GSXR Front End Swap

[Kemp10]

Ok, you guys in the UK have my attention. NO ONE around here has even heard of this, so naturally, I'd like to be different.

Give me a bit of info on this swap, and the details on what I will need. Will I need actual new fairings and windscreen and shocks? Let me know... I'm interested.

I will keep you updated with pics as I progress.

[zadar]

NO ONE around here has even heard of this
where you live?amazon?

[amnesia]

Right then....

http://www.gregoryli.com/search/label/DIY - the 'bible' for which GSXR parts are compatible


http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=103758 - Uber's thread


http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=101256 - Phil24_7's thread


http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=113203 - My thread


http://fiche.ronayers.com/Index.cfm - lots of fiche's with part numbers


Some good information in those links. Have a read and go from there...

Any questions you have could well be answered in those threads. If not, get them posted here and the mighty (B)org - resistance is futile - will be able to help you out I am sure.

[Dangerous Dave]

If that is your Pointy in the avatar then the K1 onwards GSXR front end will bolt straight on with no over issues other than the speedo.

[Red Herring]

2004/2005 GSXR is the best option on a pointy. Cost of the parts were actually less than what you can get for the second hand SV front end (except i blew that by buying the braking discs). And you can also fit a standard GSXR mudguard/fender if you want a sports bike look.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg104/Broomewood/9thMarch08NSfrontwheel.jpg

[ThEGr33k]

Check this out (http://gregmli.blogspot.com/search/label/DIY). Some REALLY great info. ;)

[northwind]

And also go to SV Rider, which is a brilliant US-based SV site. Not that you're not welcome here but you might find those guys helpful too ;)

[Nicky S]

Check this out (http://gregmli.blogspot.com/search/label/DIY). Some REALLY great info. ;)
that has all the info you need. very gd ThEGr33k:)

[ThEGr33k]

that has all the info you need. very gd ThEGr33k:)

I know. Im great. :p

[amnesia]

that has all the info you need. very gd ThEGr33k:)

Not quite...still need torque settings and the like. :smt083

[ThEGr33k]

Not quite...still need torque settings and the like. :smt083

Sigh... :smt019

[Kemp10]

thanks! i love the front fender on that pic red herring! if it has no front fairing, is that what you call a pointy?

and yes, that is me and my bike in the pic. i love the SV650S because it has the sport bike look... but that looks pretty sweet!

[ThEGr33k]

thanks! i love the front fender on that pic red herring! if it has no front fairing, is that what you call a pointy?

and yes, that is me and my bike in the pic. i love the SV650S because it has the sport bike look... but that looks pretty sweet!

No the pointy is the one you have. The K3+ ones. The curvy is the older ones. Look at the difference and you will see why we call them what we do. :cool:

[nik_nunez]

whats an estimate cost to do the swap? if you can get the parts 2nd hand say? for a K8?

[ThEGr33k]

Pfffff. Hard to say. £500-£1000 depending on how lucky you are on Ebay. :) Maybe less if you really land on something cheap. :)

[Kemp10]

definitely going to do this, by next spring i will have a newly transformed sv/xr lol

thanks guys, will do a step by step pic album.

[phil24_7]

I spent about £300 on mine. :-D I then used my old front end parts to repair a cheap crash damaged sv and now I have 2 sv's!!!

[Kemp10]

so, in theory i can use the front fairing of a gsxr, correct?

i want the entire front end from a gsxr... forks, yolks, faring, caliper...etc

[Dangerous Dave]

The fairing has nothing to do with the forks.

You will need the entire GSXR front end, yokes, steering stem, clip-ons (TL1000S work well), forks, wheel, spindle (axle), calipers, discs (rotors) and fender (mudguard).

£500-£1000 depending on how lucky you are on Ebay.
What.... i'd say £250-£500.

[Kemp10]

lol i know, i was just checking to see if i could use the gsxr fairing, since it seems everyone shys away from it, leaving me wondering if there's a reason behind it. sorry for the confusion.

[plowsie]

A few racebikes have the GSX-R fairing on them too, so it is possible :)

[yorkie_chris]

Yeah it's possible to do, you can bodge any fairing on if you're a bit soft like that... but far easier to just buy a GSXR if you're swapping that much over just for the sake of adding weight and expense when you come off it.

£250 at least on bits... what about buying say, a helmet? Leathers?

