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Thanks Dump!

Lil Manimal

Chimp
Dec 23, 2007
8
0
Second Grade
My dad bought me a new fork and I love it! It is really smooth and I like it on my jump.

-Noah

**manimal narration**
noah has needed a new fork for a while as the old one is a little too plush and bottoms on the face of dj's. dump was selling his old manitou minute for dirt cheap because the disc brake mounts were stripped but the fork is in pristine condition.
so after about 5 hours of spring cutting, oil changing and just general manimalizing, he now has a 95mm, not too heavy, adjustable fork. he hit up the dj at the house today to test it out and he really likes it. i'm still fine tuning it and i might come up with a different spring combination to stiffen up a tad more but so far, it's better than the old one.



 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
Sorry about the other fork Noah. My roommate took it by accident when he moved out. The bike looks good with the new fork, and that picnic table still looks weird.
no worries dude...that was a last resort anyway. it was so heavy it would have been a boat anchor to him...besides, i told them to do whatever with the fork when i left it as it wasn't worth turning around to get it ;)
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
he has a front disc, i just haven't put it back on yet because i was still tweaking it and it was a pain in the butt taking it off and on everytime i removed the lowers.

mike... i ended up putting in a mixture of the assist spring from the old fork, about 1/3 of the new, medium spring and some of the assist spring that was inside of the medium spring. it took a lot of trial and error to get it plush enough that it felt like a fork should feel for his weight but also progressive and stiff enough that it doesn't bottom on the lips of the dj's. i also had to add enough spring to allow the fork to rebound if there is any pressure in the spv side. i never knew that the spv pressure works against the rebound on the return stroke so when i had just the assist spring in the other leg and put some air in the spv...it wouldn't come back up. i just kept adding different springs and dropped the fork oil down to 5wt and i think it's dialed now. there's even a small piece of pvc pipe in there to lower it down from 130mm to about 90-ish ;) this fork has officially been lil manimalized :thumb:
 

DirtyMike

Turbo Fluffer
Aug 8, 2005
14,437
1,017
My own world inside my head
Thats awesome, Forks can be fun to fine tune like that. Its cool that you do stuff like this for your son. SPecially on something that is as tedious as fork tuning from total stratch like you did, Kudos!!!
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
Got a full test on the new fork today. i tweaked it a little more last night and we can tell a huge difference on the big/steep dj's as he's not losing all of his momentum on the face of the jump from bottoming out.

he even worked in a little tweak action :thumb:


 

MMcG

Ride till you puke!
Dec 10, 2002
15,457
12
Burlington, Connecticut
Will you be able to mount the disc brake adaptor to the fork? Cool to see that someone bought that from dump - I was tempted but feared that I couldn't get the caliper to mount to the lowers so I passed.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,194
4,419
Hey manimal & lil manimal! The fork looks really great! I'm glad you got it working. Have fun with it.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
Will you be able to mount the disc brake adaptor to the fork? Cool to see that someone bought that from dump - I was tempted but feared that I couldn't get the caliper to mount to the lowers so I passed.
i actually got it to mount the first time. i could see where the threads were stripped in the top mount but it was just over 1/4" deep. i found a longer screw for it and it grabs just fine on the threads further in the hole that aren't stripped. it'll work fine for him because he rarely uses it and it won't be nearly as much force on it as it would be if you or i were using it. i'll put it back on tomorrow me thinks.
 

BMXman

I wish I was Canadian
Sep 8, 2001
13,827
0
Victoria, BC
hey Manimal does LM need anything else?..I'm cleaning house and I have a ton of extra parts...got to support the kids ya know ;)....D
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
hey Manimal does LM need anything else?..I'm cleaning house and I have a ton of extra parts...got to support the kids ya know ;)....D
um...not really unless you have a v-brake to disc brake adapter lying around. mikedsx (LBS owner) is working machining one through a friend of his because the braketherapy ones are crazy expensive. other than that i think he's set.

and MMcG...those are dual 20's, it'll be a while before he can fit on a 24" but when he can, you can bet i'll be putting him on a stinky jr or something of the like.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
he's got a avid mech front disc but he has a hard time using it because the lever is out so far, even with the set screw pushed all the way in. i was tempted to take the lever to a welder friend of mine and have him bend it in some.
i'm really looking for a rear disc adapter that attaches to the v-brake post mount and supports a rear caliper on non-disc frames. i don't feel like shelling out a few hundred bucks to get the only 20" disc ready frame i know of, the cowan 2-0.

i might be interested in an aftermarket front lever if you have one for sale; anything to get him to use his front brake more often is a plus.
 

DHS

Friendly Neighborhood Pool Boy
Apr 23, 2002
5,094
0
Sand, CA
what about using der housing instead of brake housing. theres a lot less flex there. or how about just a different front brake? i run shimano lx/saint brakes, with straitline levers. and they are pretty close in.

what about a bmx one finger lever, i know its a longer pull, but i've set them up before. for a street bike.

i have that old spec adapter to make it disc, but its for a 26" frame. Brake therapy would probably make you one, holy $$$

figure out some way to get the 2008 version of your frame, hotrock boys 24" has disc mounts.

we need to get him a short cage der.
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
Women's-specific front brake lever? (If they're available aftermarket.)
 

MMcG

Ride till you puke!
Dec 10, 2002
15,457
12
Burlington, Connecticut
Would it whack things out in a big way to make Lil Manimal's bike into a Lil Manimal big hit sorta thing with a 24" in front and a 20" in back?

Was there a particular reason you went for a mountain bike frame for him over a BMX bike? Was it just to get some front suspension out of it? Or was the specialized frame a bargain or something? Just curious more than anything.

Lil Manimal has got the mad skillz! :thumb:
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
Would it whack things out in a big way to make Lil Manimal's bike into a Lil Manimal big hit sorta thing with a 24" in front and a 20" in back?

Was there a particular reason you went for a mountain bike frame for him over a BMX bike? Was it just to get some front suspension out of it? Or was the specialized frame a bargain or something? Just curious more than anything.

Lil Manimal has got the mad skillz! :thumb:
yes, a 24 in front would make it ridiculous on the front, he can barely touch his toes to the ground while he's sitting on the seat as it is...it'll be at least a year, probably 2 before he's comfortable on a 24" bike.

it's kind of a long story as to how we got him on the frame he's on. **henceforth the term "we" will refer to mikedsx and I...he was shop manager of a LBS when we built it up and has since opened his own shop and we ride for him...cycletherapybikes.com ***

long story kinda short. i was looking for a better frame than the modified huffy (yellow bike) he was riding. mike found a blemished 16" hotrock on the spec. closeout site and ordered it for dirt cheap. lo and behold, a 20" frame arrived. at the time, it was huge for him but i'm glad for the mistake now as he's grown into the 20 very well. mike went to work and called me a couple weeks later to let me know it was done. he used old or used parts that were lying around the shop. bmx bb, cane creek sealed headset, thompson seatpost, he handbuilt the wheels, tektro v-brake.....the cranks were supplied by a fellow monkey but he hasn't posted in ages and i forgot his handle. he used them on his kid's bmx bike and i think they're 165mm redline cranks that he cut down to about 150mm. the stem/hbars/drivetrain has changed over time but everything else is pretty much how mike built it up.
so anyway, we went w/ the mtn setup because, well...we ride mtn bikes and the full sized fork was designed for noah's stair-ventures because at the time he was rocking the stairs and urban stuff. he already had a 16" bmx rig for the skatepark so the mtn just seemed more useful. (i got him a redline mini this year since we started racing at the local track)

i hope that answered your ?'s