# 26 in. ashtabula fork



## mrg (Jul 27, 2015)

just picked up this 1980 cruiser with some different features, first had some gussets behind the BB, the welds are professional looking so not a backyard job, but what I have never see is a heavyweight 26 in. Ashtabula gusseted fork, 77-81 Spitfire/Cruiser came with middleweight fork, I have seen 20 1n. on early schwinn bmx  but not a 26 in. and heavyweight width. has anyone seen a fork like this, was it a special order early klunker or on a earlier HD bike?. Dont know why its not letting me post pics, says the server is not responding, I will try later!


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## ChattyMatty (Jul 27, 2015)

mrg said:


> just picked up this 1980 cruiser with some different features, first had some gussets behind the BB, the welds are professional looking so not a backyard job, but what I have never see is a heavyweight 26 in. Ashtabula gusseted fork, 77-81 Spitfire/Cruiser came with middleweight fork, I have seen 20 1n. on early schwinn bmx  but not a 26 in. and heavyweight width. has anyone seen a fork like this, was it a special order early klunker or on a earlier HD bike?. Dont know why its not letting me post pics, says the server is not responding, I will try later!




I don't know about the gusset, but the Ashtabula MX fork was also available as a 24" version (which was the same blade length as a 26" fork), but they are understandably very rare.


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## mrg (Jul 27, 2015)

not sure what you mean same blade length, just measured a few of my 24's (a 61,62,78,79 & 80) and all have a shorter blade than 26, 1 5/8 or so shorter than a 26.


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## irideiam (Jul 28, 2015)

Would like to see shot of the full frame...


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## mrg (Jul 28, 2015)

Its a regular looking (AR- Jan/80) frame, I will post a pic later.


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## irideiam (Jul 28, 2015)

mrg said:


> Its a regular looking (AR- Jan/80) frame, I will post a pic later.




I see.........


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## ChattyMatty (Jul 28, 2015)

mrg said:


> not sure what you mean same blade length, just measured a few of my 24's (a 61,62,78,79 & 80) and all have a shorter blade than 26, 1 5/8 or so shorter than a 26.




Yes, that is correct, however the Black MX reinforced forks 'bumped up' a size in order to raise the BB height to allow the use of the longer Ashtabula MX cranks (up to 7 1/2"!) so the blade length on the fork "sold as" a 20 was the same as a standard 24, the fork they sold as a 24 was the same length as a standard 26. I'd wager that your MX is right about 14" axle to crown like a heavyweight 26 fork, but _technically_ it was sold as a "24". And if you look at the crown profile it is actually close to the harder radius of the prewar forks than the softer radius of the postwar forks. This is the reason why when you look at late 70's Scramblers there is that extra gap above the front tire- dimensionally that's a 24" fork hot rodded in there. You'll also notice that the fork ends are wider and squared, maybe 3/4" x 3/4" rather than just the normal tapering to a point like a standard Schwinn fork to accommodate the larger 3/8" BMX axles (the Schiwnn script high flange BMX hubs retained 9mm axles for the lower end bikes with standard forks, higher end bikes got the better forks/hubs). I was going to weld a brace into a '48 fork I have to make a fork like you have for a bomber project a while back, hence all the digging into these obscenely rare 24" MX forks (all the more so because people just don't know they exsisted), but you know how it goes when you get sideways on projects... I believe they were only listed as an option in the parts catalog for 1977? Maybe 76-77. Really early in the BMX days, and dedicated 24" BMX frames didn't really catch on until 80-81 or so, and by that point everyone had moved on to the lighter tube forks. Had they made a true 26" MX fork, essentially they would have invented the 'suspension corrected' 26" fork three decades before anyone need one!


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## mrg (Jul 28, 2015)

man I sounds like you have done alot of research, ok first the more I look at different forks I never knew there were so many little differences, are most Schwinn forks made by ashtabula (and some Murry I think) is that right ?, the second fork is standard 50's-80's middleweight (I don't have any balloon 24's), the 26 looks the same as my other 26 balloon but the shoulders look a little squarer and the stem is og, longer than the 24.