[Dangerous Dave]

To be honest I don't think it looks good, you can always tell the fairing is not designed for that bike and the fit isn't really that good with gaping holes everywhere.

[northwind]

Fitting an OEM spec fairing with headlight etc, and not having monster panel gaps, is an epic amount of work too. Lots of people put race fibreglass on road bikes and stick a headlight in it but 9/10 times it looks like race glass with a headlight stuck in it :D Someone on SV Rider did do a lovely job of the SV/GSXR fairing combo a while back, only one I've ever seen that didn't look like it was made by a 10-year-old

[Kemp10]

oh, well forget i brought it up.

i will pass, lol.

thanks again! will keep you all up to date.

[yorkie_chris]

Hey that's the fairings... which are totally pointless.

The forks on the other hand, done carefully look almost totally OEM, give you excellent brakes and proper damping.

[Binky]

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but from what i gather front suspension mods for a pointy are best from a K3/K4/K5 gsxr.

What are the best options for an 02 curvy???

[yorkie_chris]

Find a complete front end from the last of the SRAD750's if you want USD blind, or the RWU's from the 600SRAD... get some TLS clip ons and zorans top bearing from twinworksfactory and it's basically drop in conversion.

[Binky]

Find a complete front end from the last of the SRAD750's if you want "USD blind", or the "RWU's" from the 600SRAD... get some TLS clip ons and "zorans" top bearing from twinworksfactory and it's basically drop in conversion.

I'm so confused :confused:
USD = Upside down??? but what is USD blind, Zorans and RWU's???

Excuse my ignorance.:(

[yorkie_chris]

sorry that's a type .... USD BLING lol.

Zorans are a breed of race tweaker and rider who has forgotten more about SV than most of the .org knows. Natural habitat is around twinworksfactory racing.

RWU= right way up.

Sorry for the jargon feel free to PM or ask away on here for any info :-)

[Binky]

sorry that's a type .... USD BLING lol.

Zorans are a breed of race tweaker and rider who has forgotten more about SV than most of the .org knows. Natural habitat is around twinworksfactory racing.

RWU= right way up.

Sorry for the jargon feel free to PM or ask away on here for any info :-)

Cheers. I really want to do this mod, hopefully sometime in 2009 when money and more knowledge permits.

[Dangerous Dave]

Keep it simple, for USD forks what you need is the entire GSXR 750 SRAD (1996-1999) front end for a Curvy and for RWU forks the entire GSXR 600 SRAD (1996-2000) front end (bear in mind many GSXR parts are interchangeable between models)....

Yokes, Forks, Wheel, Spindle, Brake Discs, Brake Calipers, and the Fender.

In addition you will need TL1000S clip-ons for the 750 forks as the GSXR ones are two low and the throttle cables will damage the fairings. To make it all work the simplest method is to buy a bearing from Twin Works Factory, this replaces the top bearing on the SV and allows for the bigger SRAD stem to pass through. The lower SV bearing can be retained as it is a shared part with the GSXR's.

I have fitted 27 front ends to Curvy's in the past 9 years, and 4 have had steering lock alignment issues (which is a bit strange for a mass produced bike and parts). The simplest way to over come this, and the best if you want to return to the SV front end in the future, is to file off 1mm from the SRAD's right hand side steering lock tab. This will allow the SV's handle bars to lock and cause no permanent damage to the bikes frame or ignition barrel.

SV800S
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1130
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=122&pictureid=772
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=122&pictureid=773
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=122&pictureid=817
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=122&pictureid=1047
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1131
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1118
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1120
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1129
http://forums.sv650.org/picture.php?albumid=154&pictureid=1117

Another method to mount the yokes, without the TWF bearing is a little more time consuming. You need an SV steering stem for the SRAD bottom yoke, however it is a smaller diameter than the SRAD's so you will have to braze some metal on and then mill it down to the correct size. A shim (spacer) is also required for the top yoke as the SV steering stem is a smaller diameter up there too. The advantages of this method is that the bike retains all its original headrace bearings, thus making them easier and quicker to get hold of.

The one problem you will be left with, whether you go USD or RWU is the speedo. The SV650 runs it speedo off of the front wheel and the SRAD wheel has no location for it and the SRAD spindle has no space and is to large a diameter to except the speedo unit. There are three option to take, one is to run with no speedo, another is to use a Hall Effect sensor (Northwind (http://forums.sv650.org/member.php?u=1100) and Yorkie Chris (http://forums.sv650.org/member.php?u=6124) are your experts here :notworthy:), and the final option is to run the standard SV speedo off of the rear wheel.

