03 USD fork conversion project

[kuhlka]

I won an auction for a set of TL1000R USD forks on ebay to start my project. I'm thinking I might go with six pot calipers as well. My machinist buddy think he'll be able to make any necessary brackets, spacers, and a custom triple. I'll be sure to post pics when its all done.

I really love the look of USD forks but didn't feel like paying the $4,500 for the Racecomp setup.

[roadkill]

Aren't the forks that come with the sp3 pretty good?

[kuhlka]

They're ok. Not great. They don't look all that great either. I've been wanting to do custom triples and upgrade to six pot calipers anyway to get rid of the mush since the calipers are the only thing I haven't swapped out on the brake system.

[crashmasterd]

On 2005-11-26 17:58, kuhlka wrote:
... since the calipers are the only thing I haven't swapped out on the brake system.

That's funny, considering I think it's been pretty obvious from minute one that the whole mushiness problem was with the calipers.

Of course the calipers are the most expensive thing to replace.

I'm trying to find someone parting out a newer ZX12 or GSXR with Radial Mount Tokicos that will sell me the calipers cheap. I'm not sure, but I think they will bolt on with little or no problem. I checked Ebay, but the cheapest ones I found were selling for $100 each which is pretty expensive for an experiment. I'll have to keep looking I guess.

Six Pistons would be cool, but I haven't seen any Six Piston Radial mounts yet. Have you?

[kuhlka]

Don't get me wrong, swapping out for a bigger master cylinder made a big improvement along with stainless lines and bleeding, but there still just isn't that firm feeling. If I'm already swapping out to a TL front fork, I might as well go for the 3-pot calipers while I'm at it.

I'm going to bug my buddy to let me take measurements and compare his TL's front end to mine so I can get a better idea of what will work. I'm hoping the only thing I'll have to have made are triples and possibly wheel spacers.

[crosstie]

On 2005-11-26 17:36, kuhlka wrote:
I won an auction for a set of TL1000R USD forks on ebay to start my project. I'm thinking I might go with six pot calipers as well. My machinist buddy think he'll be able to make any necessary brackets, spacers, and a custom triple. I'll be sure to post pics when its all done.

Nice. I put zx-12R USD forks on my Legend - got 'em off eBay for cheap, along w/ a 6-pot caliper. But I had to pay for my custom triple...

[kuhlka]

Oh he's not doing the triples for free. It'll probably run me somewhere around $400 or so for the whole job according to my friend, which is quite reasonable considering Racecomp's prices. After all is said and done, I should have this swap all done for under a grand, which is still a great savings over having an 05+ considering I got my bike for $7,500 brand new.

I won the TL Tokico six-pot caliper auction for $51. Gonna ride over to my friend's house tomorrow to compare his TL to my S3 and get measurements.

[crosstie]

$400 is still pretty d*mn good :-D

I got my forks & caliper(s) for $200 off eBay, but the custom triple was expensive - a bit over a grand. Of course, it does have custom risers and a 1" drop for the forks.

I had to shim the caliper in about 10mm, but other than that it mounted right up.

[kuhlka]

The TL1000R forks are about the same length as the S3's. My friend's TL's forks were exactly the same distance from the top of his triple to the center of the front axle so I'm pretty confident this swap will work pretty well.

Unfortunately, the CC distance on the TL six pot calipers is 3 1/2in, whereas the 03S3 was 3 1/4in so there is no swapability for those only wanting to upgrade to those specific calipers. Perhaps another bike will have the right CC.

Now, all I need to figure out is the size of the front axle on the TL compared to my 03 and caliper/rotor spacing.

[crosstie]

I lucked out... the spacing on the caliper was the same (except for the width of the forks), and the axle on both was 20mm - my front wheel slid right on.