Front end...

Greetings guys,

I have a 1981 H1 (KZ650CSR), I am attempting a mild cafe project for the off months. Here is what I need to know:

Because it was originally a cruiser, I run Clubman style bars now for the look and feel. I would like to run a shorter fork without completely changing the front setup, mounts, trees, etc. I was wondering if a shorter set of forks existed? Also would it be dramatically bad if I lowered the front about an inch with the existing forks and used clip-ons instead?

Keep in mind I don't plan on racing this machine or using it like a fool on the street. I just want to rebuild her and I like the cafe looks.

Thanks in advance for any help...
Brian

I don't know if there's a shorter set of forks, but you can easily drop your forks in the trees, usually up to an inch before hitting the clubman bars IF they interfere at all. Mine are dropped about 3/4 of an inch and it made the steering much quicker, very nice cause Z1's kinda like going straight. A $0 modification that takes all of 5 minutes. If you don't like it, no money spent just put em back... If you want to go more extreme, yeah you can get clipons and drop the forks till you run out of travel;)
-dutchz

Dropping the forks in the trees changes the rake and the trail. Don't go nuts but make small adjustments to see where you like 'em...

Post edited by: dutchz, at: 2005/11/21 21:56

Nope, my clubmans rest 1/16th from the top of the forks in the now stock setup. If I can find a set of clip ons that fit, I only plan to drop no more than an inch.