The above USD fork option is only applicable to Curvy SV's (1999-2002).

Pointy's are far simpler, most of the 2001 onwards GSXR front ends just bolts on using the existing bearings.

[northwind]

Keep it simple

No, make it RIDICULOUSLY COMPLEX for no good reason other than that you can!

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i264/Northwindlowlander/bike%20photos/naked/IMG_0585.jpg

[Binky]

I have fitted 27 front ends to Curvy's in the past 9 years


I hope this mod is easier than it sounds.

How come you have done that many??? Are you a motorcycle mechanic or in the trade???

[Dangerous Dave]

I hope this mod is easier than it sounds.

How come you have done that many??? Are you a motorcycle mechanic or in the trade???
I do spanner work in my spare time, I had a lot of spare time after two big offs.

[northwind]

I hope this mod is easier than it sounds.


Have you ever done a head bearing swap/replacement, and bled brakes? That's the only parts that can be troublesome, that and suspending the front end off the ground. The rest is no harder than fitting a hugger or similiar (actually easier than fitting some cheap huggers!) though of course it's higher stakes, you'll regret it if your wheel falls off :mrgreen:

(you'll find some people who've done it like to make it sound harder than it is, so that people think they're awesome. So I'd like to point out that doing it my way really is pretty difficult, what with the parts from 6 different bikes, and so I am awesome, but everyone else does it the easy way, and they are not :smt040)

[Binky]

Have you ever done a head bearing swap/replacement, and bled brakes? That's the only parts that can be troublesome, that and suspending the front end off the ground. The rest is no harder than fitting a hugger or similiar (actually easier than fitting some cheap huggers!) though of course it's higher stakes, you'll regret it if your wheel falls off :mrgreen:

(you'll find some people who've done it like to make it sound harder than it is, so that people think they're awesome. So I'd like to point out that doing it my way really is pretty difficult, what with the parts from 6 different bikes, and so I am awesome, but everyone else does it the easy way, and they are not :smt040)

I've never done either of those. That's one of the two reasons i joined the org, to learn about bike maintenance and repair etc. Hopefully by next year i'll have read and learnt everything i need to know in order to do this. If not i'm a bit screwed... [-o<

Thanks.

[northwind]

OK. Well, not to worry, I'd never seen a head bearing til I'd seen mine ;) You'll want to practice brakes first though- bleeding an existing brake system is good preperation for bleeding a dry one. You're not going to find it completely easy, but it's definately not impossible, you're not that far from where I was when I did mine I would say.

[phil24_7]

I hope this mod is easier than it sounds.



This mod was my first foray into motorcycle mechanics and it was a piece of pi$$. I am reasonably competent with a spanner though.

As long as you source the right bits, it's quite easy, cept I still haven't got round to fit my speedo work around!:D

[Dangerous Dave]

This mod was my first foray into motorcycle mechanics and it was a piece of pi$$.
It is a lot easier with a Pointy as no bearing races need to be removed.

What bike have you got Binky?

[Binky]

It is a lot easier with a Pointy as no bearing races need to be removed.

What bike have you got Binky?

I've got a K2. How long do you think it'd take to change everything from scratch for you, having so much experience with these???

[Dangerous Dave]

1-2 hours for a full working front end swap, extra 30 minutes to get the speedo rigged to the rear wheel.

[Binky]

1-2 hours for a full working front end swap, extra 30 minutes to get the speedo rigged to the rear wheel.

Do you know of any threads on here specifically about sorting out the speedo. I here there are a few ways of overcoming the problems...

[Dangerous Dave]

Speak to Northwind (http://forums.sv650.org/member.php?u=1100) or Yorkie Chris (http://forums.sv650.org/member.php?u=6124) about using Hall Effect sensors and magnets on discs, this is what I am doing now as I am considering changing the rear end now. I am currently still running the OEM speedo off of the rear wheel, been to busy to mess around with the front magnets. This method is easy to do, but I will say Northwind and Chris' is easier.

Northwind thread (http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=106410&highlight=veypor), the option I am currently doing now but fitted to the front wheel.