rim = 88mm wide
Surly Larry on a 80mm rim = 98mm wide
Surly Endomorph on a 32mm rim = 87mm wide

I measured these after they had been inflated for a week.

The wheel with these tyres is more or less the same diameter as a 29er wheel and tyre.

Cheers fella I didn’t think a Larry would fit on a 32rim

Bah just looked my rims are 28 not 32 only 21mm internal 🙁

recumbent fixed wheel folding Penny Farthing

Ooooh. New niche bandwagon! I want one of those!
Seriously, that looks fun.

andrewh – Member
‘recumbent fixed wheel folding Penny Farthing’
Ooooh. New niche bandwagon! I want one of those!
Seriously, that looks fun.

It’s about as much fun as is possible to have with your trousers on.

But you’ll have to make your own 🙂

Recipe:
front end – a large unicycle is just the ticket
rest – a 20″ folding bike and lash up a recumbent seat.

Bingo, that’s it. An afternoon’s worth of bodging.

There was a little bit of drilling and hammering and filing and cursing.

These pugsley style bikes have always interested me since the first time i saw them. seems if you get the 100mm hub spacing forks you dont need to build an offset wheel. Looks like most of the stuff is out of stock with ison at the moment. But you need any of let me know and will give them a call and find out when its comming in.

Mountain bikes expensive?
I mean that’s full sus with discs and it’s a Muddy Fox – why exactly do you need to spend 35 times as much?

Hmmm…
That would go well with a small engine at the back.

seems if you get the 100mm hub spacing forks you dont need to build an offset wheel.

The offset thing is nothing to do with the 135mm hub.

Both my fatfronts have 135 hubs and none offset wheels.

Here’s my ‘1/2 fat’ and the big front makes quite a difference in the snow. If you are very lucky. like I was, you can source it all 2nd hand. I am waiting for a 2.8 Michelin to be delivered for the rear as there was no way I could get a Gazza 3.0 shoehorned into the rear even with trimming the nobs.

Front is a Surly non-offset bought from an ‘electric bike’ company, rim is a Halo Combat 36mm on a rear hub with an Endo tyre with pressure of about 15 psi to be on the safe side. I’ll be looking to swap the front wheel to the rear when I source a wider rim/wheel for the front.

No brakes and fixed rear wheel are probably not a cost cutting measure I would recommend in the snow 😉

Morning all,

Coastkid, I’ve been trying to hook up with your beach/snow rides & I’ll make it out one of these days. I have kids to juggle so some weekends are easy and some impossible. Thanks for the offer of an Endomorph. With that I can bodge one way or t’other. So I’ll watch the East Lothian MTB Facebook group for rides & get in touch with you.

So, trials rims – what do you recommend? I’ve dug around t’internet a bit this morning but not found anything yet – I probably just don’t know what I’m looking for!

Epi old chap – I have a ‘Puffer solo entry (my 4th winter Puff) but may not be able to go. I hope to, but life’s upside down at the moment. Anyway, I’ve enough crap in the garage to bodge something I’m sure! So thanks for the offer, I’ll post on here when I get round to it.

Cheers, al.

alan some good rims at unicycle uk http://www.unicycle.uk.com/unicycle-spares-1/rims.html/?limit=all quick delivery too mate (also have some bigish tyres ie 26×3″ duro ones for a semi fat thing

Oh look, I found this site with Echo front 26″ for £20 with 40mm width. That ought to do eh?
al.

If your going to use a trials rim i’d go for a rear instead of a front.

loads here.
http://www.tartybikes.co.uk/26_inch_rear_rims/c25.html

Thanks. Are rears just stronger then?
al.

I take it there’s no point bodging with say 3″ tyres on std rims as you won’t be able to run them soft enough?

Al a guy on mtbr did it with 26 x 3.0″tyres and said it wasn’t that far away from his pals pugs in performance

Hmmm thanks. I reckon I could get 3″ in my frame. Those trials rims aren’t too pricey either, and LX hubs are cheap as on on-one atm.

Someone was flogging 3″ Gazzalodis on here recently IIRC?

Yeah I’m getting them lol just waiting on him getting back to uk. Woody who posted above has on trimmed one tho mate

I just measured my Pace RC31s. They have 93mm clearance. From epicyclo’s measurements that’ll take an Endomorph on a 32mm rim and I should think up to 40mm as well.
Tartybikes have an undrilled 36 spoke Alex rim, 38mm wide at £25. CRC have 36 spoke 6-bolt front Deore hubs for £15.99. CRC again for 36 plain gauge spokes + nipples for £10.99. This is looking like a New Year project!
rim hub spokes
Cheers, al.

£10 posted Al or anyone else who wants it – still a very usable tyre.

email gswood AT gmail DOT com

Aha, and off that Unicycle site there’s this 26″ x 3″ tyre at £28.
tyre[/url]
So, all in that’s less than the price of a Surly rim =)
al.

Woody is that 3″?
al.

2kg 😮

The thing about Larrys/Endomorphs (or whatever Coastkid rides) is that they look like they’ve been made as light as possible, I guess that’s why they are £85!