Light weight forks and frame/suspension parts

Hi all, earlier I asked where you guys get your parts, but now I'm getting more specific. I'm looking for either aluminum or chromoly forks and a rear triangle with suspension (actually any suspension parts period would be great...) I'm using 20" wheels. I've found a plain jane steel 20" front fork but nothing else at all. I'm down to build my own frame with chromoly (I never had much luck gas welding aluminum). Any pointers? I thought about chopping up a walmart kids bike, but they are so heavy and cheapy I can't bring myself to do it. Worst case I will just get the plain steel fork and make the rest of the frame out of chromoly...

One of the nice things about e-bikes is that you can make up for having a heavy frame (and other heavy stuff) by just using more power instead of by buying thousands of dollars worth of racer-oriented bike equipment. That said, if you're looking for a frame that is light and strong, you'd do well to buy one that was made with all the fancy manufacturing facilities that the major bike brands use. (since they can heat treat aluminum, etc)

If you don't mind the extra weight and want a really custom bike, you can still take good quality parts such as a fork or a rear suspension off of a name brand bike. If you want the best price, check out used bikes ( http://craigslist.org is a great source). The big names (ones i can think of are trek, giant, specialized, diamondback, cannondale) all sell high quality bikes that have the parts you're looking for, and they are all close to equal in quality.

If you need several major parts for a bike, IMO it's better to buy a whole used bike and take its parts instead of buying individual parts, which will really cost you.

I haven't had much luck with the 20" forks. $100 is the best price I could find and I'm not sure how well they will work out. I think I may just make my own set. I did this with a chopper bicycle some years back (no suspension, but they were LONG) and it worked out just fine... I think it's hopeless with the rest of the frame too...

I'll second the Craigslist suggestion. You might have to watch the ads for a while to find what you want. Just get a whole bike and use what parts you need.

All right, yesterday I broke in my new shop by chopping up a full suspension mongoose from a few years back. The SRAM derailleur was broken on it, but as I'm making my bikes one speed I don't care.

I'm going to just chop the fork down to accept the 20" wheel. I've taken a 26" fork and moved the brake mounting hardware down for a 20" wheel. Not sure if was a more difficult exercise than simply removing 3" of steel tubing.

Are you down grading from a 26" fork to a 20" ? Careful. If you look at some E-bike websites you'll see that applying the same power to a 20" wheel versus a 26" wheel will only yield about 3/4 of the speed. The smaller wheels require more energy to obtain the same speed, significantly more.

Seems to me it would have been much easier to go 26" and build the rest around that. Why did you chose not to?

Reason I go with 20" is size. A 26" front wheel recumbent bike would be massive. I have tried it too, and it handled very oddly. I go with a 20" on the rear wheel now too to shave 3" off the length of the bike. Otherwise the bike is too long for the bed of my truck.

I welded tabs on the 26" fork to accept 20" wheels. This is not a good idea. First, it has rubber pieces inside. I had to keep dousing the fork with water to keep these from burning up and I am pretty certain I hurt those pieces anyway. I should have kept it half submerged in water. Second, although I practiced my welding before attempting this & cleaned the metal well, I am not too crazy about the safety of this setup. I made the tabs about 3" long to make sure the tabs don't just break off if I hit a bump. I am going to reinforce them again.

I have since found that airbomb.com has steel 20" suspension forks from Zoom for like $50. Definitely the best deal I could find. Never found a good deal for the rear spring and shock absorber. Suspension seat posts are much cheaper. I rode a Tidalforce 750 this past weekend and wow that thing was amazing, and it only had the front suspension and seat post and was riding over curbs just fine.

Lately I've been looking at 16" and 20" folding bikes since its cheaper to get a whole bike, even new and higher quality, then to buy the pieces alone. I got most of the way through my cost spreadsheet and the bike itself was adding up to $800 if I bought it piece by piece. I could get a Downtube 9 speed with a front suspension for $300 and then just replace the seat and attach a boom and bottom bracket at the front. Transplant the cranks and voila easy recumbent build.

I have yet to find an appropriate seat though, I tried building one this weekend and it sucked. I am going to Office Depot later this week. My first bike had a small office chair for a seat and even though it looks ridiculous it's still my favorite bike seat. Recumbent seats are really expensive.