FORK SPACE

How much gap should there be between the top of the fork boot and the bottom of the triple tree? 1977 kz1000

it verys by how long your fork tubes are and how good your springs are.i used to slide mine about 3/4" above the top triple tree to lower the bike,then i found out 650 tubes are same diameter but shorter to begin with;)

Jailbait, I think wireman's right here. It's not really exact science but maybe a KZ1000 owner can pitch in. I assumed all Z1-KZ650-KZ900-KZ1000 36mm forks were the same length, but I guess that assumption is wrong.

I'm messing around with my forks myself, the PO had them set up with some funky dampers so I am not sure if the tubes are stock either. The forks I have on my Z1 measure 31" from the fork cap to the center of the axle (no load). It would be nice if we had overall length of different model forks. Anyone wanna pitch in? :whistle:

Post edited by: dutchz, at: 2007/08/24 13:16

Post edited by: dutchz, at: 2007/08/24 13:21

ive got the forks from my turbo bike sitting here,they are about 30 3/8- 30 1/2 to center of axle.the lower legs were from a 77-78 1000,im not sure if the tubes were from a 1000 or a 650 though.

basically i am trying to figure out if the previous owner of my bike lowered the forks. He did a lot of shady things to get it to look like a drag bike, like cutting the swingarm at the pivot and putting in a 3" block to extend it. He also cut 1" out of the back bone and heated the tubes up and bent the neck back to rack it also. So I am just trying to get it back to a safe working order. I will try and get ,some pics this weekend while I am working on it to show everyone the not so right way to make a drag bike.

PLUMMEN wrote:

ive got the forks from my turbo bike sitting here,they are about 30 3/8- 30 1/2 to center of axle.the lower legs were from a 77-78 1000,im not sure if the tubes were from a 1000 or a 650 though.

I guess we're in the same boat huh, haha. 31" was a rough, to be exact it's 30 5/8 from the top of the tube (underneath the fork cap) to the center of the axle.

He did a lot of shady things to get it to look like a drag bike, like cutting the swingarm at the pivot and putting in a 3" block to extend it. He also cut 1" out of the back bone and heated the tubes up and bent the neck back to rack it also.

Oh boy. Well it appears you can get an idea of approximate fork length now, should be right around 30.5"

I think the difference in length is due to the length of the fork inner (upper) tubes.

There is a chart of fork tube lengths (and diameter) for the KZ's HERE

Post edited by: steell, at: 2007/08/25 09:40

Thanks Steell, that's helpful info. Besides tube length the dampers and springs influence overall length too.