To make a long story short, someone pulled out in front of me and my front forks are screwed. Instead of fitting original forks I was thinking of taking the opertunity to upgrade them if possible. Are there any forks that are a direct replacement? Or would it be best to have the spare set of forks I have redone (little rust on the surface). If I could update the suspension front and back I will otherwise I’ll just rebuild
by screwed do you mean 180 degrees
Most forks can be straightened by someone who knows what they are doing.
Lloyd[:)]
Not 180 degrees. I’ll have a look around to see if someone can straighten the forks. Anything about upgrading them with more modern or cartridge forks?
I spoke to maxton last year about up grades to the forks and a new rear shock for two up riding on the Bol d’or and it was £1200 which is more than i paid for the bike so i did not bother and just put up with boingy suspension.I have put a Hagon shock on the FF and its just as bouncy as the stock one.I bent the pre load spanner trying to get a firmer spring.Dont think there are any more modern forks that will fit straight on.I know some of the Fireblade rear shocks can be made to fit with very little work .
Thank for the info. The rear shock is fine. I’ll probably just rebuild the rear shock and try and find someone to rechrome my spare front forks. Haven’t been able to get a good look at the bent forks yet because my foot is pretty sore. I might try and disassemble them this afternoon and see exactly what I’m looking at. I’m hoping its just the forks and I can get her pit back together. Hate to see one of these bikes go for parts.
I may install progressive springs in the forks if I can get the forks rechromed
windex… thats bad, i thought i was the unluckiest person going but your running me a close second, not sure how things work in canada as regards insurance when your in a collision, but new aftermarket fork tubes are available from wemoto, there about £100 each, expensive but not a lot more than some of the prices ive seen people quoting for re-chroming
Only luck is bad luck lol… If it was just the forks then it wouldn’t be too bad for the insurance, but when the fairing, fender, fender bracket, aux rad, headlight, front rim, fairing bracket, instrument gauges, ignition switch, signal lights, inner fairing, forks, and air joint bracket it adds up for insurance and its not worth fixing and they would right it off and leave it to me if I want to buy it back… I have most of the parts to fix it myself and they are going to cover the paint and extra parts I need to fix it so new fork tubes will probably be the way I’ll go… I have everything to fix the her except the forks, which I have a spare set, but they would need to be rechromed if they were to be used… Thanks for the info about the aftermarket tubes, I’ll see about ordering them… One other thing I dont have is the windscreen, are there any places to get that or have one made?
Done a bit of damage then… the screens are also available from wemoto . think they are about £45 will be sending for one myself as my old one has a large scratch in it. trying to get my Fe looking tip top ready for next year.
That’s where I’m at right about now, not looking like she’ll be going anywhere this year, just aiming for next spring… Thanks for the help pete, I’m more pissed that I finally got the engine running top notch and this goes and happens…
Pretty much everything in front of the steering stem is toast. I’ll be replacing the bearings in the steering stem as a precaution… If everything goes as planned she’ll be better than ever. New paint, some plastic weld on the little cracks in the plastic that were always there and a new coat of paint, may even do an original paint scheme… And the original exhaust is going to have to go back on since the aftermarkets I had are toast as well… Haven’t decided if I’m going to restore to original or personalize it a little
I’m just happy that I found that parts bike when the fuel pump went, It’s been a bike saver…
Are the ff and the f fork tubes the same? Found a site that has a kit that includes tubes/seals/oil for the same price as wemoto. the site is Raw Power Motorcycles (http://www.lm-spares.co.uk). probably not much cheaper after you include the shipping costs since I will be ordering stuff from wemoto as well but it might help some other users looking for tubes
there is a place in the states that has a few that are being stripped for spares look on the ebay site for america they had quite a few f2f spares in as well … …
Hi all,
I was going to start a new topic, but found this and thought i would pick your brains a bit.
I have been looking at the ‘Ho’s’ front end and discovered that it is sagging a fair bit, static sag is about 2 inches and when on the front ancors hard, she dives right down till about 1 inch from the tripple clamps.
I have had the springs out and they are within specs.
Has anyone tried fitting longer extention pipes in the forks?
What conequence would come from fitting 2 inches longer pipe in there?
When the caps are pulled off, there is hardly any preload on the spring (cap is about half an inch away from thread) and i can start the threads by hand.
In my experiances the cap usually sits about 3 - 4 inches from the top of the forks and you have to put a fair bit of force on the caps with a socket and extention to start them preloading the springs.
Should i put a 2" longer piece of pipe inside to preload them a bit more?
A bike susspention place wants $600.00 that i havn’t got to rebuild the front end.
Cheers.
Just a thought[:)]
Service the anti dive fork and it should behave like my vf
then you can select how much from the adjuster on the leg
OKay, thanks Windy. I will try that when i get a day off.
Cheers.
G’day , I fitted Sonic springs to mine which are a static spring not progressive also Race Tech Gold Emulaters which require drilling more holes in the damper rods which disables the anti-dive , also fitted a rear shocker supplied from Jamie Doughtey (who recommended the front springs) I’m no expert but it seems great to me , put the sport back into sports bike !
Ok, I have the sliders painted, everything cleaned and reassembled and going to install them in the bike tomorrow… only question I have is about the fork springs… The manual states that there is a top and a bottom to these things but for the life of me I can’t see any difference. how can you tell which is the top and the bottom of the springs?
hi windex, its been a while since i last saw my fork springs… i seem to remember/think that the bottom few coils are fractionally closer together and the bottom one is slightly smaller diameter making the spring taper in a little… its only a small difference, i noticed it when both springs were laid side by side…
is it the end of the world if they are install upside down? do the springs not sit far enough down into the forks and have too much preload or something?
to be honest i cant see it making much difference which way up with the standard vf springs…