And now, a few more weeks of rain have gone by and the front end swap project is mostly done.
It only required machining a couple of "shim collars" in order to use the standard Suzuki head bearings with the standard KTM tripple-clamps. We had to do away with the Suzuki's two stage bearing tightening method (seperate adjustments for the upper and lower bearings) and use the single tension nut of the KTM system. That was because the KTM head shaft was about 15mm shorter than the Suzuki one and it would have been more unnecessary work to extend the KTM head shaft. There was a bit of work to get the "turn limit stop" set up right to maximise the limited turn radius, but other than that it was pretty much bolt-on... And the Suzuki ignition switch even screws right in to the KTK top tripple clamp (I guess its a standard format for most bikes).
And so now the bike has been largely reassembled again and can now be riden around to see what I think of the changes...First impressions are that it works really nicely....The single disk brake works fine with the old suzuki brake lever/master cylinder though unsurprisingly, it does have significantly less stopping power, and also unsurprisingly, the new forks "dive" quite a lot when brakes are suddenly applied.... Shouldnt be a problem though at the speeds I generally ride. I have not yet tried to hook up the speedo cable and that may or may not "talk" happily with the Suzuki speedo... Ill see about that soon enough.
Here are a couple of pictures to show what the bike lookes like now:
The bigest issue at the moment that I can see , is the more limited turning radius that the bike now has... Its a product of the larger diameter "upside-down" fork tubes and the shorter trailing distance from the fork centres to the headset pivot point (because the wheel is mounted on the front of the forks rather directly on the bottom like the old set-up)...
As it currently stands, I think the bike is very useable and I can do a U-turn in any small street, but Id like the tighter turns that it used to have, so Im figuring out what to do about that... The likely solution is to get "tripple-clamps" from the KTM950 (big brother to the KTM640 parts that I used for the mod')... I know the forks are the same size, but I think they are wider set to accomodate twin front discs and a wider front tire... If so, that should make for a "drop-in" replacement (as well as the longer front axle) and improved turn radius as hoped... I shall have to get some measurements and then I'll know.
After that, I think the next thing to think about changing will be to try to swap out the head-light assembly for something smaller and lighter (get rid of the weight and visual obstruction of those lights and the top fairing)...
But that will wait till the spring Im pretty sure, cos its about to get frosty here in the mornings and therefore dangerous and slippery. thats not gonna stop me riding of course, but Id hate to drop and damage my nice new black sport bike. So, in a week or two Ill put the sport bike "to bed" for the winter and transfer the registration/insurance back to this old touring bike, and Ill ride it through the winter :))
But the project is going pretty well so far :))
Like I said, Im "projecting" my beaten up old DL650 and am putting a more "off-road" friendly front end on it.
Here are a couple of pictures from the bike at present... The old front forks have been removed and Mark (My machinist/mechanic friend) has put the new "tripple clamps" in the head tube (from an old KTM640 Adventurer)... Looks like it will work without too much machining and turning, and hopefully the turning radius is not too diminished...
