2stoked
XS650 Member
Hey guys,
Figured some of you might be interested in this slick little fork brace I came up with. I've seen braces like this in the past but they are pretty pricy. It takes a little fabrication but its really not too bad. This is a 1979 with stock forks(35mm).
For the clamps around the fork lowers I used some one piece aluminum 2.25" i.d. clamping collars from McMaster. They were about 30 bucks a piece but they fit with little to no machining to the inner diameter. One could easily make them fit with some sanding to the i.d. They only need to be taken down maybe 0.0320". McMaster #: 6157K48
For the cross over piece I used 0.500" 6061 Aluminum. 0.375" would probably be sufficient too.
I first fit the collars to the forks and oriented them in the way that I wanted(Allen heads forward) You'll find that the dust boots on the fork need to be popped off to slide the collars on as they are slightly thicker than the lowers. Then I made a template out of cardboard for the cross piece. At this point I also located the holes for the fasteners to tie into the clamping collars. I used 4 M6X1.00 X 30MM each side.
Cut your cross piece out of your selected material. I used a bandsaw. Then drill pilot holes for your screws (I used 1/8"). With your front end assembled, put your cross piece on top of the clamping collars. At this point I used a 90 degree drill to mark the fastener holes in the collars. If you don't have a drill that fits next to your forks you'll have to get creative locating your holes. If you cardboard pattern is accurate enough you could lay that on the collars and mark the holes using a marker.
At this point I took the collars off of the forks and drilled my marked holes to the proper size for M6 fasteners. I used a drill press to keep them straight.
Tap the holes and updrill the cross piece for the fasteners and that's pretty much it! Shine that baby up and make it look however you want. Could be a cool way to mount a front fender with shaved fork legs too!
Hope you guys dig this. I've learned a ton from these forums from when I built my first XS when I was 17. Figured it was time to post something!
Jake
Figured some of you might be interested in this slick little fork brace I came up with. I've seen braces like this in the past but they are pretty pricy. It takes a little fabrication but its really not too bad. This is a 1979 with stock forks(35mm).
For the clamps around the fork lowers I used some one piece aluminum 2.25" i.d. clamping collars from McMaster. They were about 30 bucks a piece but they fit with little to no machining to the inner diameter. One could easily make them fit with some sanding to the i.d. They only need to be taken down maybe 0.0320". McMaster #: 6157K48
For the cross over piece I used 0.500" 6061 Aluminum. 0.375" would probably be sufficient too.
I first fit the collars to the forks and oriented them in the way that I wanted(Allen heads forward) You'll find that the dust boots on the fork need to be popped off to slide the collars on as they are slightly thicker than the lowers. Then I made a template out of cardboard for the cross piece. At this point I also located the holes for the fasteners to tie into the clamping collars. I used 4 M6X1.00 X 30MM each side.
Cut your cross piece out of your selected material. I used a bandsaw. Then drill pilot holes for your screws (I used 1/8"). With your front end assembled, put your cross piece on top of the clamping collars. At this point I used a 90 degree drill to mark the fastener holes in the collars. If you don't have a drill that fits next to your forks you'll have to get creative locating your holes. If you cardboard pattern is accurate enough you could lay that on the collars and mark the holes using a marker.
At this point I took the collars off of the forks and drilled my marked holes to the proper size for M6 fasteners. I used a drill press to keep them straight.
Tap the holes and updrill the cross piece for the fasteners and that's pretty much it! Shine that baby up and make it look however you want. Could be a cool way to mount a front fender with shaved fork legs too!
Hope you guys dig this. I've learned a ton from these forums from when I built my first XS when I was 17. Figured it was time to post something!
Jake
Last edited:
. Beauty!
