Bicycle Mechanics - swapping forks

yeah, I've got a bike I built totally myself. It's a 26 inch frame chinese bike. I also have a raleigh m20 bike that was ridden by me and a bunch of other adrenaline junkies for a good year or so. The bike is totaled now, the whole gearing was ripped to shreds from an insane crash. So I remember the front shocks on there to be really good, and if you saw my bike you would see why I need front shocks. The raleighs an american made and the chinese one is chinese made. I need to know if there is going to be any size differences or anything and maybe some tips on what to do. Thanks

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9987/pdr1335.jpg

I don't know whether you're trolling or just clueless, but for now I'm giving you the benefit of doubt.
The frame in the pic appears to have a quill type stem of unknown diameter and threaded fork. According to bikepedia raleigh has also has a threaded fork, so what you need to do is to see if both bikes have the same diameter of stems and if the headtubes have the same length. If the Raleigh headtube is longer you can work with that but if it's shorter you're SOL.
The raleigh is listed as 1 1/8 headset, for which there's no conflicting standard, so if the bike in the pic has the same you should be able to transplant all the headset parts from the bike in the pic onto the raleigh fork and be good to go.

The Raleigh M-20 was not made in the USA. That is their entry level MTB and they have been made in China for some time now. I would think that most of the parts "COULD" be swapped out to the Magna without too much problem, but the other poster already indicated some of the pratfalls you could have with that.

To be honest, If I saw you wheel your bike into the shop to have work done, I'd go hide in the Shop Basement. So many things I see that I are not quite right with that Magna...But it is YOUR Bike and if it is fime with you, then it should be fine with me.

I don't know whether you're trolling or just clueless, but for now I'm giving you the benefit of doubt.

Hey there, thanks for the info...but no, I'm not trolling, I was asking a quick, misinformed question. I did not know that the m-20 was made in china...I looked at the sticker and it said designed in USA or something so I just assumed that it was made here too.

The raleigh fork did not fit on the neck of the magna bike, which is a shame. My next option is to weld off the neck for the raleigh, and put it on the magna and throw the raleigh fork on. Should be a fun project.

And for your information, I think the bike is pretty pimp myself. The pimpiest part being I didn't spend a single cent on it. I'm not interested in buying expensive good looking bicycles...I would rather cart my lazy ass around with a offroad motorcycle or two with the money that you guys spend on bicycles...but thats just my opinion

...I would rather cart my lazy ass around with a offroad motorcycle or two with the money that you guys spend on bicycles...but thats just my opinion

which sounds like you don't really care about bicycles that much...just another means to an end. and that's fine. but that last sentence doesn't sound like you really want the expertise here. :rolleyes:

...The raleigh fork did not fit on the neck of the magna bike, which is a shame. My next option is to weld off the neck for the raleigh, and put it on the magna and throw the raleigh fork on. Should be a fun project.

Even low-end bikes like yours have fairly thin walled tubing, and the head tube is a highly stressed part of the bike. You'd either better be a good-to-excellent welder, or be willing to accept a significant risk of the bike collapsing underneath you before attempting such a transplant.

If it was me attempting it I wouldn't cut the head tube entirely off from the receiver bike, I'd leave the rear half where the head tube attaches to the top tube and down tube intact. Then I'd rest the donor head tube against it like a cradle and run two nice long beads along the sides.


.... I'm not interested in buying expensive good looking bicycles....

Every one has a different opinion about where expensive begins, but I bet most of us posters here have at least one "sensibly" prized bike in our stables.


....I'm not interested in buying expensive good looking bicycles... Well, if you're content with using ugly stuff, then that's your choice.