GSX-R Front end conversion

Mine's off the anniversary 600.

Regards

[northwind]

Originally Posted by robchester

Phil, this looks too easy?? Surely theres more to it when swapping front ends.

He's let the cat out of the bag It's actually pretty straightforward, 9/10 prep and planning and getting the right parts. If you can fit a head bearing you can swap a front end. Now, don't tell anyone else, otherwise nobody will be impressed any more. Even the speedo drive options are pretty simple these days. One of the things that makes it such a great mod IMO.

Looking good there- did you drop the old front end out entire?

You asking me there northy?

If so, yeah i did (well after my first c0ck up of dropping the forks on someones advice!), then just slotted the complete front end in. Piece of pi55 apart from the slightly bent mounting hole on the rad. Once I've sorted that out with a big rubber mallet the bottom yoke shouldn't catch on the lower fairing!

Had a bit of an issue with the brake lines not quite being long enough with the TL1000S clip ons but i managed to manipulate them to fit! Also had a bit of a problem getting the clutch lever on far enough to mount the switch gear but nothing a bench grinder didn't sort out for me!

Just gotta wait nother 7 days now until my next day off to try and finish the job!

Is looking very good Phil...you got me tempted to do something to mine now....mind you, it might be wasted with my riding ability

All you need to do now is get a rear indicator...last time I saw you it was bust...and the time before that...

Good work tho...!

[northwind]

Originally Posted by phil24_7

You asking me there northy?

If so, yeah i did (well after my first c0ck up of dropping the forks on someones advice!), then just slotted the complete front end in.

I do it in bits y'see, more manageable that way... Though it's a bit more work I suppose. Must be very satisfying just sliding the whole front end in. As it were

Originally Posted by Biker_Billy

Is looking very good Phil...you got me tempted to do something to mine now....mind you, it might be wasted with my riding ability

All you need to do now is get a rear indicator...last time I saw you it was bust...and the time before that...

Good work tho...!

Do it anyway, just so you can say you did it, plus once the spring gets here you can push your riding a bit more to get quicker although, to be honest, your not slow mate.

I've had new indicators for a while, just never got round to fitting them. Now I've removed the snow plough, I'm finally getting around to fitting the undertray so they'll be fitted at the same time!

Originally Posted by northwind

I do it in bits y'see, more manageable that way... Though it's a bit more work I suppose. Must be very satisfying just sliding the whole front end in. As it were

If I could start it all again I would drop it all out in 1 as it's easy once the bikes on the Abba stand and the front is roped up.

Choping at the bit now to get back up to the garage and finish it off.

Eh Phil - up for a bit of swap shop....?

In the New Year, I'll need to take the front wheel off, tyre change required ya see, tempted to uprate the springs to my riding weight and fork oil too....

Im going to be getting some vacuum gauges in a few weeks - what do you think about a swap - your abba stand for my gauges for a week...once you are finished with changing the front end of course...?

Sorry to derail tho'

Cheers,

Billy.

Gents I've asked this question before but a Gixxer front end swap & new rear shock - what kind of budget are we looking? Is it really worth the extra or should I just save and buy a new bike?

[northwind]

It's a tricky question... Frinstance, with mine, if I'd kept a tighter rein on the budget- not splashed on powdercoating and other bells and whistles- I'd have actually come out pretty much even- SV parts are quite valuable since, well, we like to ride into stuff. GSXR, especially older stuff, is less in demand. But then, where you can get into real costs is when there's problems with the parts, you might get unlucky with bent forks or warped discs, and there goes your budget.

It also depends on your weight- because I'm puny, I can sling on totally stock forks and not bother revalving. If you're a bit heavier, then they're not going to be right for you just as SV forks aren't right, they'll work better but not perfectly- so a respring and revalve is sensible. Servicing any older forks is generally a good idea regardless.

But if you're careful, and lucky, and you keep your eye on the goal it can be cheap and very effective. Sticking a Y-K3 750 fork onto a pointy SV is IMO one of the best mods there is, or SRAD 750 fork onto a curvy- both are pretty simple fits using inexpensive parts. You can go up a notch and use the better, blingier more recent parts, but it costs. Comparing the GSXR forks with, say, emulators gives interesting results.

Also, they're dead impressive and people will think you know what you're doing

Originally Posted by robchester

Gents I've asked this question before but a Gixxer front end swap & new rear shock - what kind of budget are we looking? Is it really worth the extra or should I just save and buy a new bike?

About £300 for mina all in but mine was obscenely cheap!!!