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Lads new bike (2nd hand) came with suntour sr forks and despite them supposedly being soft, due to the small frame, they are really really stiff.
Even under my effort, they don't move a great deal, so what options are there.
I don't think the suntour can be adjusted to be even softer so what fork should I be looking at.
80mm travel,according to the bike spec.
A 2nd hand air sprung fork.
You could try changing the oil to a lighter weight one. What size wheels? You may be able to get a Reba or sid fairly cheaply. Newer ones are more supple at he start of the stroke and lighter weight oil should improve the feeling of the damping circuits for a lighter rider.
BITD we used to remove the spring stack from one leg for lighter riders (only possible in forks with springs in both legs, obviously). So you end up with one "empty" leg and the other one holding a spring and damper assembly.
It might be an option depending on what the insides of the fork look like.
Depending on his actual size (and riding, obviously), he may get more out of a rigid fork.
Mine are quite small for their age, and benefited more from the weight saving and being able to get the front wheel off the ground more easily.
I too was going to say put a rigid on it
Rockshox gold 30 in 80mm are light and work well at lower pressures. Bike discount or similar tend to have them.
Old marzocchis can be found cheap.
Thanks for the pointers, I think he'd rather keep a fork just for the whole "having a fork" thing.
Is it a 24" wheel'd frame?
My Son's bike is and came with coil SRs , they're not great.
Unless you want to spend an absolute fortune on the White Brothers fork (£700 last I looked) I'm told these are about the best forks you can get for kids bikes.
http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/f1rst-air-24-mtb-suspension-fork-black-51499
Take one of the springs out like ghostly above says. I did that on a specialized and it worked a treat for my lad.
It'll probably only have one spring. If they're used forks, then a lot of their models are pretty bad for early bushing wear which makes them very stiff and notchy- the seals aren't great and the bushings are soft so it's a bad combination. But even then, just opening them up and lubing the crap out of things does help. I got fed up with constantly servicing mine eventually but I did get a lot more life out of them.
Softer springs do exist for at least some suntour models, amazon has the soft spring for the 100mm XCM frinstance but exactly what'll fit what I don't know. Course, it could already have the soft spring.
It's a 26" wheel fork.
The blurb for the bike (2012 hardrock disc) suggests that fork Spring is variable with frame size.
His is a 13" frame and there is an"s" sticker on the crown, suggesting it is soft?
But it isn't......
I got my daughter some Reba dual airs and run low pressures. Super supple. Swapping out from steel stanchion suntours to alloy rebas saved a big wedge of weight too.
She of course has no appreciation of how good her bike is as long as it has a Bratz bell.
Double post
As above, search out some air forks that are a few years old. I got a set of Duke Race forks for £35 and some RST XMOs for similar... both a bit spindly by modern standards but perfect for kids. Early SIDs / Rebas also would be good.
maybe an old dual air fork so you can tweak the negative spring to help get it moving and then adjust them as he grows. A reba/revelation will also be a lot better and when serviced right will be nice and smooth with much less chance of the stanchions sticking.
Old marzocchis can be found cheap.
+1, MX Comps or MX Pro's were both air forks, and both are incredibly supple and tuneable, you can rebuild the bushings at home if they're worn and they're now dirt cheap. Run low pressures, change the oil for lower viscosity, run bit more oil to reduce volume and make them more progressive.