Fork Brace

[cajun31]

typo

I meant to type 25-0036 rather then 23-0036.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Cajun,

I didn't look yet, but if you haven't, would be nice to post a PRODUCT REVIEW in that forum regarding this brace. If you have photos, that would be nice also, otherwise you can post LINKED photos from the manufacturer's site.

T.C.

[xs650man]

My SG came with a TKAT brace, nice piece of engineering, only thing I would change are the non metric cap screws, I had to dig deep in my tool box for an imperial allen key to remove the brace for fork work lol

[donebysunday]

I did a preliminary fit on the bike and although it fit I did a few modifications on the brace. The screws that screw the middle section down are too long for the Special so I took my dremel and cut them down level with the bottom of the brace. It then fit fine. No problems with the fork sliders... the 23-0036 sport model fits like a glove on the special. My dust covers fit fine and the arched middle is well off the fender. I am a bit of a perfectionist however so I also used my dremel to round off the edges of the bottom of the two pieces that fit on the inside of the fork sliders closest to the fender. Although it was not necessary to do this I just wanted to allow a little more space there so after I get everything mounted permanently water will still be able to flush debris out of that space. I plant to paint them a gloss black to match my color scheme. I am very pleased with this brace. Hopefully it will make a difference in eliminating the front fork sway that I have experienced in the past.

Jim at fast from the past does not know if the sport brace which is for the euro special (different from the U.S. special) will fit ? I will let him know it does so he can change his app. chart. I will order mine at the same time

[cajun31]

Hey Done

I had mine powder coated mirror black. That was after I did all the dremel work on it. The screws are a nice gold bronze color so I left them alone and it matches the black and gold scheme of the bike. While I was doing the fork brace I also replaced the fork oil and fork seals and amazingly enough my bike stiffened enough so that I am not using the brace right now. I still have it and it does fit nicely, however I always liked the look of my bike as originally configured. From my eye the fork brace kills that look so I am doing without it for now. I still have the option of mounting it if I need or want to.

Keep in mind that as shipped the brace absolutely needs to be modified a bit so that the screws do not scratch the fender. Take my word for it... don't even mount it until you cut the screws down flush with the bottom of the brace. I would also recommend you use some Loctite blue when making your final installation. As I mentioned earlier you will notice just around the screws there is a rigid arch that you can round off with the dremel to give more room between the brace and the fender. Without doing that the brace is a very close fit. It doesn't rub mind you just very close. Once I rounded that area off it was well off the fender and in my opinion actually made the brace look better. Again a perfectionist at heart.

[donebysunday]

Thank You ! Jim wants to see it on the bike once I install it. I will keep in mind the mods you suggest !