1981 KZ1000 front fork bushing kit?

It looks like ebay made up my mind for me anyway... I didn't see anything BUT the front-leading forks available, so that's what I ended up ordering.  I figure I know they already work for me, even if the geometry isn't quite correct, but I know what I'm getting in to this way.

I don't know for sure ref the trees but I do know when Elfarm put the "J" equivalent (sorry don't know the model codes for 750) tank on his 750 Ltd he had to use the trees from the roadster as well because the forks where hitting the tank on full lock. (there was a significant difference in the offset with the two sets of trees which cured the clearance issue) below shows the difference between Ltd trees and Roadster trees (E&H models) regarding different "offset"

 

That's the problem with mix and match. Change one thing it effects another and another...... Better to slow down the steering than make it so quick you crash in a panic stop.   While modern front ends look cool but I've seen a lot of bikes for sale half done for this reason. It doesn't work? Sell it as a custom or Cafe bike. I wonder how many lawsuits came about when a new owner goes down because the steering wasn't set up right?
Steve

Wookie58 wrote:

I don't know for sure ref the trees but I do know when Elfarm put the "J" equivalent (sorry don't know the model codes for 750) tank on his 750 Ltd he had to use the trees from the roadster as well because the forks where hitting the tank on full lock. (there was a significant difference in the offset with the two sets of trees which cured the clearance issue) below shows the difference between Ltd trees and Roadster trees (E&H models) regarding different "offset"

 

That's exactly what I was asking about. 
 

SWest wrote:

That's the problem with mix and match. Change one thing it effects another and another...... Better to slow down the steering than make it so quick you crash in a panic stop. 

 While modern front ends look cool but I've seen a lot of bikes for sale half done for this reason. It doesn't work? Sell it as a custom or Cafe bike. I wonder how many lawsuits came about when a new owner goes down because the steering wasn't set up right?

Steve

This is one of the reasons I have extended the ZX9R forks on my project (I can adjust between the stock "J" and "K" lengths) and will also take the time to make the required adjustments front and rear so that it doesn't steer like a "shopping trolley" 

I was thinking about Jon and what happened with his bike. He could have used fork extenders but decided to stay with what he had. Though he said the front end wasn't a factor in his crash when a friend stopped suddenly in front of him and he went down trying to avoid him but I suspect it did. The front end looked too low to me.  His wife made him stop riding and one of our members bought the bike. I'd like to see what he did and how it handles now. 
Steve

SWest wrote:

I was thinking about Jon and what happened with his bike. He could have used fork extenders but decided to stay with what he had. Though he said the front end wasn't a factor in his crash when a friend stopped suddenly in front of him and he went down trying to avoid him but I suspect it did. The front end looked too low to me.

 His wife made him stop riding and one of our members bought the bike. I'd like to see what he did and how it handles now. 

Steve

As it stands I don't believe Aengus has changed anything on the phoenix, when planning my build I noted that Davido (same bike as mine) had gone with extensions on his ZXR front end. I think with the drop to a 17 inch wheel as well, it is too much with the shorter forks (also on the cosmetic front personally I think they can look a little "not quite right" but each to their own)

That's a pretty significant difference in the trees.  I'll have to take a look when I get off work but I'm pretty sure mine match the first ones that are not set forward.  However I don't have any trouble with the forks hitting the tank (we have a bad problem in the area with people walking off with bikes so I always lock the wheel after I ride).  Maybe there's a difference in the frame between the 750 and 1000 that eliminates this issue?

Shdwdrgn wrote:

That's a pretty significant difference in the trees.  I'll have to take a look when I get off work but I'm pretty sure mine match the first ones that are not set forward.  However I don't have any trouble with the forks hitting the tank (we have a bad problem in the area with people walking off with bikes so I always lock the wheel after I ride).  Maybe there's a difference in the frame between the 750 and 1000 that eliminates this issue?

My 1000K trees looked similar to the 750 Ltd setup (the top one is in Spain now!!) but I believe you are using the Ltd tank anyway so clearance shouldn't be an issue anyway (theoretically  )

There's an LTD *TANK*???  Sheesh I never ran across anything like that when I was rebuilding the bike!  I actually have a dented black tank that came on the bike, plus an orange one I got from ebay (surprisingly without any dings) and painted myself.  They both seem to have the same profile so I never worried about it.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" 

Hmm I found some old pictures of the top of the front end from when I started disassembling the bike, and yeah, the tree looks like it has quite a bit of forward angle to it like the LTD head above.  So I guess the PO did in fact replace the whole tree when they swapped the front forks.