Fork swap advice needed.

[Mincehead]

Fantastic,cheers folks.
I`m still thinking of going down the stepped top yoke avenue(machined from billet),that way I could chose to either have the igniton mounted centrally or indeed not have one at all and go down the keyless/ hidden microswitch route.It`s simply a matter of beer tokens!
Isn`t it always?

[sanddune51]

Well, I finally finished fitting the '99-'02 R6 forks.Aside from modding the R6 top yoke to accept the TRX ignition lock it went pretty smoothly.

I upgraded the std R6 fork springs (approx rate 0.760 kg/mm) to Ohlins 0.9 kg/mm items as I'm a bit podgy at 93kg or 14stone 10lbs.

I desparately wanted to retain the 22mm R6 wheel for the extra rigidity it provides over the 17mm TRX item. Maybe I didn't look hard enough,but I couldn't find any bearings that could accommodate the 22mm spindle in the TRX wheel. I picked up an R6 wheel with decent discs no problem.

I still wanted to retain the speedo drive from the front wheel though. I managed to find a drive gearbox from a CBR 600 at my local breakers. This has a 20mm bore as std and I managed to bore this out to 22mm.Spindle problem solved. The gearbox was still way too wide for the little space i had available. I was able to machine it and loose probably 7 or 8mm from its width.

Another dry fit showed me I still didn't have enough space for it between wheel an LH fork leg. I managed to loose another 10-12mm from the boss on the inside of the R6 fork leg. I ensured this was square by machining up a "lap" in the lathe that just slid over the wheel spindle. I was now able to lap the fork leg square and true.

Surprise,surprise! I still didn't have enough room for the drive gearbox.After a lot of thought realised the only course of action left open to me was to machine the LHS of the wheel. I removed the outer bearing seal and machined the bore that it fits in.When the i.d. was around 2mm larger, I was able to fit the CBR gearbox. I modified the std TRX mild steel drive "dog" by grinding and filing to reduce the outside diameter until it fitted the modified R6 wheel. After a quick bit of machining with the Dremel,I had a pair of diametrically opposed slots to drive my dog.

A couple of dry fits and adjustments later I had a gearbox that drove and awheel that turned. I machined up an ally wheel spacer for the RHS and after fitting new bearings had a wheel that was only 1.5mm offset to the right.

I'm just now overhauling the blue spots as they were "binding" something chronic. I might just get this done this side of Easter so I can ride the bloody thing again.

Mark