Forks fubared ... best option now?

[Z0RR0]

Quick recap.

'00 CR250, left fork leg starts leaking.

Turns out the shaft (holding the valve assembly inside the chamber) snapped, valve is completely jammed sideways in there, shims and washers are smashed, I can only assume the chamber is done as well.

Easiest/cheapest solution : get a used set off ebay.

This being said, and despite not a competitive racer, I can appreciate parts that work well. My current forks were spruced up by TMR and I liked 'em. Not sure I like the idea of going back to bone stock (used) forks.

Keep in mind I'm just throwing around ideas ... if I'm going to swap something, might as well try to make the most out of it.

Update to a more modern (ie 20" wheel) front end? Would that make my bike more nimble, or will I just *uck up the geomerty and make it un-ridable?

Aftermarket forks? Only seen Ohlins ... and they're not available for 2000 bikes. And they 2300$.

Chamber assembly? Anyone sell those?

Worst comes to worst, maybe I can just get used stock forks and upgrade the valving via RaceTech or similar ...

Thoughts?

 

[2strokerfun]

Wow! I'm so far out of it, I didn't realize people were going to 20" rims. Changing wheel size without other compensating adjustments will change the geometry. If your chamber is truy FUBAR, I'd go with your last suggestion and try used parts and then send them out to your vendor and get them spruced up to your liking.

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

20", on what, supermoto? Get a used set of Showa forks off fleabay, from 00 to 01 will work with out issues. I put an 04 set on my 00, it has a different bottom lug and caliper set up though. I had to get MXTech basically 2 sets of forks to create 1 good set. I may have what you need? But I will not know whats good till the end of this week. Vintage Bob

 

[helio lucas]

tipically supermoto uses 17". i´ve seen guys using 16" or 16.5" , i'm not sure.
on my place the front wheel size on mx and enduro is pretty much standard on 21" for decades. now, 20"???? tires?????

ohlins are good and they have a good support but any japanese set of forks will do the work at 1\4 the expense. :cool:

why not just buy a set like yours and then do the same job? it´s not dificult since you have one good fork to copy the setup.

 

[Z0RR0]

why not just buy a set like yours and then do the same job? it´s not dificult since you have one good fork to copy the setup.

Easier said then done. I bought the bike like it is, I only know they were setup by Tom Morgan Racing ... no idea about the actual details.
And I can't seem to locate TMR anywhere on the web anyways. Are they still open???

 

[Rich Rohrich]

20", on what, supermoto?

It was a front end option about 10 years ago. I ran one on my 2001 CR125 and I loved it, but lots of riders hated them. It didn't seem to last at least in part because of a lack of tire choices in the 20" sizes.

Here what the the MXA guys had to say about it back then :

http://motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/THE-20INCH-TIRE-REVOLUTION-1858.aspx

 

[Z0RR0]

Well I'll be damned. I thought 20" became the standard after it was introduced "back then". Shows how much I'm in touch. Yikes.

Ok, forget I ever talked about 20" front wheel. LOL

 

[whenfoxforks-ruled]

Too bad about the choice of tires for sure. Thanks Rich, and it may figure. They also ran Kayaba forks for some REALY strange reason.

 

[Okiewan]

It was a front end option about 10 years ago. I ran one on my 2001 CR125 and I loved it, but lots of riders hated them. It didn't seem to last at least in part because of a lack of tire choices in the 20" sizes.

Here what the the MXA guys had to say about it back then :

http://motocrossactionmag.com/Main/News/THE-20INCH-TIRE-REVOLUTION-1858.aspx

sad, or rather great thing is, I remember when Rich ran it and got put into the bees a few times because of it. At least thats the way I like to remember it.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

The best part of the of running the 20" front was you could brake incredibly late and hard going into turns, enough so it was easy to have the real wheel floating off the ground. That was enough to keep Okie from passing me on more than one occasion. I guess he figured if I kept doing that I'd crash sooner or later and he'd just ride around the wreckage. Smart guy ;)

It was fun on really hard pack stuff as well because with the big front footprint it made it easier for me to ride the bike like a dirt tracker and not tip over as often.