goatalope

Has anyone ever cut out the bridge on a suspension fork (and lived to tell about it)?

I have a old Judy TT front shock for a 26" wheel off of a low end gary fisher. Is it possible to cut out the bridge so I could fit a, say, 29er wheel on it? Seems like it'd be ill-advised, but I'm feeling experimental.

Nerull

Er, those are there for a reason. Your fork isn't going to work too well if the lower legs aren't attached to each other.

FastJake

At best it would be extremely flexible and unsafe. At worst, instant catastrophic failure.

Even if this idea was safe, you wouldn't have any suspension travel. See what would happen when the fork compresses? Your big 29er tire would go right up into the fork crown. Wheel lock up the bad things that come with that would be the result...

blamp28

My friend broke his in a race. Very unstable AT BEST. Do not do this unless you have good medical and dental policies and by all means, please take good video for us.

mikeybikes

With all the warnings above, I say do it. What's the worse that could happen?

Be sure and video tape the results.

jimc101

If you medical / life insurance is upto date, and you have booked the funeral home, go for it.

Seriously, guess you you trying to create is a 69er, you will need a 29er fork for this, and it won't work well, as the angles of the frame will be off, and won't give you a good ride compared to say a Carver bike, who design their frames specifically for this.

JanMM

Video.

FBinNY 

The bridge is absolutely necessary to the function of the fork. Without it to ensure that both struts compress together, they'll move independently rocking the front wheel left and right, flexing the axle, and possibly breaking the axle or skewer. Even with the bridge suspension forks are harder on QR hubs than rigid forks, that's why most have "lawyers lips" on both the inside and outside of the dropouts. Without the bridge it's an accident waiting for the right moment.

fietsbob

Judy is not that old, both the legs and arch are the same casting.

if you had a much older fork, the arch bolts on. Then, you could have a new arch machined.

pat5319

Omg, this could be the craziest thing i've seen here !!!! Wow!

commo_soulja

People never cease to amaze me.

jolly_ross

Silly idea, but you were wise to ask before doing it.
What will surely happen is that as the bike is leaning around corners one fork will try to compress more than the other putting a lot of stress on the axle- possibly stripping the skewer threads. An old bolt-on axle might be a bit stronger but still will be under stress that it's just not meant to suffer. Maybe it would bend the dropouts. I don't much like "let's laugh at this guy hurting himself videos". Don't do it!

digger

I don't see the problem here.

This would, not only make room for a 29 inch wheel, but also save weight.

This is akin to sawing off the seat stay bridge to fit a 29inch wheel.

One can also drill holes in the seat tube, handlebar and stem to save weight, and saw off one seat rail (why the redundancy of two, I'll never understand).

Toeslider

Just take it off, mount the 29er wheel, then run the bridge through the spokes and remount. Much safer. You'll thank me later.

3alarmer 

Is that you vodka eyeballing in your avatar ?

I begin to see a trend here.

And, oh yeah, a video please.....sorta like Jackass 5.0.

dabac

You're trolling, right?

You are trolling!

Good one, had me going there for a while.

digger

It's my super-power.

But I must apologize to the OP for my sarcasm. I suspect that it was a question that was not throughly thunk out before it was asked. We've all done it.....well....expect for me.

JiveTurkey

The internals of the two legs are likely different, because they're meant to work together. For example, the coil is in one leg and the rebound damping in the other. They won't work well independently.

BCRider

A lot of motorcycle forks do not use a bridge. But motorcycles have big solid axles that get clamped in place so they lock the two sliders and axle together as a solid U form. And even then many older motorcycles did benifit from adding a fork bridge. And almost all the modern sportbikes come with a rather solid fork bridge or at least a very big and burly axle in the form of a thick wall tubing style axle done from seriously good steel. Off road motorcycles generally don't have such a bridge. But again look at the size of the axles on them and how they are screwed in and then clamped in place. Far more rugged than anything used on all but the latest downhill race bicycle forks.

On the other hand your bike uses a tiny little axle with tiny little contact patches held together with a QR skewer. There's just not the sort of carry through structure you need to keep things from wobbling around. So it'll flex a lot and leave you with a very wobbly front end. On top of that the dropouts are not big enough to withstand the sort of bending loads you would put into them so they would most certainly bend and then snap off if you were to use a solid axle and axle nuts to try to make the connection more solid.

So forget it and just pony up for a 29'er fork.

jack002

So all the ONE BLADE forks are pure science fiction? They'd have to be.

Ira B

Mr. Safety say no.

digger

Look hard at the Cannondale Lefty, in the headset area, a dual crown assembly. Differant animal, and if you cut on of those support beams, yer face is still in the dirt.

Dang, I can't seem to get use to the Lefty, they look so strange.

Shimagnolo

Will you people please stop trying to discourage the OP?
I'm looking forward to some great video.

BCRider

On top of the previous post about the dual crown support for the stanchion tube check out the special hub and axle used on the one legged forks. You're trying to compare apples to turnips.


... er... I guess we can't really call single leggers "forks" then, can we?

Gonzo Bob

+1 When we were kids, my brother had a Yamaha Moto-bike and broke the front axle a couple of times