Eight Pounds and 40 Stone Build

[bonneblktrk]

Not extreme. Probably leave it for now. Will level frame when I mount the swingarm pivots and upper shock mount.

Heard of making slugs/plugs to attach to top of fork tubes and mount inside upper tree with pinch bolts to gain a inch or two.

[wingrider]

Hmmm, that does sit a bit lower, wonder how much more she'll drop with some weight in it? I had thought about lowering the forks in the triple tree's, but didn't want to risk something not holding when it counted.

[bonneblktrk]

Ya I don't know, still working on it. Wish I had measured it before dis-assembly. Maybe doesn't matter, these bikes are low compaired to modern bikes, with not a large lean angle. Parts hanging down and out ie: exhaust and valve covers?

[wingrider]

Yep, they sure do....was visualizing where the header would end up with your set up currently. The lean angle might not be very much.

[bonneblktrk]

I'll check a few things tomorrow, lean angle and put some weight on it.

[bonneblktrk]

Loaded 200# on it and the front of the frame lowered 5/8" Lean angle was 45 degrees when the pegs touched.

[hacksaw1945]

What a great start, love the way the front end went together. I am real excited to see how the rear end will go!! Thank for sharing
Hack

[wingrider]

Loaded 200# on it and the front of the frame lowered 5/8" Lean angle was 45 degrees when the pegs touched.

Not to bad...I would think the more you load on, the less it will drop due to how the springs are wound.

Do you happen to know more about the slugs they put in the triple tree to extend the fork further down, or is it just something you heard of?

[bonneblktrk]

My son told me about it when we were working on his streetfighter project last winter. He thought his swap might be short and make the steering too quick, but didn't. Anyway I will find out more about them.

[CYBORG]

starting to take shape. looking good

[bladredhead]

My son told me about it when we were working on his streetfighter project last winter. He thought his swap might be short and make the steering too quick, but didn't. Anyway I will find out more about them.

fork tube extensions are a viable solution sometimes. on your original forks, it's similar to this writeup of installing them on a Harley. in my opinion, the extensions should be made of steel so the threads are as strong as possible.

GL1000 forks, being a damper rod style fork, the cap doesn't really do much aside from holding the spring in place. simply making them taller is straight forward. for the hayabusa, and most "inverted" forks, there are 3, well 4 functions:

- compression damping adjuster (the small slotted "screw" in the center of each cap)
- fine adjusting for preload (the smaller hex, that doesn't remove the cap from the tube)
- hold what i'll call the Shock Shaft, see #7 in link above
- retain spring as in a damper rod fork

item 15 in this picture: (linked because it's big)
http://i45.tinypic.com/2a6la92.gif

if you were to go down the road of making extensions, they'd have to thread into the same threads that #15 does which probably means integrating all the features of 15 into the bottom of the fork extension: not a trivial piece of fabrication.

the 'busa upper fork tubes are aluminum, thus the threads those fork caps mate with will be aluminum. if you make your extensions out of aluminum you run the risk of the extension becoming inseparable from the tube as the AL welds itself together as Al on Al threads are prone to doing. If that happens you will have a very hard time salvaging any parts of that fork tube. depending how long those extensions end up being you might put the threads into a bending load when they were designed to take a tensile load i.e. only to resist the springs pushing against them.

i'd classify such an approach as Hazard Prone

have you tried to calculate what rake and trail numbers will end up at? are you planning to put on a steering damper?

[bonneblktrk]

Thanks guys for the encouraging comments.

bladredhead indepth response thanks will study it. However I thought the things I heard of were inside diameter that of the upper fork with a pinch bolt and tapered down to the upper clamp size and attached by the pinch bolt on the upper tree. This adapter would be hollow and the fork adjustments would be down inside it. But not sure yet.

[bladredhead]

i suppose you could do that. personally, i wouldn't.

[bonneblktrk]

May just go with a bigger tire on the front lol.

[bonneblktrk]

Talked to my son about the fork extensions. He showed me the forum.

Would be pretty simple machining, nothing to elaborate. No threads to match. I don't have the gear sets for machining metric. Would be strong but visiable.

I have some 7000 series aluminum that I may make some out of.