24 or 26 in ?

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nanac1212

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I couldnt resist I bought the old Ashtabula trike for 30.00 and am nearing the end of a complete resto. Everything is coming together fine and I will elaborate more with pics when done but I have a question.

The bike has factory 26 inch rear wheels and a 24 front. What do you thnk of doing a fork swap and putting a 26 up front?. Why would they put a 24 on to start with? I have both sizes ready to mount on old aluminum mtb rims. Going aluminum due to weight.(thank goodness for free junk Wally mtn bikes)



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It may noy even require a fork swap, many 24" forks will accept a 26" if you are not using a fender.
 
A 26 is just a little too tall for these forks using 26x1.75 tires so it would have to swap for clearance. These Astabula/Trailmate trykes already have a pretty good rake so I was wondering the pros and cons of the 26 idea. There has to be a good reason it was factory built with a 24 up front.

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Toss a 26" on there and see how she rolls! They might've spec'd a 24" for a good reason, such as keeping the rake/trail perfect.... or they might've spec'd a 24" for a different kinda good reason, like "hey, we got a million old 24" fronts sittin' around in the warehouse; let's put'm on trikes and get'm gone..."
 
I think I may build me a 26 fork/wheel and try it.This tryke has a long headtube about 7 inches so finding a compatable spade fork might be a challenge. I like the idea of a full 26 incher mainly because 24 inch tires are hard to come by. Junk 26 inch free mtn bikes are a dime a dozen so getting replacement tires is easy.

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That crank is original. I always put long cranks in my trykes that dont have them already. Makes pedalling much nicer.

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I don't know what your direction is on this build, but some of the aftermarket (schwinn) styled springers have an extra long tube with plenty of thread.
 
I will do some looking for the 26 fork but its no big priority. The 24 is fine I was just kicking around the idea of a 26. I have some old Murray and Huffy forks but the tube part is about an inch too short.



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nanac1212 said:
That crank is original. I always put long cranks in my trykes that dont have them already. Makes pedalling much nicer.

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Click to expand...
Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of the front half of one trike and the back of another.
 
It May have had a rear wheel swap,it looks a lot like my old atlas trike. It has 24's all around.
 
No I think the whole bike is original. This thing is awesome. Other than the frame its made from common parts. You could ride it forever with very little maintanince.

Right now I am waiting on a 24t freewheel. Gonna replace the rear axle bearings and a couple other things. My goal is to have done by September so I can hit some bike paths as the weather cools.

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I hope you have better luck getting the rear wheels off than I did with my build off bike. They were and still are pretty well stuck.
 
Done got em off. The drive wheel is secured thru the 5/8 axle with a roll pin so I pulled the entire axle with wheel out. The dead wheel just slides on with a locknut. Like I said this thing is very simple built. Ace hsrdware has the axle beasrings for 1.99 everyday in stock.

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