RadWagon front air shocks

[hbanquer]

I have modified some airshocks for the front of my RadWagon.
This first one was proof of concept I made in my machine shop from a set of air shocks I already had.
The final air suspension fork will lower the front of the Radwagon to its original height and have a fender.
The ride is amazing and with a suspension seat post its like riding a full suspension bike.
We live on a farm and even our best roads are bumpy!
Anyone interested in these?

[Radding Along]

Sounds great, but I wonder if that particular fork was spec'ed for a conventional bike. Hopefully it doesn't fail due the the extra weight of an ebike. You might want to monitor the fork tube running through the stem to be sure no cracks develop.

[hbanquer]

You are 100% correct and so far we have not seen anything like cracking or failure. When you take the abuse mountain bikes get and the average ride a Radwagon has I think we are safe. Getting design specs from bike manufacturers and component suppliers is difficult to impossible!
Since its Alum you would use dye penetrant to look for cracks as opposed to the naked eye as a crack might not be visible unless stressed or you used dye. Magnetic particle inspection is out being Alum.

With the smaller (same design) just shorter tubes on the next modified fork the stress is also reduced. I had this 26" fork I bought from a black Friday sale this year, so decided to modify it and try it out but am modifying a fork the just fits the Rad 22" tyre.

The head tube of the RadWagon is the longest I have ever seen, so a stock fork (steer tube length) will never fit it without being modified. That said the long head tube design for the RadWagon makes sense for the frame design.

I just am never satisfied and always want to modify things to try to make them safer, better. faster, cheaper etc. Been doing this my whole life. Then people come along and take what I have done and do the same to my designs or modifications. Refinement!

Appreciate the feedback!

[ericwn]

This does look very promising indeed - thanks much for sharing! Was this easy to accomplish? What parts did you need? The front of the wagon is pretty stiff so more comfort is the missing element really.

[Ddaybc]

What an excellent idea! Very nice work. I think it will be fine for strength as the MTB forks are built very well.
I would like to see/hear what it looks and works like once it's modified to fit the RW4 22 inch wheel size. I've changed the seat to a rubber sprung one and it makes the RW4 ride tolerable but the ride is still way too stiff. So either a front fork suspension or a seat post suspension may be something I'm going to look at in the future.

[Calarok]

Interested for sure man! Would you make some custom one for sell? Or would you share your fabrication method so I can look for local machine shop to build me one? Thanks!

[SanDiego101]

I have modified some airshocks for the front of my RadWagon.
This first one was proof of concept I made in my machine shop from a set of air shocks I already had.
The final air suspension fork will lower the front of the Radwagon to its original height and have a fender.
The ride is amazing and with a suspension seat post its like riding a full suspension bike.
We live on a farm and even our best roads are bumpy!
Anyone interested in these?

Hi,  Love it - these bikes are SO harsh. I've wanted to do this. Which fork is this and did you modify steer tube? How did you modify the fork so it's not high in front? Thank you

[mychal.manie@gmail.com]

What shock was your base made from .  I?m interested you should be able to email to me.

[jbroehl]

Awesome mod, but I don't understand how you found (or "modified"?) a fork to have the very long steerer tube needed. Either way, there must be tons of dirt cheap 26er forks out there ripe for mod experiments like this!

[chachivoodoo]

I just mounted my 26? fork this morning.

I had to weld an extension to the existing steering tube.  The local bike shop (Bicycle Sport Shop in Austin) gave me a donor set of forks with a 1-1/8? straight steering tube.

I chamfered the edges of both and butt welded the tube to gain the extra length.

Bolted right up!

The ride is night and day. That frame ans fork were so STIFF- nearly shaking me off the bike if you hit anything at speed.

This setup allows you to actually ride over stuff and not notice it, and keep a straight line without deflection.

I?m building a setup from a 20? fat tire suspension fork next week.  I think this will work better in terms of height (the 26? fork choppered the bike out a bit.  Good for me because I?m 6?3?.  But a shorter person might not like it.

Let me know if anyone is interested in having a front suspension fork built- or getting instructions on how I did it. (Need a welder, chop saw, etc etc.