I started looking on line for suspension corrected forks for 24 inch wheel cycles. I did not find any. So I looked through my collection of bicycle forks. The axle to crown measurement of a cro-mo cyclocross fork that I had came close. But in the end I decided to use the steel fork from my old Diamondback Topanga 26 inch wheel mountain bike that I used to have. I had scrapped the frame but held on to the fork. The axle to crown on this fork was a little short but the fork was much lighter than the cross fork. I may use the cross fork on another bike later.
This DB fork has a one inch threaded steerer on it. My daughters Trek has a 1 1/8 inch dia. head tube and came with a 1 1/8 inch threaded steerer on the suspension fork . I remembered a friendly bike shop owner had once told me that some product was made that allowed you to install a one inch headset into a 1 1/8 inch head tube. I couldn't remember what this was but after a little internet research I came up with a set of shims that press into the 1 1/8 inch head tube then you press in the one inch head set cups and races.
I ordered the shims and knew we were in business. One major issue remained what to do about the front brakes. The fork I was going to use had been for a 26 inch wheeled mountain bike from before the days of suspension forks. I knew that I would have to move the cantilever brake mounting studs down lower on the fork blades in order to have the brakes work with a 24 inch wheel. I figured out how much to move them down. It ended up being about 26mm lower that I needed to move them. So I cut the studs off the fork being sure to measure the distance from the crown to the center of the studs before I did so.
Then I welded them back on the fork blades at a distance from the fork crown 26mm further away than they had been mounted in the 26 inch wheel position. I used a TIG welder to do this. I also made a plate with holes in it to space the studs the proper distance apart and hold them in place while I welded them back on.
Once I finished the fork I was able to install a one inch headset into the frame and installed the fork. The bike is several pounds lighter now and also seems to handle a bit better. With the suspension fork the bike seemed a little raked back like a chopper motorcycle. The V brakes installed just fine and work well on the new fork.
