Standard Fork Tubes

[BA80]

Will regular standard fork tubes interchange with Venturer air fork tubes?

[motoman]

Will regular standard fork tubes interchange with Venturer air fork tubes?

My guess would be 'yes'. I would imagine the Standards all used the same fork tube. CRS creeps in, but the Standard forks were one manufacturer and the Special forks were another. One was KYB and the other Shoiwa, just can't remember which was which.

[BA80]

I guess I'll just have to try it to be sure. I thought maybe someone would know.

I got a set of Venturer forks to go on my E but the tubes are pitted pretty bad. I have a couple of regular sets that have good tubes though.

[Eveready1100]

Yes, Greg.
They'll go straight in. just swap the caps over for your air assistance.
They're listed as the same part number as the G models

[BA80]

DUH!!!! Why didn't I think to look up the numbers. Thanks Eveready.

[MaximPhil]

DUH!!!! Why didn't I think to look up the numbers. Thanks Eveready.

Hi Greg,
The Venturer came with progressive springs though who knows what will be in there after 30+ years to help with the weight of the faring.
Phil

[BA80]

Pretty sure these are OEM Phil. Progressives will be cool.

I'll find out when I take them apart.

[Eveready1100]

Just to be truly on the safe side, when you swap the inners, swap the whole damper rod assembly and bolts as well just in case there's any discrepancies there. It should all be sweet, though.
In the past, I've mated Standard lowers to Special inners (swapping all the inner bits) and they worked fine. Just made up some risers to get the bars back out of the way of the fork tubes sticking 3 inches up through the triple clamps to retain a more level stance.

[BA80]

when you swap the inners, swap the whole damper rod assembly and bolts as well

That was the plan all along.

the fork tubes sticking 3 inches up through the triple clamps to retain a more level stance.

How can you afford to loose 3" of clearance for cornering? I would be scraping parts on EVERY corner.

[Eveready1100]

Greg, the frankenfork combination ends up being nearly 4 inches longer than either normal type of fork. Can't remember the actual difference in the tube length between the Special and Standard legs at the moment but it is substantial. I had to drop the forks in the clamps so the bike was more at the normal level.

[IMG][/IMG]
^ You can just see the tubes sticking up in this pic.
Front of the bike was still slightly raised.

[BA80]

You put special tubes in standard lowers? Why?

[Eveready1100]

In a word, desperation, Greg.
There's a thread on here that explains it all, but in a nutshell, I'd ordered a set of fork seals to suit my SF and the F%$%wit local (60klms away) Yamaha dealer supplied me with a set for a Standard, which I didn't realise till I'd ridden home and dismantled the forks on my bike completely and attempted to fit the newies.
Seeing I'd ruined my old ones getting them out, I grabbed the forks off my donor 78E (badly pitted tubes, unusable) and fitted the new seals to them and stuck them on the Special legs so I wouldn't be without a bike for the time a replacement set of seals arrived from the good ol' US of A.
After getting the front of the bike down to a more normal level, I rode it round for ages before getting around to returning it to original specs.
It handled just the same as with normal forks, and had the bonus of really good brakes for a change.
So much so, that when I put the Special bits back on, it was scary bad how little power came from the front brakes compared to the Standards calipers.
Very quickly sourced some braided lines and sintered pads to get it stopping again.

Found that old thread, Greg, if you feel like a read - CLICK

[BA80]

Ha ha ha.....OK. 2008 was a year before I came upon this scene.

Yeah, special front brakes don't work well without the proper pads. My SF was scary, I can nearly do stoppies with my SG though.

[XS-play]

Hmm this is some interesting info.

Hello, my name is Wolf. Newbie yes, but I have been around for more than a few decades and this is not my first bike. )

I am building an SG from someone else's "project". I stripped the bike back to bare metal and powder coated most everything. I am assembling it slowly, needing some head work to get the engine finished.

I have the correct SG calipers but I bought some basic EBC pads. I had a Midnight Special years ago and it stopped fine on basic pads IIRC.

AFAICT there are three different calipers used on the XS line. The SG calipers look to be the beefiest and I would assume more solid, Brake-wise.

Am I correct?

Peace, Wolf

[DGXSER]

Hi Wolf,

There are three different styles of calipers used on the XS line. The Standard models have the typical mounting style two bolt calipers on the front, with the single bolt the rear.

The Special models and the 80 Midnight Special all have the same rear caliper as the Standard models, however they use the "Weird Harold" (as Fred puts it) pivoting single bolt mount front calipers.

In 1981, on the Midnight Special models, Mommy Yammie went to a linked braking system. This system uses totally different components. So the front calipers, the Master Cylinders, and I believe the rear caliper are all different.