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## ChattyMatty (Jul 28, 2015)

Lol, yeah, though I'm one of those who sort of skirts the edges around here- more into Klunkers and the BMX side of things than the balloon/muscle era stuff per se. I haven't owned any 24" frames that weren't race frames, but it would make sense that a 24" cantilever frame would have a ~4" head tube as opposed to the 5 1/4" of the 26" frames, hence the shorter steerer. Last year I did pick up a couple forks that just happened to end up being a pre-war and post war 26, so I had those two to compare while looking for my 24" MX fork. As for who made the standard forks, to the best of my knowledge it was Ashtabula for all of it, but Murray may have gotten into the mix later in the late 70's/80's when Schwinn started having all those troubles with the autoworkers trying to unionize them and the moved the factory? Dunno. Guys around here will be far more expert on the details of that than me, the but the Black Magix MX line of Ashtabula parts used by Schiwnn, BMX Products (Mongoose, Roger Decoaster, Jag, Blue Max and a few more of the first diamond frame BMX bikes) were their own animals. It just happened that BMX was born on old Stingrays, and the 'upgrade' crank was the longer Varsity diamond crank, so when Ashtabula started making the forged units all those early bikes were all built to Schiwnn's oddall standards like 28tpi BB's.

The current target of my "can't have anything normal" is burring myself in the 95-97 (2nd)Schwinn ENF/Pro Modified line of USA built bikes. They were basically the BMX version of the Homegrown, built by the same factory, but they just weren't smart enough to market them that way... especially when their star would famous BMX racer got suspened for smoking a little 'homegown' the night before a race back in 97  _Totally_ dropped the ball on that product tie in.





The 24" frame on the ground there is the only one known to exist, and the built 24 behind it is one of only two known.


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## mrg (Jul 28, 2015)

just noticed the axle slot, have never seen that before also dont know what the 3 hole flange behind the sproket is, also when was the Takagi crank available?


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## Joe Buffardi (Jul 29, 2015)

I have had Takagi forks before. Very similar to Ashtabula. These may be Takagi.


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## ChattyMatty (Jul 29, 2015)

Joe's here, definitely gunna bow to him, orders of magnitude more expert on the super early BMX stuff than I. Never even heard of Takagi MX forks  But the crank is consistent with late 70's early 80's as is that snowflake chainring. The triangle spider is older, maybe even a piece from an old cottered crankset but you did see it into the 80's, though I don't know why someone would have retained it as it is kinda redundant. Maybe they just lost a washer and used it instead, or perhaps at some point they ran a front derailleur. 

The more I look at that fork, and Joe's suggestion of Takagi, and the Takagi crank, that odd gusset (never heard of a Schwinn breaking there, and the way it transfers all the force to a single point on the tube which has now been heated by welding my gut tells me the frame is prolly weakened but the addition not helped) and that black headbadge...would be interesting to slowly work through the layers of paint to see what the frame was originally. It's that steer tube that caught my eye- the basecoat under the candy looks white not silver as I believe it should be for FLamboyant Blue in 1980... also it's blue not the oxide black an Ashtabula MX fork would have been. The MX forks only came oxide or chrome, it's clearly not a chrome fork, and no one would paint over that 'high status' oxide finish, so add in the Takagi cranks and and this might have been a shop built bike. I recall running accross something somewhere that back in the early days of Klumking there was a small shop taking new Schwinns and customizing them for MTB use, then they turned into another company... gods I forget where I saw it now. Kinda like how Shelby would take production Mustangs and hot rod them then sell them back through Ford dealers, that kind of a deal. If these guys were taking a brand new frame, stripping it, adding that gusset, adding the (raw) Takagi forks, and doing a complete repaint, they may have used white as their base color instead of silver. Dunno, just pulling at straws here.

There are references to the MX cranks going back to 76-77, pretty much in line with the fork. Here's some pics of some perfect forks. http://bmxmuseum.com/reference/2996


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## mrg (Jul 29, 2015)

I have never seen a Takagi fork, it look ashtabula to me, does the axle notch tell anything, as far as the paint, there is probably at least 4 colors, looks like the frame was OG cardinal red but don't see any on fork, I will do some sanding when I get time, around the gusset area also.


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## Ernest Varney (Aug 29, 2019)

Hey buddy wud you be willing to sell those reinforced ashtabula forks im building a 51 panther and hoping they wud fit for my project build, im also looking for an ashtabula crank if u know of any around id be interested in them 7 1/2 or 190mm is wat im looking for for my crank got a ashtabula neck already for my build, id take those forks and clean them up and have them sand blasted and then id have them powder coated with the flat black look of the original 20 inch fork and add the ASHTABULA decals to the sides of the forks, if ur willing to sell them let me know, or ill have to build my own and i dont know how big as far as dimensions on the bracing peice under the BB of the fork is, as far as width, length and thickness of the reinforced steele. Let me know wat u wanna do with them and let me know wat u want for them if u wanna sell them. Thanks


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## 49autocycledeluxe (Aug 29, 2019)

this post is from 2015


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