[Rik]

I have a crazy idea, just want some opinions:
Right now I ride a 14" mtb, it's getting a bit limiting and I'm considering getting something else, such as a DMR trailstar... and the crazy idea popped in to my head... get a 24" dirtjump bmx!
This is a top idea in my mind, but, I'm a pansy woman and want my suspension, so I was wondering, has anyone put a mtb fork and 26" front wheel on a cruiser bmx? Would it make the bike unrideable? I'd probably combine it with a chunky mtb stem and bar, and maybe a big 2.7" rear tire to even up the angles.
Is it possible? Has it be done? or am I off my head?

The bikes I'm considering right now are: FreeAgent Hellcat 24, DK General Lee 24, and Eastern Jane 24. I like the Jane as it has decent cranks out of the box, FA comes 2nd due to average cranks and the DK a distant third...but all 3 I can get from my local shop at a ncie price, hence my preference to them.
Hope you can help guys, thanks

 

[Mtbkngrl]

I am a woman and not a pansy and I ride a 24inch cruiser with out any suspension.......Did I mention that I'm 32 years old? I have the General Lee and I just upgraded the cranks and I love it. I go to the skate park as much as possible........I was worried about no suspension as well, but after riding the bike a few times you get used to the feel.........just be prepared and get a big bottle of advil. Stop whining and get a cruiser, you won't regret it.

 

[Squid]

I'm not sure what the geometry is of a 24" cruiser.... but adding a suspension fork plus the 26" front wheel is going to slacken the geometry a lot. If that's what you want, that's ok. A bmx bike has pretty steep head angle (about 74 degrees, I think), but I dont know about the cruiser. If it were the same, you'd probably be ok, but if the cruiser has slacker geometry to start with, you might end up with a really slow steering bike.... that's how it seems to me, anyway. I had thought of the same idea, as an alternative to an Imperial or something with 24" wheels.

Like Mtbkngrl said, you get used to the rigid ride, and I think it makes you a better/smoother rider too. My mtn bike has no suspension, and I'm awesome <- blatant lie

Once the snow thaws and we hit the dirtjumps, Mtbkngrl's General Lee is going to be the envy of the rest of us Rochester Monkies. It's not 100% in its element in the skatepark, but it just screams "dirtjump me! C'mon, you know you want to!!!!"

 

[Echo]

Just get a 20"

 

[Mudpuppy]

Oooo! Ooo! Oo! Pick me, pick me!

Hey I've got a suspension fork on my cruiser. It's a Haro X24 with a K2 smart fork and dual 24's.

PM me if you want a pic.

Anyway first of all it will be pretty unridable if you put a normal fork on it with a 26 inch wheel. Mine was downhill bike slacked out with a shiver sc and 24" front with 3" tire. It will be pretty much impossible to run a 2.7" tire on the back of a bmx. I don't think I could even run a 1.9" knobby on my cruiser.

My bike with its current set up is I would guess 1 or 2 degrees slacker than normal. I would recommend getting a small suspension fork and lowering the travel to 2 inches to keep the geometry pretty stock. Along with the short fork you will need to get a 24" front wheel. Sideways said he could make an adapter to run v-brakes with a 24".

Anyway just post or pm if you have any questions.

 

[Rik]

Thanks guys
I've decided to get the DK, the money I save on it can go towards 3pce cranks, and I'm happy that it comes with 4130 tubing and 14mm axles.
As for the forks, I'll tinker around a bit, probably ride it stock for a while until I get the feel of the bike, and then one day when boredom sets in, I'll swap my MTB forks over, play around with wheel combinations and whatnot.
This sounds like a fun project

 

[BMXman]

Originally posted by Mtbkngrl
I am a woman and not a pansy and I ride a 24inch cruiser with out any suspension.......Did I mention that I'm 32 years old? I have the General Lee and I just upgraded the cranks and I love it. I go to the skate park as much as possible........I was worried about no suspension as well, but after riding the bike a few times you get used to the feel.........just be prepared and get a big bottle of advil. Stop whining and get a cruiser, you won't regret it.

I'm guessing you're not single because I know a ton of guys looking for a girl who really rides

 

[Echo]

She's not single, and I call dibs if she becomes single :devil:

 

[Mudpuppy]

Hey does someone want to buy the fork and 24" wheel I have on my cruiser now? I've decided that I want to get a rigid fork 'cause the squish messes me up in the skatepark.

 

[Rik]

So anyway, I went ahead with it

Running the DK General Lee with a Mozo R500 fork, Dice SMO 26" wheel, V brake, short MTB stem and big riser bars.

This bike is awesome! The angles are almost the same as my 14" Zaskar before I stripped it for bits, it rides fairly well too.
Obviously, there is a fair bit of steering flop with such a high front end (it's a massive fork), but I'm used to the slow handling.
My only real issue is the rear brake... it doesn't stop : So right now I'm relying on the V brake up front to do slowdown duties. I think it could be the gyro, but I want to keep the gyro and eventually learn to barspin. I might get myself an Odyssey Evolver and run twin cables from lever all the way to brake, I've set that up on a mates bike and it worked well, so it should solve my problems.

I intend on having the 24" wheel on the front, will need to grind my fork but that's cool... but until I fix the rear brake, I need the 26" on the front so I can actually stop.

I'll post piccies soon, when I get my hands on a decent camera.

 

[Squid]

I assume your sucky rear brake is the standard BMX "U-brake" or 990, or whatever its called?

Mine sucked as well, here are some things that help:

- Rim surface. Chrome is best. If you have the black rims like I do, it helps to sand off the surface. Not all the black, just whatever is on the top. Apparently it wears off after a little while, but you can help the process along.

