Howdy "5Twins". I'm a total newbie to motorcycles, wrenching and riding. I wanted to rectify all that and thus purchased a 1981 XS650 Special II and took it to the frame. I've painted and am slowly cleaning everything as I reassemble. First and foremost, thank you for all your input on this site, it's been an incredible resource and your contributions are awesome. So thanks. Now to my question specific to this post: Do you run the top of the fork tube or the top of the cap bolt 3/8" inches above the triple tree crown? I pulled my forks apart, put in new progressive springs from MikesXS and have reassembled with new oil but am not sure where they should sit in the tree clamps?Actually, about all you can get is near 3/4". After that, the fork lowers will hit the lower tree upon full compression. Pull your springs and fully compress the forks. That will show you the distance available. Like I said, it isn't much. I run mine about 3/8" dropped, not for looks but to improve the ride and handling. Lowering the front slightly is an old racer's trick. It more firmly plants the front end and gives more positive steering input.
Howdy "5Twins". I'm a total newbie to motorcycles, wrenching and riding. I wanted to rectify all that and thus purchased a 1981 XS650 Special II and took it to the frame. I've painted and am slowly cleaning everything as I reassemble. First and foremost, thank you for all your input on this site, it's been an incredible resource and your contributions are awesome. So thanks. Now to my question specific to this post: Do you run the top of the fork tube or the top of the cap bolt 3/8" inches above the triple tree crown? I pulled my forks apart, put in new progressive springs from MikesXS and have reassembled with new oil but am not sure where they should sit in the tree clamps?
I just checked mine and snapped a pic. My tube is 1/4" up, the lip on the cap nut about 3/8" .....
And yes sir. The shocks on my 1981 xs650 special II have the big flat head screw under the cap as well. I didn't know what it was for until l read your post. Before reading how to service the forks, I tried to loosen them...but they were quite stuck and I felt like I was going to strip them...I though maybe you had to loosen them to get the nut off or something. In any case, not the case...I just had to clamp my upper tube in my vice to keep it from spinning and break the rusted connection. I cleaned them pretty thoroughly with brake cleaner while servicing the forks so I'm guessing they'd turn more easily first. Perhaps I should have used a micrometer to measure how much of that little push rod was extended but I'm hoping they're set to the same depth and all is well. We'll see. Thanks for your input.On my 80 special the tubes are flush with the clamp. I'll take a look and take a picture of the them and fork section. Does your bike have an adjustable preload. On my 80 under a rubber plug type cap is a mechanism that can be turned with a big screwdriver and adjust the pressure on the springs.
Using an SR500 top clamp lets you drop the front over an inch without having to drop the tubes, so no colission
I just had to clamp my upper tube in my vice to keep it from spinning and break the rusted connection. I cleaned them pretty thoroughly with brake cleaner while servicing the forks so I'm guessing they'd turn more easily first. Perhaps I should have used a micrometer to measure how much of that little push rod was extended but I'm hoping they're set to the same depth and all is well
I think you need to give that some more thought. If the SR500 top tree does sit about 1" higher, you are going to have to slide the tubes up through the lower tree another inch to reach it. That is still going to reduce the amount of tube below the lower triple tree available for travel, same as raising the tubes above the original top tree. The 650 fork has about 6" of travel (150mm). In your assembled pic, I'm not seeing 6" of fork tube below your bottom tree. It looks more like 3" or 4".
Good point! Thanks for the adviceHighboy, first of all, good looking project! But I cannot see how using a flat top triple is different from having the tubes protrude past the stock XS triple. The conflict at full bump is between bottom triple and fork sliders, and possibly between front wheel/fender and exhausts/frame.
Dday,
Clamping tubes in the vice is not really good practice, it is better to loosen the fork plugs while it is clamped in the triples.
Loosen UPPER triple clamp bolts, leave LOWER triple clamp bolts tight to loosen the caps, Tight top clamp bolts squeeze the tube against the cap making it VERY hard to remove.Clamping tubes in the vice is not really good practice, it is better to loosen the fork plugs while it is clamped in the triples.