USD Forks

I am not an engineer but for what it's worth below are my thoughts, you appear to be going down a "rabbit hole" of over complicating this modification 

 

Wookie, if I wasn’t overthinking this, what would I be doing with all of this free time that I don’t have? 

Rethinking it now and I realize that spacing the forks closer together will make it incredibly difficult to get the wheel in and out for tire changes. It probably makes the most sense to just make some rotor spacers, as Zed suggested. 

Prototype number two is here and I’ve got some updates. 



Very happy with how things are going with the lower triple at this point. It’s basically done, but I did want to ask if anyone has any opinions about steering stops. I’ve got them machined in as blocks that contact the frame at the right angle and height. But I’m just sort of wondering about longevity. It’s aluminum banging into steel over and over, and I’m just concerned that they might wear quickly. I had one idea which was to have a bolt head in the right spot and if it ever wore down too much or broke off, just replace the bolt. What do you guys think?

I’ve also got a prototype of the disc rotor spacer to test. It mounted up perfectly, but turned out to be too thick. I went with 9mm, and it looks like it should be more like 6 or 7. 

Notably it also appears that when they say the ‘07-‘08 Nissin calipers are a “direct swap” they actually mean “direct swap as long as you use some spacers.” Because there is no way they are spaced correctly for 300mm rotors on ‘03 forks. 



As luck would have it though, I picked up a set of Nissin calipers from an ‘08 Triumph Street Triple R for cheap, just cause I thought I’d take a chance and see if they fit, and as far as I can tell they’re perfect. 



I’m pretty happy about that because I think they just look so cool. 

Anyway, would love any feedback you all have on the steering stop thing, but otherwise, onward to the top triple. 

Looking really good, the lockstops should be fine (the originals are alloy cast as part of the bottom tree) the less holes you make in the tree the stronger it will be. Does your rotor spacer have a "hub" location for the rotor and a rebate to locate on the raised hub of the wheel?

Wookie58 wrote:

…the lockstops should be fine (the originals are alloy cast as part of the bottom tree)…

Well my original stops are steel, as the whole triple is steel. But I know there are other bikes with aluminum lower triples.

Wookie58 wrote:

Does your rotor spacer have a "hub" location for the rotor and a rebate to locate on the raised hub of the wheel?

Yes to both!

All my Zed's have modern front ends with alloy yokes.
Been running one of them daily for 25 years and have no issues with the alloy to steel lock stops 

Reassuring stuff guys. Again, thank you both for all the input. Here’s some photos of the prototype parts off the bike, so you can see the stops and the flanges on the disc spacer. 
 

Look really nice, be brave and get them machined up 

Kind of exciting news! I feel like I still have a long ways to go in designing the upper triple if there's any chance of having it be even remotely affordable. But before I got too much farther along, I wanted to just make sure I had everything lined up in the right place. And I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I basically nailed it.




There in only one spot, the mount for the ignition column, which needs to be moved out 1-2mm, and I've found that my steering stops on the lower triple need to limit the travel about 2mm more, lest the fork should hit the fuel tank. Other than that, everything bolted right up, exactly where it's supposed to be. I'm pretty happy about that.

What I need to do now is explore some options for making it simpler from a CNC machining standpoint, and also making it a little prettier. I might have to make two pieces that bolt together. I would love to make it one piece, but the cost will just skyrocket. It would be amazing if I had one or two other people interested in doing this conversion (in theory should work on the other Zephyr models as well, plus maybe some other Kawis), and we could all go in on the parts production together. Then I could worry less about making them affordable, and more about making them look good.

Oh yeah, I also made a thinner disc spacer, but I made it too much thinner, so gonna need another revision on that part.

Here we go again with another round of questions. Things are moving along nicely, albeit a bit slow. The holidays have got me pulled every which way, and funds are tight, so anymore prototypes might be a ways off. But in the meantime I can still make time to work on the CAD part of things, and try to come up with the best design from a production and aesthetic standpoint.

It got me thinking, that if I do end up needing to make the top triple in two parts in order to make it affordable, what is the best way to attach the two parts to each other? The obvious answer is to simply bolt them up. But then we're introducing additional holes and threads in the parts, which not only raise the cost, but weaken them as well. I racked my brain, and finally asked myself, "is there any reason they can't just be glued together?" With a strong enough epoxy, that ought to be an option right? But also, that sounds totally crazy. The actual top triple will be CNC machined aluminum, and then the attachment that holds the ignition column, gauges, and headlight bracket could in theory be 3D-printed plastic, a separate CNC machined aluminum part, or I could get real crazy and make a mold and make it out of carbon fiber strand. But then glue the two pieces together. Kinda stupid maybe? Or with modern epoxies, is that actually kind of a good idea? What do you guys think?

Here's an in-progress picture that should show you a rough idea of what the two parts look like. The top triple itself is in gray, and the attachment is in red. This also serves the purpose of making a top triple that doesn't necessarily require having the attachment. So if someone else wanted one, but intended to use a RFID ignition, and some aftermarket gauge(s), they could still use the part. The attachment could even be custom 3D-printed for whatever setup someone wanted.

 

My other question is just to ask permission from the mods to throw up a post in the for sale section to see if there is anyone else out there in KZR land that wants to go in on these parts with me. As I've mentioned before, the cost of purchasing more than one of any of these parts is significantly lower-per-part if the quantity is higher. I just want to try and get them made at a price I can afford, and figure if someone else is into it, we could each get a set and save a lot of money. So is that cool? It's maybe a long shot, but I'd like to ask. 

As a regular contributor to the forum I see no issue with you reaching out to share the cost of this project.
I assume a chunk of the cost is to write the CNC programmes ? have you thought about reaching out with a separate post to the membership (it's possible that one of the many engineers on the forum may possess the skills to write the programme and be prepared to help you out?)
With regards joining the two parts of the top yolk, you could consider the below (I always try and keep it simple  )

 

The right adhesive would be plenty strong enough to hold the instrument cluster, depending on the materials used. After all, some auto manufacturers use adhesives to join parts of the body structure of their automobiles, and those joints are subject to far more stress than what you propose. However, the cost of such high tech adhesive may be prohibitive.

By the way, have you reached out to PDM Custom Fabrication? The owner is a longtime member here, and he may already have a design that will work for you. There is a link to his website below.