upside down forks on a kz1000r elr

hi guys
ok first i should give you the history of my bike so you know what it is lol.

started life as a gpz1000b1 82 (in the uk).

i bought it in 1990 and from there it just gets wierd
i got it from a guy i met while working at z1 city in tonbridge kent, anyway turns out he liked to drag and had a bunch of parts from the old days including a elr frame so as you can guess i took his arm off to get it and transfered everything over to it. i added some alloy racing wheels 18" and 18" with 110 70 and 160 60 tyres to stick to the road with set of straight bars and rear sets off a z1000 and i road it for many happy years,until i melted a valve and scored a piston so the owner of z1 city pete a good friend at the time sent top end away and it came back 1170cc or there abouts still running stock fuel injection.

i moved to the states in 2000 (of course i brought my bike with me lol told my wife the bike stays and so do i)and lost contact with everyone i knew who knew anything and everything about z's and so thats why im here. over the last couple of weeks ive been getting my bike ready for the road late for the summer but i dont care at this point, it sat in a garage for the last 6 yrs anyway so i have pulled the fuel injection as it never ran right over here and put a set of 35 mm carbs of a police bike on it and the fit ok im gonna plug the injector ports with some hex bolts and that should fix the fuel system,

im adding some twin head and tail lights for no reason other than i like them lol and in giving her the 4th or 5th paint job cant remember to boot and now to my current problem.

i would realy like to add a set of upside down forks now ive seen it done and wondered what is involved and the best donor bike to use im not dumb when it comes to bike's i just wanted a few pointers from someone who has done it or knows the easiest way to accomplish this.

i see you guys like to see pics of each others bike so ill take a few to put up here.

thx to anyone who can help.

Post edited by: kano, at: 2006/08/01 04:40

Post edited by: kano, at: 2006/08/01 04:58

ZX9R complete front end is a pretty easy swap, you will need to make a new steering stem or adapt the 1000 one to fit the 9R yokes, decide how you want to have the handlebars and clocks mounted and possibly restrict the lock a little to prevent the forks hitting the tank etc.

Loads of info on here already, do a search and some reading and come back to us if you're stuck. There's also a page on my site at www.750turbo.com/frontswap.htm

great info gave me some good options,
shame i need a machine shop though as im not on the mainland i live on marthas vineyard so id have to send it somewhere.
unless i could find somewhere that i could just buy a billet yokes the size i need.

apart from the looks how do they handle better?

They handle wayyyyy better with modern suspension and wheels, and they also stop!

Get your donor front end and send both sets of yokes and stems to your machininist with the headstock length and they should be able to make you up a new stem. Costs me about £50 here in blighty. You don't need billet yokes. Save the money for the back end conversion to go with the front

thought this may help someone..

Front end swaps are not hard however there are many things you have to think about,

Most Ppl pick the front end first then end up wondering what to do for a Speedo and end up running electronic Speedo drive's that pick up magnets to read speed.

Next wheels are you going to change the front and back so both wheels match? Do you care?
if you don't care then your life just got easier plus doing the whole front end off a busa for example is going to be cheaper in the long run trust me I know, so tell the wife I said it's cheaper to replace the whole front end in one lump.

You will need to press out the stem from the kz example lower tree and press it into the busa tree normally a bushing will need to be made I recommend taping a small fine grub screw through there to for good measure.

And bolt it on your done go ride.

if like me you didn't want a simple easy time of it and you love spending every spare dollar you earn on your bike because "you deserve it honey" as my wife says lol, then read on grab a beer roll one and grab a box of tissues while you’re at it lol.

Last year I road my kz1000r every day (except 3 snow days) to and from work and after a 10 min ride my back was killing me and my hands were almost sized with arthritis,

It was a problem even when I went out for a ride I would come back after a short ride due to the discomfort.
This is what inspired the front end conversion,
I wanted a sporty yet stocky and strong set of forks hence the busa.
I wanted to keep my wheels they are Dymag a classic part that is as old as the bike it’s self.

18 front running a 120 70 18 rear running a 160 60
Brakes off the busa is the neatest way for me to go so I did rotors and calipers, I needed to get big ass (technical term) spacers made as my wheels were narrower than the busa.

Now the busa front axle is so big it’s not funny lol but with my axle size being stock kz more bushings were needed for the front axle and a new axle was needed to I had both ends threaded and castellated nuts made for my piece of mind (had a front wheel fall of a bike once while pulling a wheelie not good!)

It’s at this point you wonder is my Speedo drive gonna fit? No it wouldn’t in my case so I have 3 sets of Speedo’s (don’t ask) that I can’t use lol.
Haven’t given up on that and ordered a new electronic Speedo yet! Lol

Headlight brackets were needed in my case 50 mm some nice ones out there.
Now the triple tree’s was all because of one nut.
I don’t mean myself either you see it was the nice gold busa nut that bolted the busa tree’s together it was so nice much nicer than the rusty old bolt that the kz stem required so I ordered some custom made trees for a busa with a custom kz size stem and the busa nut I even sent the guy a spare set of triple tree’s for I’m to get the stem length and the bearing size’s spot on, handle bar clamps were made by the same guy I sent him a drawing and he made it bolted it on,

Had to raise them up a inch because the valves in the forks hit the bars before coming through the trees,
So 1 inch risers were man buy new machinist,
Send or give the guy bearing and ask him to press them on before sending them all the way from Canada that way when he can’t get them on he will mill it down for free instead I opted for paying a second machinist locally to do it!

Brake lines are easy call Jeff at z1 and your get the best price on goodridge line’s I’ve ever seen.
So for the most part that was my front end swaped.
Now we move to the rear new chain and sprockets were installed as was a rear caliper and a rear brake rotor off a zrx1100 another spacer was required as a carrier for the rotor to mount to the wheel.
I’m checking the rear wheel spacing right now and going to check chain alignment,

I put the wheels on originally almost 20 ys ago now when I was young and stupid and im sure I said that’s close enough and gone for a ride lol.
I put new shorter shock’s on last year they are showa piggyback’s quite nice,

And with the shorter busa front end and the 18” front wheel the bike leveled up quite nicely and as a bonus I can now touch the ground both side’s which I never could before lol.

Now I have to say this that my wife and daughter have encouraged me all the way through this project,
Not once complaining, showing interest and even showing up at the garage I had to rent to do the work .

Any questions lol.

pictures,ya know i cant read! :laugh:

ill take some more pics this weekend ok! old fella lol.























all done! :ohmy:





More pic's here: kano's custom tree's

kano,so i kicked back,rolled one up and started reading your tutorial.uh did you actually finish writing that?i mean i remember starting to read it,bbbbut i don't really remember finishing it.maybe i will give it another try this evening :laugh: :blink: :laugh: :woohoo: .don't stop being you man your great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

leon holmes