neanderthal
neanderthal
i was wondering what kind of wire would you need to use if i was going to weld on my fork tubes. I want to polish them afterwards and hopefully not see where it was welded. or can this not happen? thanks guys
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welding your fork tubes.
- Thread starter neanderthal
- Start date
rusty rocket
XS650 Junkie
You will have to have a tig welder if your talking about welding on the alum. lowers.
neanderthal
neanderthal
the actual fork tubes not the trees. i guess im trying to figure out if anyone has welded on them. like i said im hoping to polish the forks and hide any welding. im worried about color differences after polishing. what should i use to match the material in the forks?
The lower aluminum tubes or the chrome plated upper tubes. Guessing the lower tubes AFAIK (not much) the welds will show. Guys trying to weld in the YAMAHA on the clutch cover ran into this problem. I would guess even if the alloy was identical the appearance would be different due to grain structure (cooling) of the cast and welded metal. Some have welded and reported success, I worry about deforming the bore. Thinking about fork brace brackets?
neanderthal
neanderthal
ahh lowers... thanks gggary..again as always haha. i saw cole foster shorting the fork tubes, thought it looked good. just thinking about it in my head the past few days. i have an extra set and was thinking of trying this for fun this weekend. maybe he just chrome plated the fork lowers?
jd750ace
Front Toward Enemy
You will always see the weld for the reasons Gary mentioned. Years ago I had a rather demanding customer that wanted his instrument panel jeweled and anodized blue, like an "AN" plumbing fitting, and he wanted us to close 3 holes in the panel where equipment had been removed. We told him it would not work, but he insisted we try it. It pretty much looked like hammered shit, and he ended up sending it to some art school and a world map was superimposed on the panel and hand painted and sealed. All the bezels on the instruments were painted Pacific Blue. Looked like about a million and a half, but I think we had less than 40K in it.
Same guy had this bike built WAY before it was corporate cool to have a theme bike. He sold a patent to PepsiCo. for just over $200 million. Reasonably sure Arlen Ness built it, but can't swear to it.
Same guy had this bike built WAY before it was corporate cool to have a theme bike. He sold a patent to PepsiCo. for just over $200 million. Reasonably sure Arlen Ness built it, but can't swear to it.
Attachments
You want to shorten the fork tubes (upper, hard chrome 34 or 35 mm OD), right?
If it was me, I would first try shortening the stroke of the fork, using Hugh's lowering kits, or something similar on the damping rods. Even longer top out springs would work fine.
If you actually want to cut a piece off the fork tubes, I have done this to Suzuki 125 and Yamaha RD 350 forks, by cutting off the required amount at the top, and cut new threads and counterbore for the top plugs in the lathe. If you do this, you then have to check that there is enough clearance between the fork slider and the lower triple tree for full suspension travel! If you then need to reduce the suspension travel, this would require modified damper rods and/ or the conical sleeve that sits on the end of the rod, basically moving the compression end travel damping cone "up" the same distance as the required reduction of suspension travel. It may even be required to devise some bind of "hard stopper" also.
So unless you are really concerned about saving a few grams (ounces) of weight, I really recommend Hugh's lowering kits, as this mod is fully reversible. In any case, DO NOT DROP THE TUBES IN THE TREES WITHOUT CHECKING CLEARANCE BETWEEN SLIDERS AND LOWER TRIPLE TREE AT FULL COMPRESSION! The yellow tracker in the "XS of the month" has the tubes slid up, and that does not look ok to me....Otherwise, that is a fine bike
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neanderthal
neanderthal
no the lowers its not to a weight things its a look think. the lowering blocks mess with the springs differently the if you were to shorten the loweres. it gives it a good look. cole foster was the first to do it i think im guessing that he chromes them afterwards, i was hoping to polish.
neanderthal
neanderthal
Only 1 way to find out.
well thats what my concern was that the grain wont match and will show when i polish.
neanderthal
neanderthal
yeah id want flawless. ive never chromed anything before. anyone with a price idea?
neanderthal
neanderthal
damn thats some monies.
