Where to buy a decent quality springer?

[turbobuick1]

Hi to everyone, I'm looking for a springer fork for a 26" Cruiser Bike, and the prices seem to vary greatly to buy a new one. Anywhere between $45-$90. I wonder if any of these are junk? The repro monarch springer, regardless of whether it's junk or not, is a lot of money to me at $130. I can get one at the local bike shop for $50 made by a "Sun" brand or something like that. I would think maybe a felt or electra springer might be better quality (can't find the specs on the felt), but who knows, maybe all of this is made by one company in China?

Thanks guys for any input on this, it is appreciated!

 

[Uncle Stretch]

In my experiance with aftermarket Schwinn style springers ,The ones that have a bushing in the legs are pretty good. If they dont you can keep tightening the bolts till you squash the tubes flat. I bought a couple and the long bolt that ran through the bottom part was really smaller than the hole. It made for a real sloppy fork. I went to the local hardware and bought a replacement grade 8 bolt and a drill bit that was just a couple thousands larger and redrilled the legs and the bottom piece...changed to the new bolt and came out with a tight really acceptable springer. If your looking for a springer for real cheap you will have to find one used someone is getting rid of and it wont be a felt .

 

[turbobuick1]

Thank you for the reply, the bushing thing is a good tip. I guess in my mind I was planning on replacing the bolt with a grade 8 one just because I read somewhere on here someone sheared that bolt. :shock: Now as far as "it wont be a felt", did you mean that isn't a quality springer or that no one would want to part with one?

 

[sensor]

http://www.feltracing.com/09-catalog/pa ... -fork.aspx

 

[stretch]

i bought mine off streetlowrider.com. its pretty nice, chrome is good, is not sloppy, and it only took a little adjusting cuz the spring bolt rubbed on the cup.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

What I ment is I don't think you will find any Felt products cheap....It seems a person is lucky to get them at all. :wink:

 

[bikebuilder]

I got a schwinn style springer fork from chubbys one stop cruiser shop. It was cheap. The geometry was off so the spring never worked right. I tried adjusting it once and snapped the spring bolt. It was also the type that would smash the fork tubes if you over tightened the bolt. The next few springers I bought were Pyramid brand. They were much better. Correct geomtry, thicker metal on the fork legs, Nicer chrome. The left leg was threaded so the bolt would slide through the first leg and thread into the second. Then the nut would hold it all tight. No need to clamp the actual legs to the crown. In my opinion the shape of the fork and the piece that goes in front of the spring was better. The price was actually cheaper through the local bike shop.

The cheap fork that broke was $35 + $15 shipping. The good forks were $49 special ordered from the LBS. The Nirve springer appears to have even a better shape to the spring retainer, But I haven't purchased one yet, So I Can't say anything about the quality. It Appears to be good.

Still not quite like an original schwinn, but good quality.

http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Springer- ... B000AO7GGM Pyramid-$39
http://www.amazon.com/Nirve-Spring-Acti ... d_sbs_sg_3 Nirve-$59

 

[turbobuick1]

Big thanks to everyone's input. Hopefully this thread can help more than just me!

 

[bikeriderx]

I bought this one from Bicycledesigner.com...I've not seem alot of them to make a comparo...But it seems to be ok...
http://www.bicycledesigner.com/defaulth ... r%3D513002
Good chrome, and it seems to actually work...The bike rides great! After I get back from vacation I'll post a how-to thread on eliminating the squeaks... :mrgreen: