I've seen a couple of old threads about building mini manitous, always fancied having a go but I've never wanted to cut up a nice fork.
Found a suitable set recently and had a go at the weekend. Here's a quick overview, click on the pics for fullsize:
Stanchions were split and scored, they bits were a bit of a mess.
A combination of nail hardener, lacquer, satin black and they look better. Whether they last like this is another question. (the split ends werent done as they're being cut off)
Cut the dropouts off and put a slit in them with a hacksaw blade, a bit of work in the vice and a couple of holes and the remnants of the legs came out pretty easily.
Both legs cut to size.
Make shift hub bolted up so I could press (read hammer) the dropouts on. (also glued them)
Dropouts in place, took a bit of welly for them to go on fully.
Assembled fork with M4 disk as comparison.
Quick clean up then chucked them on the lads little Kona.
I'm running a custom spring set in just one leg, which is basically just three engine valve springs and some 3D printed spring seats I made.
The nice elastomers are in the M4 now rather than the springs I had in there.
Still need to polish these up properly and will probably remove the canti hanger from the brace. Might make some mini Manitou stickers as well.
Cool little fork, loads lighter than the rubbish that was on there and they actually work so much better for a lightweight kid than they ever did for an adult.
Found a suitable set recently and had a go at the weekend. Here's a quick overview, click on the pics for fullsize:
Stanchions were split and scored, they bits were a bit of a mess.
A combination of nail hardener, lacquer, satin black and they look better. Whether they last like this is another question. (the split ends werent done as they're being cut off)
Cut the dropouts off and put a slit in them with a hacksaw blade, a bit of work in the vice and a couple of holes and the remnants of the legs came out pretty easily.
Both legs cut to size.
Make shift hub bolted up so I could press (read hammer) the dropouts on. (also glued them)
Dropouts in place, took a bit of welly for them to go on fully.
Assembled fork with M4 disk as comparison.
Quick clean up then chucked them on the lads little Kona.
I'm running a custom spring set in just one leg, which is basically just three engine valve springs and some 3D printed spring seats I made.
The nice elastomers are in the M4 now rather than the springs I had in there.
Still need to polish these up properly and will probably remove the canti hanger from the brace. Might make some mini Manitou stickers as well.
Cool little fork, loads lighter than the rubbish that was on there and they actually work so much better for a lightweight kid than they ever did for an adult.
