Fork Gaiters in Ontario

[lakeview]

Many of the threads here are contributed by members in the United States. Often, items mentioned as common or cheap in US are not so much here in the attic. Examples are the Briggs and Stratton air cleaner conversion, here in Canadian Tire at 4x the US cost, the Chrysler regulator conversion which no counter clerk so far can locate for me, and those 3 dollar fork gaiters repurposed from the tall truck shocks.

Finally I have found similar availability and cost here in Canada for these latter items at Action Car and Truck Acessories! P/N EXP10127 -" shock boot - black - bulk" 2.99 each!!

I ordered them Thursday last and they came in yesterday. They look the part 100%. Twelve inches long, they fit snug on my 35 mm forks, take off the lower dust cover and the larger end fits like factory into the groove. I used a black zip lock for the initial test fit. I will not be able to road test for some time but they feel thick, yet supple. They are shown on a 3" over fork I had handy so on stock length one would trim a bit off the top.

Here are pictures

 

[5twins]

Those should do nicely. Yes, they do last darn near forever. I've had a set on one of my other bikes for near 20 years, on my 650 for about 10, no signs of wearing out. No drying out, cracking, splitting, they still look like new. That small slot in your bottoms should barely show if you face it in or back and use a hose clamp. As you noted, the bottoms fit so well, the hose clamp will be more for decoration than holding. It only needs to be just snug. You are aware of how best to shorten these if need be? Cut that nice fitting top along with one bellow off the top .....

Now cut however many bellows off the bottom part to achieve the length you need. Then just duck that one bellow on the top piece into the top bellow on the bottom piece. No glue or anything needed, just the friction between the 2 parts will hold them .....

This preserves that nice top that fits so well on the tubes. Just slide it up snug to the lower tree, it will stay there with no zip tie or hose clamp needed.

 

[lakeview]

Well that is the cherry on the sundae, thanks.

 

[MacMcMacmac]

I picked up a pair of Daystars off of Amazon for about $14. Wish I had known about these, but the Daystars look robust. I could only imagine the wasted time trying to get someone at Canadian Tire or PartSource to find shock gaiters.

 

[lakeview]

An update:
I ordered another set yesterday and on account of the weak dollar, they are now over $5.00 apiece, but still reasonable.

 

[mrtwowheel]

5twins ??????? Are those the Rancho brand boots in your pictures?

Edit...Ah, looked at some old threads and seen that you think that they are Daystar brand. I like the way that yours fit and look compared to others. Picking some up.

Scott

 

[5twins]

Yes, they are the Daystar brand. I like them because they have no split in the bottom.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Daystar-KU2...ash=item2eda58b4ed:g:GakAAOSwj0NUfcJM&vxp=mtr

 

[mrtwowheel]

Yes, they are the Daystar brand. I like them because they have no split in the bottom.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Daystar-KU2...ash=item2eda58b4ed:g:GakAAOSwj0NUfcJM&vxp=mtr

5twins, thanks for going through all of this again. I just bought a pair (one package) of the Daystar KU20002BK on ebay from that seller. The pink looked real nice but I bought the black instead. If they're not tight enough for 34mm tubes, I'll find a way to snug them up.

Scott

 

[5twins]

Some pics .....

Like I said, what I like about this particular boot is that there is no slit or slot on the bottom .....

I also like the way they taper from top to bottom. This lets the smaller top bellow fit perfectly into one of the larger ones 3 or 4 down after you do your shortening.

 

[mrtwowheel]

I like the hose clamp on the bottom too. With some scrounging around, stainless steel clamps can be found with very few of those thread squares showing. I have cut clamps before just to get the right diameter without a lot of those extra thread squares.

Someone needs to buy the PINK gaiters so we can see what they look like on a bike.

Scott