Another Forks question...

[Chito]

Sorry if this is a repost. I did a search and didn't find anything quite the same. To save you time, I'll post the question first, then the back story.

Basically... I need to replace the front end (among other things). Forks for sure, but it may be better just to find a front end. I've been watching for a parts xs, but it seems there aren't too many people selling and several other people in the area are buying them up. I haven't had luck. So I wanted to ask what other parts bikes could I be looking for? I want it to be as easy swap as possible. If there's a little jump in handling or brakes, great, but I'm not trying to change the appearance too much... and I'd rather not have worse handling though.

As promised, the back story:

So, here's the deal. My grandpa had an xs650 for as long as I can remember. It's an 81 Special. Years ago my grandpa decided he didn't want to ride anymore and it began to sit. He kept it up, but one day the neighbor guy came by and made him an offer. I had a pretty nice bike, so he sold it. Well, the guy dumped it and it sat for a few years. Now it's sitting in my garage. I sold my bike to fund a rebuild, which I've never done... and this is going to be a pretty serious rebuild, but worth it to me. So... you guys will be seeing a lot more posts from me in the future.

 

[BigJimmyW13]

Pictures...... This thread is boring without pictures.

On a side note. I grew up over on the IL side of the river in Grafton. One of these times I'm going to bring one of my bikes up with me and definitely going to tear up the river road. Haven't done that in awhile

Welcome to the board.

 

[nj1639]

What kind of damage do you have to the front end?

 

[XSLeo]

Chito, Welcome to our little corner of the XS world.
If you don't want to change the looks then an XS650 fork is what you want. Have you tried Ebay? I got the 79 forks and trees there for around $100 bucks shipped. That was a few years ago.
Upgrades to the handling are converting the loose ball head bearings to tapered roller bearings, Kits can be found many places and many prices. Replacing the worn fiber swingarm bushes for bronze bushes or needle bearings. New rear shocks. Rebuild the front forks with new springs and oil. Doing the Minton mods on the dampers or the cartridge emulators. Good tires. Any of these upgrades will vastly improve the handling.
Improving the brakes can be as simple as a new set of quality pads, or as complex as you want to go. One good easy brake upgrade is to swap a 11 mm master cylinder for your stock 14 mm master cylinder. Drilling your stock brake rotor or swapping it for one from another bike that is lighter helps too.
I think this will give you a few things to think about.

 

[Chito]

Thanks XSLeo. I'll definitely have to get deeper into that. I'll have to venture onto Ebay. Never my first choice though.

NJ1639 - It's really not that bad. If you weren't looking for it you might not notice until you tried to push it... but that would only be because you were distracted by the bent handle bars, beat up tank, and general missing bits.

BigJimmyW13 - Pics are included. Sorry, the quality could be better. Yeah, the river road is nice. There are a lot of really fun roads south of the city too. You'll have to let me know next time you're in the area... so I can try to convince you it's more fun to work on a beat up old xs than to ride.

 

[BigJimmyW13]

Well as it stands. I would think you should be convincing yourself that it's more fun to work on a beat up old XS650 than riding lol

 

[CDNTX650]

Get on ebay man. Tons of good forks and triples waitin' for ya, Thats where i got mine.

 

[henkdetank]

Sorry if this is a repost. I did a search and didn't find anything quite the same. To save you time, I'll post the question first, then the back story.

Basically... I need to replace the front end (among other things). Forks for sure, but it may be better just to find a front end. I've been watching for a parts xs, but it seems there aren't too many people selling and several other people in the area are buying them up. I haven't had luck. So I wanted to ask what other parts bikes could I be looking for? I want it to be as easy swap as possible. If there's a little jump in handling or brakes, great, but I'm not trying to change the appearance too much... and I'd rather not have worse handling though.

As promised, the back story:

So, here's the deal. My grandpa had an xs650 for as long as I can remember. It's an 81 Special. Years ago my grandpa decided he didn't want to ride anymore and it began to sit. He kept it up, but one day the neighbor guy came by and made him an offer. I had a pretty nice bike, so he sold it. Well, the guy dumped it and it sat for a few years. Now it's sitting in my garage. I sold my bike to fund a rebuild, which I've never done... and this is going to be a pretty serious rebuild, but worth it to me. So... you guys will be seeing a lot more posts from me in the future.

Hi now you're on about forktubes and not wanting to alter the overall appearance of your bike..
Maybe this will come in handy;
If you want to improve the riding qualities of the ''tired'' stock forks, use car valve springs on top of the standard ones.
See if you need a washer in between and than top em up with ordinary 15w40 grade engine oil.
Surely, putting the caps back on will take some effort but keep patient and you'll be fine.
I've done this on several bikes now, also xs650, and with great success.
Provided ofcourse the tubes are not altogether worn out, but the thicker oil as opposed to ATF or w20 also somewhat allows for that.
Tried to find if anyone here had mentioned this before, sorry if they did ;-)
Good luck.