And I do mean Epic... if you're not so keen on reading you can skip to the photos at the end...
So, last winter I got a bit of a wild hair - what would it take to put a set of burly inverted forks on my Legend? Why, you ask? Stock answer: better handling and braking. Real answer: because it looks cool.
The first step was to secure some USD forks, without paying too much since I had no idea if this whole experiment would even work. I did a lot of eBay snooping, asking questions, checking the Ohlins site, and even taking a tape measure to the local sportbike dealer. End result: sportbike forks are generally about 2" to 2-1/2" shorter than the forks on my Legend. How would my bike handle with such a radical change in geometry? Only one way to find out. One set of Gen-Mar risers later, I rode around for a while with the forks dropped 2" in the trees. Surprisingly, it actually handled *better* IMO - much easier to turn, still plenty stable at highway speeds. And while it was a bit lower to the ground, I couldn't get it to bottom out on any speed bumps. Hurdle one cleared... more or less.
Then I began to eBay in earnest. It took a month or so, but finally I got lucky - a set of forks, including the axle and lower triple, from a 2002 Kawasaki ZX-12R, for the ridiculous price of $120. Not too long after that, I got matching brake calipers and lines for another $80 of eBay. I figured at worst I could re-sell the stuff for about the same price, if not more.
And I got lucky w/ the Kawasaki forks: The axle was the same as my Legend (20mm), and the caliper took the same size disc (320mm) -
and the steering stem actually fit in the Triumph frame. "Well", I thought, "This is gonna be a piece of cake."
Right. :razz:
I got the forks semi-mounted onto the front of my bike and realized I had a problem: The Kwak steering stem was about 1" shorter than the Triumph one - no way I could get the top clamp on there and still have enough thread to put the nut back on. No problemo - I'd have someone swap out the steering stems. Except that would move the lower triple down 1", which I couldn't do - the forks tapered
in by 5mm just below the lower triple, so if I moved it down the fork diameter would be too small for the clamp!
So, I did the logical thing with a problem like this: threw money at it. I decided to have someone swap out the steering stem and make me up a custom top clamp - one that would mount the Legend ignition and gauges, but fit the 52mm diameter of the fork uppers. Additionally, it would be higher in the center, where the steering stem bolts on, but lower at the actual fork clamps, so it would still fit both the upper and lower triples. As an added bonus, this would give me an inch of height back if I wanted it.
The guy who made the clamp for me was Bill at
Fullthrottle Inc. I have to say, Bill did a fantastic job. The clamp is great looking, and mounted right up. The only downside was the wait... he told me it would take around a month. It rains all of April here anyway, so now big deal. Then April turned into May... May into June... I finally got my piece on July 15 - 6 weeks of riding season gone, and I still had to bolt everything back together! Here's what it looked like:
It also wasn't cheap, but overall pretty reasonable for what I wanted done. I had it anodized black, with custom risers to fit 1-1/8" Renthal MX bars. Bill also pressed the Triumph steering stem out of it's lower triple, sleeved the bottom of it, and pressed it into the Kawasaki lower triple, and replaced the Kawa steering stops with a custom set so I had a bit more turning radius... sportbikes aren't big on turning the handlebars apparently!
The other amazing hassle turned out to be the headlight bracket - hard to find 'em for 52mm forks. First I ordered some from some streetfighter outfit in Hong Kong. A month later they still hadn't shipped, "waiting on components", so I cancelled my order. Around that time I realized I had to get new mirrors... my Napoleon bar-ends wouldn't work with the aluminum Renthal bars (inner diameter too narrow). I found some I liked (Mapam 'Aggressive' - yeah they're cruiser mirrors!), and the place also had some Highway Hawk headlight brackets that would fit. They were more expensive, but I figured it was worth it to have them (I was still laboring under the assumption my top clamp would be ready "any day now"...).
The mirrors arrived in a week. No brackets. Finally got ahold of the place, who told me they were back-ordered but should be there "by the end of the week" (side note - why are online places by-and-large incapable of sending you a friggin' e-mail when something you ordered is out of stock?
)... End of the week came and went, no brackets. Called them again - the boxes hadn't arrived. End of the week. Rinse and repeat. Another 3 weeks and I cancelled my order. Again. Then I got lucky... some Buell brackets turned up on eBay. They were 54mm, but what the hell - I could pad the difference. I super-glued a bit of innertube rubber to the insides and they fit like a charm. As an added bonus, they had built-in mounting points that fit the Buell Blast flyscreen I had on my bike. And they were inexpensive. Sweet.
A week later, my top clamp finally arrived, along with the lower clamp/steering stem transplant. Yeehaw! The lower triple slid right in - the forks were on! Headlight brackets, top clamp, I was almost there. Until I re-mounted the gauges, at which point I discovered that my cool Buell headlight brackets were maybe 4" too short - they positioned the headlight in the space already occupied by the speedo & tach. I tried moving things around. I tried forcing things to fit. I cursed. A lot. None of it helped - I was back to square one in the headlight bracket dept.
The search was back on... I quickly discovered that Lockhart Philips made a bracket for 52mm forks - who knew? The heartburn I could have avoided... but it was ok, because I also discovered while mounting the brake caliper that they hadn't send me the tiny pin and clip that hold the pads in. Bike Bandit had it to me in a week - $3.50 for the parts, $6 for shipping. The healdight brackets I got through a local dealer.
In the meantime, I put the Legend front wheel on, and lined it up using the "string/paint cans/rear wheel" method. Then I positioned the brake caliper relative to the wheel (I was using a nail to hold the pads in place until the pin arrived). It had to reach a bit farther over than with the stock Kawasaki wheel, so I got some longer bolts and spaced it out with washers. Then I took some measurements - 12mm gap on one side, 10mm on the other (with the Triumph spacer and speedo drive on the wheel already). Out came the Kawasaki spacers, a hacksaw, and a variety of files. Many tedious hours later, I had some roughly symmetrical spacers. I figured since they'd be snug up against the Triumph spacer and speedo drive, they didn't have to be perfect - but I got 'em as close as I could.
That was the last difficult part. Once I had all my parts (again...) I bolted it up and torqued everything down. Bleeding the brakes was a pain, and I re-wired the blinkers backwards the first time, but nothing major. Now I've got fully adjustable handling with much better forks, and a 6-pot Tokico caliper to boot. The only downside is the lower triple now hits the radiator before it gets to full lock. I shimmed the steering stops so it's not banging the radiator, but I can't lock the bike anymore... hello kryptonite brake lock. Other than that, I just bought a 14mm '95 Tiger brake M/C which I'll probably swap out for stiffer braking, but really the stock 11mm Legend item does just fine. Handling is noticeably improved, a combination of the forks and the lowered front. I'll need to upgrade the rear now, plus I have a new seat in mind, Raask rear-sets I purchased but haven't installed, and a I'd like a 3-1 exhaust - but right now I just want to ride the @#$% thing! :-D
Oh, and I haven't found a front fender I like yet (that fits...) - luckily the weather's been nice so I'm not sweating it yet.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. There are more photos in my album (link below) if you're interested.
ps - Anyone out there want to machine me some spacers? I'll be happy to pay reasonable rates + materials, just not $150 shop set-up fees.
[ This message was edited by: crosstie on 2005-08-25 11:17 ]
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