Folding Bikes - Raleigh Twenty: Carbon Forks for 406 or 451 20" wheels?

After a successful charity run on Sunday (47miles) on my Raleigh Twenty Supermodified I'm starting to think about fixing up the other Twenty folder I have in my yard. I'm thinking "ultra lightweight fixie" (well as light as these things can be) with skinny rims, flipped and chopped road bars etc etc.

With that in mind I'd love to consider putting 20" (406 or 451) sized forks on it in carbon. It's a 1" steerer and would need to be pretty long but could be threaded or A-head.

Does anyone know of anyone that makes/sells/would fabricate something like that?
Or another light option. (Aluminium? Titanium?)

I could of course keep to the stock ones but they aren't really up to much.

Thoughts / links / musings / abuse welcome!

I looked around for those a year ago. It is hard to find ANY 20" fork with a steerer tube long enough for a twenty, let alone a carbon fork. The Woundup 20" fork is Very Nice and has v-brake bosses, but >$400 is kind of expensive considering what it is going to be used on. The $200 Answer Carbon Expert looks nice but AFAIK has no provision for mounting brakes. It might be possible to drill a hole through the crown and install a caliper brake. Many other 20" carbon mini BMX forks, like Answer Scythe and Redline Microline, have rider weight limitations, like <100 lbs., and no brake mounts. Granted, you're not going to be doing a lot of skatepark riding on your 20, but how lucky do you feel? Breaking a fork could really ruin your day.

All that said, I'd look around for new recumbent forks. :rolleyes:

a decent frame builder should be able to build you a lighter fork exactly how you want it from reynolds tubing for around 120 quid...ish.

Steve Chesterfield, England

I'm not familiar enough with the Raleigh 20 to know if these will work, but it might be worth taking a look HERE (http://www.hpvelotechnik.com/produkte/federgabeln/meks_carbon_ac_e.html). I know they make a few versions.

Happy hunting,

— Spalding

Yeah I think they would fit - sadly there's the £££ pricetag! ;)

Here are a couple that Suntour makes in alloy:

Suntour SF-XCC-D (http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/techspec.xml?goid=162&SID=1122360105_448d0000000000194e8e)
All but one of their M-series forks (http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/standard.xml?vpID=160) can be had in a 20" version.

I did a cursory check for pricing, but didn't find anything. The forks are offered mainly to OEMs I guess. I'm sure serious inquiry would turn up something.

Thanks for the info people. I've actually sold the stock StowAway as it was rusting and I wasn't about to embark on another project. Maybe I'll just get a fixed rear hub and switch it with the SRAM 7 when I'm feeling adventurous? I've already got (heavy) suspension forks by Chilli Works but I'm tempted to go for the carbon bmx forks - regardless of weight restrictions as I'm only 140 lbs... Haha "Mr Tempting Fate" that I am....

A Meks carbon fork is up for sale on eBay. The steerer is 1 1/8" though, not sure if they are removable. http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Meks-Recumbent-carbon-Suspension-1-1-8-Fork-20_W0QQitemZ7179347586QQcategoryZ42314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem