Swapping Forks from 650 to 700

[craptacular]

My wife has a Georgena Terry Classic. The bike is in great condition. It unfortunately has a 650 front wheel (regular 700 in back) and the bike is a little small for her. I am wondering if I could swap out the fork and put a regular 700 wheel up front. Would that totally offset the builders geometry and make it unrideable?

[craptacular]

Actually I lied, it is a 24" front tire.

[Birddog]

Would that totally offset the builders geometry and make it unrideable?

YES

[martinrjensen]

it couldn't make it unrideable. It definately would be different though. Hard to say what it would be like I think.YES

[Birddog]

it couldn't make it unrideable. It definately would be different though. Hard to say what it would be like I think.
Well I disagree in as much as I have a similar bicycle (they are called proportionals in this neck of the woods). I placed a 700c wheel in a spare fork and held it alongside the proportional and the tire would hit the downtube. It's possible the Terry's geo is slightly different and it would work, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I believe the fork I have is a 4.3,it's also possible a different angle would work. In any case it probably wouldn't be worth the investment unless you had a spare fork lying around to try it.

[martinrjensen]

didn't think of hitting the downtube...Well I disagree in as much as I have a similar bicycle (they are called proportionals in this neck of the woods). I placed a 700c wheel in a spare fork and held it alongside the proportional and the tire would hit the downtube. It's possible the Terry's geo is slightly different and it would work, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I believe the fork I have is a 4.3,it's also possible a different angle would work. In any case it probably wouldn't be worth the investment unless you had a spare fork lying around to try it.

[Birddog]

I thought it would look like a circus bike but surprisingly, it just looked a lot like a "sloper" except for the fact that the tire would touch the downtube. Further reflection tells me that it might work with a 650 fork, although it still might change the handling in a negative way. maybe D Kirk or another frame builder could enlighten us.

[shiftyfixedgear]

Those bikes rode like crap with the stock fork and 24" front wheel so you probably won't (or can't) make a terrible situation that much worse <G>. How's that for encouragement . . . ?

On the whole, putting much more than new handlebar tape on those bikes is probably going to more trouble than the bike is worth. Changing forks and such ? - you are truly throwing time, energy, and money away.

I worked for a shop that fixed up donated bikes. We received 6 of the older ones as donations and tried in many ways to make them work for smaller riders. They were just really an overall crappy design that exchanged one set of problems (top tubes that were too long) for a whole different set of other issues WRT ride quality, fit, and handling.

I think her modern bikes must be better. I hope so.