Alternate front ends?

[steve234]

Has anyone had any success transplanting alternate front ends to their suzuki thumpers?

I have a 500 & a 370 and am looking at steering head angle mods (basically to steepen them up for dirt tracking). I was thinking of substituting the original set up with a TT500 front end so i can slide the forks through etc.

Alternately is there anyone around Brisbane/Sunny Coast that you would recommend for fabrication works? And welding backing plate lugs back onto fork sliders (yeah i know would be better to find one with one still on, but where?).

Cheers,
Steve

[TwoTees]

Steve,
I'm not sure if this helps but I'll tell you what I have done.

I have an RM250x with 38mm forks that was very vaigue in the front over rough terrain and into flat corners. I had an 82 yz490 43mm front end (similar to the TT I believe) spare so I decided to give it a go.

Both steering heads share the same lower bearing so I thought it was going to be easy. The RM center shaft pressed out of its lower tree no worries. The YZ one I thought would press out but it was welded in. (Aluminium shaft) I eventually got it out sacrificing the centre shaft and the hole in the YZ lower tree was about.5mm larger. Bugger! The shaft stepped out just as it went into the lower tree. Now that I had managed to destroy the YZ triples I decide I was committed so I took it to a machine shop and they machined out the YZ lower tree and made a steel bush that pressed into it and the RM center shaft pressed into that. They also fixed another problem by making the bush 12mm deeper than the YZ lower to take up some of the length of the shaft because the YZ top triple was thinner and the center would have poked through the top to far. A new lower bearing and I had to re-use the top one (that issue has been covered before).
I then made up a couple of tabs that I welded to the steering head to be stoppers for full lock. I also had to make an aluminium plate to attach the front mudguard because Suzuki and Yamaha have a different pattern. This also was needed to overcome the extra depth of the bush underneath the tree as mentioned above. I also had to stuff around with the Suzuki number plate to get it to fit. I originally used a twin leading brake and IT wheel to try it out. WOW what a difference! That bike now handles great. It turns in on flat corners and has no evidence of pushing forward. It lands from jumps way better and just soaks up the rough track at speed. Not to mention it also looks much better.
I have since pulled the Takasago rim off the RM hub and laced it to a YZ hub so that my wheels now match. (Although I re zinced the spokes and polished the rim so now the rear looks daggy)
Sure there will be the purists that won’t agree with what I did but what an improvement and with some effort I can return the RM to stock as nothing RM was altered apart from needing to grind off the tab stops.
Buy the way the YZ490 triples allow the fork tubes be pushed up past the bars to lower it as you require. Also I have since purchased another set of triples from an 82 490J and the center shaft is steel?? Maybe the TT ones are steel so you won’t need to make a bush for the lower tree.

Hope this helps with your decision,
Chris

[oldskool]

steve you could try dave kellet hes in randall st slacks creek ph 0412314360,he does all sorts of mods as well as frame straightening etc.cheers gary

[steve234]

Thanks guys, looks as though i would need to have a shaft made up to suit the TT trees as the suzuki is longer (not by much) and the lower end of the yamaha shaft is a larger diameter. Nothing someone handy with a lathe couldn't knock up i'm sure. Am heading to Brisbane this weekend so i'll give Dave a ring.

Cheers,
Steve