- Clean the pads. Mine loaded up with said black stuff from rims. Metal file will clean that up. I also cleaned the rims and pads with simple green.

- Take the cables off and make sure the brake levers pivot smoothly. Mine did not. A little oil on the pivots solved that. Any force lost in the cables/pivots/etc is force not used for braking.

- Make sure the pads hit the rim flat (or toed in). Mine were angled (not in the toe in plane, rather they were angled in the other direction).

- Switch to pads with a softer compound. Some of my friends switched to trials pads.

- Ditch the gyro if you dont need it. Or if you do, run dual cables from the lever all the way back, like you said. You can still barspin with no gyro. Just not more than once w/out spinning them back again.

Just with the sanded rims, brake lubing, and pad adjustment, my rear brake improved at LEAST 100% from how it was at the bike shop! I dont have chrome rims or trials pads, but now the rear brake is fine. Not stellar, but good enough.

 

[Booker]

I too have a 24" DK General Lee w/ Marzocchi fork. After riding aroung with ridged i found that my wrist would hurt after a ride. I swap between the two depending on what i will be riding. Louisville has just built a HUGE skatepark and after trying to ride my Banshee there i decided i needed a smaller more nimble steed to hit the ramps and bowls. (not to mention our bmx track and dirt jumps). Yes the steering is floppy w/ a 4" fork and 26" tire but it does slack out the angles to more like i am use to with the big bike. I even kept my giro so i can attempt some barspins when at the dirt jumps. (if the sun ever comes out)Here is a pic of our park. Enjoy.

 

[TN]

Originally posted by Booker
Here is a pic of our park. Enjoy.

That looks bad ass.

 

[Mtbkngrl]

I just created a puddle of drool on my keyboard.

 

[Booker]

Being at that skatepark is a humbling experiance. 12 year old kids dropping into a 15' bowl or 20' half pipe. I get shaky just looking over the edge. It is a whole different type of riding that is for sure.

Here is a nice shot of the full pipe.

 

[Echo]

OK, team Jackalope roadtrip to Kentucky

 

[Booker]

Wanna do a biker exchange program? Team "Bikehell" for team "Jakalope" I would love to hit up Plattekill.

 

[allsk8sno]

man i wish our skate park was like that..
or moscow's for that matter(10miles away)
but dropping in is easy..
jumping the spine/airing above the coping is hard
that said i have a 20" and love the difference.
as you can see my bikesdown below.
for the park and DJ it is alot easier to ride though they are different techniques

 

[Rik]

Originally posted by Squid
I assume your sucky rear brake is the standard BMX "U-brake" or 990, or whatever its called?
- Rim surface.
- Clean the pads.
- Take the cables off and make sure the brake levers pivot smoothly.
- Make sure the pads hit the rim flat (or toed in).
- Switch to pads with a softer compound.
- Ditch the gyro if you dont need it.

Cheers for the info You're right on all accounts....
But, I beat you to it
I have standard black allow rims, I got out the trusty orbital sander, and now they the shiny silver of coarse aluminium
As for the pads, I am using KoolStop V brake pads, IMO these are on the softer end of the scale, they're sanded and adjusted flat too. My brake levers are Avid's, but I don't like the lever blade so I'll switch to ye olde tektro's soon


After riding for an hour today, I've slowly gotten ideas on how to refine the handling.
Here's what's proposed, and I now have a 4 day weekend to action the plan:
Run cable rear brake, I've decided I don't need a gyro.
Since I'm running cable, I can cut an inch off my fork steerer (yes, it will render them useless if I want them on my MTB, but that'd give me a good reason to upgrade)
Whilst on the fork, I'm going to pull them apart, and make up spacers, to take the travel from 100mm down to 80mm or so, which will also drop the front end down 20mm.

If I can get the rear brake to work properly, it means I can do away with the front brake, and allows me to run a 24" front wheel. To run the 24" up front, I'll need to grind the axle down, and grind away a flat surface on the fork tip to allow for the oversized bolt.

These mods should allow me to stop And to drop the front end down at least an inch, and lower the handlebars an inch, giving me 2" lower position, which is what I need as right now it rides like a big chopper.

When I order 3 piece cranks next week, I'll probably get a 36t chainring, to allow quicker acceleration and easier seated pedalling.

This is a very fun project, I'm loving the bike!

 

[Squid]

Originally posted by Rik
Cheers for the info You're right on all accounts....
But, I beat you to it

DOH!

Good luck with the mods!

 

[Shyrmp]

Originally posted by Echo
OK, team Jackalope roadtrip to Kentucky

ROAD TRIP!!!!

 

[Parkrider522]

I got a 24 inch general lee. I got a judy race on it with kona clump stem. i kept the giro and i kept the front weel. i worked around for an hour and so and i some how fit in a regual sized axle. its such a sick ride and it cost me less than 300 dollars. I love it i hope u guys like urs too its a really fun bike. i have a picture of it with the crusier bars 26" front wheel and judy on it. I didnt like it like that at all so i put the 24 inch front wheel on the front put on a kona clump stem and put on azonic riser bars now i love the thing

peace

 

[Rik]

Hey parkrider, go here to see the results, and if you can, post pics of your machine!

 

[Parkrider522]

im getting a new pic in a few days i will be sure to post it ASAP.

RIDE ON!

peace, gabe

 

[cwbastian]

Originally posted by Booker
I too have a 24" DK General Lee w/ Marzocchi fork

Got a pic? I've been thinking about doing the same thing.

 

[Booker]

Originally posted by cwbastian
Got a pic? I've been thinking about doing the same thing.

No pics yet. I will be sure to get some on our next street ride. I think the bike rides really well. It is very flickable and easy to throw around.