Pace air forks question (seeking experts)

[development_cycle]

Ok, not actually looking at this point but am interested in knowing the viability of this and then possibly looking in the not too distant.

There's lots of threads not just here, but all over the interweb about fitting decent sus forks to 24" wheeled kids bikes. The one thing I haven't seen and I'm not sure why is the suggestion of using an earlyish set of Pace Air forks (light weight and tuneability for lighter riders) with the removeable canti mounts attached lower down the leg for the smaller wheel.

Discuss...

 

[RickTheUncivil]

would make it a bit tall i suppose, axle-crown would still be set for a larger bike

you could also use a disc brake system to get around the brakes issue - thats what i have done, plenty of fork choice then.

 

[development_cycle]

Well in a way the having to change the front wheel and front brake issue was something I was thinking of avoiding with this method. If an old enough fork with a short enough amount of travel were used would the a-c be that big an issue though?

You say using a disc brake gives you a wider range of forks, but surely those disc forks would also have at least the same sort of longer a-c length as the forks I'm talking about.

Did Pace do an early RC36 air fork for example with say 80mm of travel and with the removeable canti mount clamps? If so is there an issue mounting them an inch lower down the leg than intended?

 

[RickTheUncivil]

yes, a-c would be the same, so finding a short travel fork would help.
Im using a z3 bomber with disc brake and 24" rims, seems fine. a bit tall but not massive.
using disc rather than canti / v means you dont need the canti bosses in the right place so a 24" rim can go in a fork for 26" wheels. Other than pace i think all the other fork manufacturers use fixed bosses so no flexibility to slide them down a bit. disc will get around the canti problem, not the a-c issue.

thinking, the old u-brakes had bosses a bit lower down than cantis, might that work for a smaller rim too? no idea, just a thought. Are tehose bosses the same size I wonder?

 

[development_cycle]

In theory the solution I'm talking about would literally mean, buy the fork, lower the bosses an inch, fit and ride

 

[ishaw]

I've got a couple of sets of rc38 air force 2 forks and if memory serves the travel is 63mm rather than 80mm. I can measure the a2c for you. I do have a custom set of 24 inch rc31s I can compare them with as well if you like. I was pondering the same when I had the rc31s made. Tim was going to look at the possibility of making some 24 inch suspension forks for me but rigid is fine on the build.

 

[development_cycle]

Re:

Ha ha Ian, was just replying to one of your posts at the same time

Aha so 63mm travel on a 24" wheeled kids bike would be even better, don't suspect the a-c would be too bad on them, so I guess the big question would be can the canti mounts be put on an inch lower down the leg? I guess there could be some sort of special reinforcement going un in the leg where it is designed to go meaning it can't be attached lower down. Do the legs taper in at all an inch lower down? I guess that would be an issue if they do too

 

[ishaw]

The problem with the standard mounts on the rc38 is they are fixed to theowers via one of the brace bolts. You could make some longer ones, after all they are just bits of aluminium of a certain width. Or I believe you could use mounts from rc31s as I think the legs are the same diameter.

If you fancy a go, I don't need 2 pairs of these forks, and one doesn't have the brake bosses anyway. I bought them a while ago knowing the lockout needed looking at but that's an easy fix. They allegedly hold air but I haven't tried since I bought them.

 

[development_cycle]

ah I see, I wonder if there is another model where the canti bolts can be attached independently of the brace then, or if that is the end of my idea.

I'm not actually looking for a solution right now but can see myself needing to in the not too distant future. PM me just to let me know what you might want for them, and some pic's

 

[ishaw]

I'm not 100% sure but I don't recall any other air forks with the independent mount. Without the mount there is a square spacer for disc only running, but I'm fairly sure you can use the mounts from other pace forks rather than the specific ones for these. The lower legs are the same as the rc36 which used the other style mounts.