well i bought a 24 inch traildigger last year from jensonusa. i love it! i rode mountain bikes before it and a 20 inch feels way to small on me but this thing feels perfect. i ride so park stuff and dirt jumps. (rays is awesome by the way). anyways i wrecked it bad enought to bend one of the rigid fork tubes back so my front end sits a little croked just so i can go straight but it works fine although im afraid they might get worse. but i really feel more comfortable on front suspension forks so im goin to do a little build project to see how they fit and see how well everything will ride. i no this bike is considered a bmx cruiser but i deal with mechanics all the time so i think i can get this to work well. i hope to keep you all posted on how everything goes.
24 inch traildigger
- Thread starter love to ride
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idk if you'll be able to lowere a sussy fork enough to keep the cruiser geo. but good luck let us know how it goes
well the forks are manitou gold series and are 80mm. i have a teacher that does downhill stuff and also rides a trail and park bike and said i should be ok. but i was looking up specs of bikes and it says the average dj bike has around a 70 degree angle fork. but my traildigger looks like its 80 degrees. thats not the exact measurement but they are pretty vertical. and if i can i will lower the forks to 50mm or something like that if i really wanted or can.
these are my forks and you can see i bent them bad. but that is the angle of the head tube. sorry for the crappy qualitly. it was dark and taken with my blackberry.
on your Eastern fork, measure the front the center of your front axle to the crown (bottom of bottom headset bearing). it's going to be a LOT lower than a manitou gold label 80mm.
you'd be better off picking up a Union Street Molly Maguire frame, switching your parts onto it, THEN running the suspension fork. Molly 24"s are designed for short travel suspension. AND you can run your same wheels and brakes. (rear 110 bmx spacing).
ill have to look into it. i would by a full sized park trail bike but its to much money for me right now. so ill see how it goes and if it does work i can use them in the future.
Make sure you ream and face the headtube. You may have tweaked it a bit and that will save your headset some grief. Ditch the fork asap. Forks are not a good thing to gamble on.
thanks for the info everyone. I should have the forks within the next week so we will see what happens with the whole set up.
I've always kind of wanted to build a traildigger with super low (40-50mm) argyles or something and some medium rise bars. I think It'd just look like a low slung mtb frame with a high BB as opposed to a cruiser.
i got in the forks today and here they are with the stock handlebars. i think i might get lower ones and lower the forks a little.
Yes definitely lower that gold label, it looks way to raked out. I lowered mine a while ago down to about 50mm of travel and it worked out like a charm. I can show you a pic or two if you like
i plan on it. but i went riding this weekend at a bmx track near a friends house . even though the forks do look raked out they feel good when i ride and are very nice. but i am planning on lowering them this week so i can decide which way i like better.
go ahead and post pics if you would like. id like to see other set-ups.
OK this was mine lowered down to around 50mm
thats nice did you just make a 30mm spacer?
Mine was the 100mm version so I used a 50mm piece of bar. Make sure to cut your spring as well. I didn't cut mine and it took about 4 people to hold the fork together so that we could get the compression nut back on. If it were to have come loose and off, I would have gotten a spring in the face at a high rate of speed. Good thing I cracked my drop outs before that happened.
ok ill make sure i check that. and hear are a couple more pics from over the weekend.
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dang! that must feel kind of wacky with super tall bars and tall fork!
the bars are actually the same height as mountain bike bars. but today i went to lower the forks. when i took them apart the little hollow bolt that that rebound knob goes into that has the reverse threads broke half way off! and the piece that is still in the shaft is so small i cant get it out. while trying to get it out it made the piece it is threaded into start to spin freely because it is only held in with 2 punch marks. so i got the forks together but since the shaft freely spins i cant adjust my rebound. the forks look good at 50mm but if anyone has a good shaft for manitou 80mm gold label series forks they want to get rid let me know and i will be willing to buy it.
hear is a pic of the forks lowered about 30mm.
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wow look so much better
ya its much better now i can notice a big difference between with the spacer and without one