Fork diameters

jeffcooper · Mar 22, 2008

Forgive my first post being possibly one thats been answered before, but I was wondering if there's a table somewhere of what diameter forks are in what bikes (not necessarily justkdx!) - I broke one of my top clamp bolts on my KDX250, and bought a KX500 clamp off ebay to hopefully replace it easier rather than trying to drill it out (it came with one of those one-piece bar clamps, so was worth a gamble) but it's fork holes are about 2 or 3 mm too small, so a bit of a waste of money - but surely Kawasaki don't make a new set of upper fork tubes for every bike, even if the lower tubes have different caliper fittings, and the inner cartridges might be different?

Of course I might have bought a clamp off a bike with normal forks rather than upside-down, but I'm not bothered too much about that - just looking to the future for when I replace the whole forks!

ridejunky · Mar 24, 2008

At the risk of sounding stupid, what exactly is it you are trying to find out?

dpaxson · Mar 24, 2008

he's trying to find which kawasaki or possibly other bike models have top clamps which are compatible with his forks...I think

jeffcooper · Mar 24, 2008

Sorry guys, I must have had a bit too much pop!

What I was trying to find out was which forks from other bikes would go into my existing clamps - my clamps have got 53mm holes say (not sure, but will check them now) so I would need a set of forks of 53mm diameter. The question is, which bikes have forks of 53mm diameter - hence the question about a table stating what bikes/years have what size forks.

P.S. I used 53mm as an example, I know it might not be the actual size for my bike! and the main reason for all this is to try to pick up a set of better action replacement forks off fleabay, without having to get the clamps as well.

ridejunky · Mar 24, 2008

The stock forks are a bit antiquated, anything else that will fit in those clamps will equal at best. Get a easy out to remove your broken bolt and salvage your clamp then try heaver springs. If you do a search on this forum you will find a plethora of info on fork upgrades which, depending on what you do, can result in a drastic improvement over stock.

jase351 · Mar 25, 2008

:nod: :nod: :nod:

ridejunky · Mar 25, 2008

jase351 said:
U could get them machined out to the size of your original ones or take the broken one to a machine shop to get fixed they would just drill it out but it takes a bit of experince to drill and re tap exactly where it should be done caution using easy outs because they could be more of pain if they snap off in the hole i have removed them before for people that have broke them trying to remove broken studs it would of been better if the didnt try themselves and bought it in first
hope it helps

Do they have punctuation keys down under or is it just that your education level is low? That is probably the longest run on sentence I have ever seen. If you want people to take your advice seriously, write like you have at-least a fourth grade education.

adam728 · Mar 26, 2008

Fork tube diameter is one thing, but there are other factors to consider when swaping triple clamps around. The spacing between the fork legs can differ, as does the offset from the stem center to fork center. If either of these are different from you current bike you'll need both the upper and lower clamps, and possibly new/custom wheel spacers and possibly an axle.

Yamaha and Honda have been known to play around making changes in offset as small as 1mm from year to year. Clamp swapping is really a roll of the dice, unless you get lucky and someone here actually knows the answers to your questions. I suspect there will be a lot of speculation and "I think that 199x-200x are all the same" type answers.

I'd break out the drill and fish that bolt out of the upper clamp. Worst case you'll have to helicoil it or tap it for a larger bolt.

jeffcooper · Mar 26, 2008

Thanks for that Adam - It's nice to know a couple of people understood what I was getting at! I think you're right about getting the bolt bit out, but it's a horrible job, the break is inside the threaded clamp, and to make things worse, whilst drilling through the outer end, my drill bit broke off in the remains of the bolt!!!

I was hoping to kill 4 birds with one stone, there are all sorts of forks available on ebay cheap, and if I could have improved the suspension, and saved the money that it will cost me to get the existing clamp fixed, I would have been a very happy bunny, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

Thanks for all of the suggestions though.

jase351 · Mar 29, 2008

Hey ridejunky English is fine this end mate, my mates understand it over here, there is always one smartarse that has something to say, just lazy at typing

jase351 · Mar 29, 2008

ridejunky said:
Do they have punctuation keys down under or is it just that your education level is low? That is probably the longest run on sentence I have ever seen. If you want people to take your advice seriously, write like you have at-least a fourth grade education.

:blah: :blah: :blah: :coocoo:

glad2ride · Apr 1, 2008

jeffcooper, if it is the same as USA models, then 1991 is the way to go.

OutsourcingGeek · May 13, 2008

jeffcooper said:
Thanks for that Adam - It's nice to know a couple of people understood what I was getting at! I think you're right about getting the bolt bit out, but it's a horrible job, the break is inside the threaded clamp, and to make things worse, whilst drilling through the outer end, my drill bit broke off in the remains of the bolt!!!

I was hoping to kill 4 birds with one stone, there are all sorts of forks available on ebay cheap, and if I could have improved the suspension, and saved the money that it will cost me to get the existing clamp fixed, I would have been a very happy bunny, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

Thanks for all of the suggestions though.

Jeff - We must be related. I'm Jeffrey Cooper of New England. No wonder I couldn't get my typical username to work here. :-)

Fork diameters

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