looking for a 24" suspesion fork
 

i want to transform my Airnimal Joey into a hardtail XC bike. I am looking for a sort (24") suspension fork. So far, I have only seen the Marzocchi D street 24, which is apparently being phased out!
can anybody recommend?

not really much out there that is quality suspension specific for 24" wheels - even the marzocchi fork you mention isn't all that great. it's designed for jumping - the damping reflects that, and isn't all that hot for trail riding, and the thing is a tank besides.

your best bet might be to get a 100mm travel newer Rock Shox air fork and space the travel down a bit to shorten things up.

hmm, I guess all I need is to shorten the fork by 2 inches...
how hard would this operation be, and what sort of travel would I end up with?

well, if you take a four inch fork and shorten the travel by two inches...ahem. there ya go. you'll have a two inch travel fork. it's easy to do with rock shox air forks. other stuff, not so much. taller than that you'll just chopper the bike out and introduce stresses that your frame i highly doubt is intended to take.

the other problem is the braking. your current wheel/brake setup won't work with standard 26" forks. you'd need to swap to a disc brake setup, which would mean a new wheel and front disc brake.

so, uh, how much money are you wanting to throw at this? considering you'll have a very short travel fork anyhow, the best solution to me seems to be to get some fat 24" knobbies and use those on your existing setup. anything else will either be a lot of money and headache spent, IMO. the other 24" suspension fork options out there either are cheapy, crappy forks, or things like the super freakin' heavy dirt jump forks.

or, if you want to toss a bunch of money at it anyhow, just buy a real mountain bike.

24" mtb tires:
http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...p?category=182

hmm, well i do have this shimano alfine, disc brake-compatible hub lying around... the bike does have rear disc brake tabs... I was considering a front dynamo hub that is disc brake compatible (a shimano alfine as well, for long night rides and camping trips)
so I was considering swapping wheels and fork, adding some BB7's.. spending about 800 bucks all told, maybe? for a kick ass folding mountain bike i can pack in a suitcase, take on a bus or hitch rides to trailheads on....
worth it? still debating that one.

800 Can buy you a pretty nice hard tail.
that you can throw on the back of your vehicle, or truck or camper or w/e when you go camping

Edit:
I noticed you have two folding bikes in that pick,
800 can buy you two entry level hardtails.

800 can buy you a much nicer riding hardtail than that will turn out to be. that is a nice little ride, but it's something not really intended for what you want to do. there are offroad folders that are intended for that sort of thing - no idea what they run $$$$ wise though.

i suppose it depends on just what kind of offroad you plan to do.

the great advantage would be to be able to pack into a suitcase and take it on the airplane with no extra fees. also, fold it for going on ferries arouns SE Asia, for example, be able to get on buses, taxis, etc.
I do not own a car and dont intend to get one...
goof dedicated folding MTBs start around 2k. Still havent made up my mind, I may just put some knobby balloon tires on this one and see how it does on the trails.

I'd say that's the best idea as a first step, see how it handles that and if you feel it needs the fork down the road then you can do it. But give it a shot with just the knobbies first.