type11969

My girlfriend has a Marin muirwoods, 13" frame (she is little), and is thinking about getting in to mountain biking but is a little daunted by the cost of a new mountain bike. Used is tough to find in her size. Her muirwoods seems pretty stout and she is light so I was wondering if it would be possible to put a front suspension fork on to it to turn it in to a light duty trail bike. Anyone know?

Thanks,

Chris

jjbod1

If you can find a fork that will fit, meaning the headtube, you should be fine. looking a Bikepedia, the newer ones look like path or hybreds, meaning they have MTN bike frames, so i dont see a problem putting a supention fork on the bike.

type11969

It is an 08 or 07 and it has a 1 1/8th inch headset so finding a fork shouldn't be a problem. I was concerned with the geometry being adversely affected. There seem to be spacers between the top of the headset and the handle bars that could be pulled (if they are indeed spacers) to give suspension travel. The height of the handlebars relative to the seat and ft axle wouldn't change, but the distance between the headset and the ft axle would. Horizontal distance between the headset and the ft axle would increase. Not sure about the ramifications of this . . . comments?

Thanks,

Chris

mystolenbikes

I don't know what you just said but...New fork will fit fine, depending on the lenght of the new forks steer tube you can add or remove the spacers, adding or removing spacers will effect the bikes fit so just make sure she still fits comfortably if you change anything.
I replaced my fiance's bikes fork about a month ago. Original for had an 8" steer tube and the one I got from craigslist has 7.5" steer tube so removed one link and she couldn't even tell the difference.