Special vs Standard Tripple Trees

[newmaac]

Alright suspension Gurus, One of the guys on our list, is looking to replace his Special tripple trees with those from a Standard.
I have extra Tripple trees, but without seeing them mounted to the bike, I have no way to identify which model they came from.
Does anyone have a distinguishing feature, or measurement that I can use to identify them?
TIA

[sidecarKev]

I can't give you exact measurement right now, don't have the trees in hand. But I can tell you the Standard has larger distance from the steering stem to the forks. The special also steps the upper fork holes up somewhat. Kinda hard to explain. But if you use fork ears from a special on a standard they won't work. I think I got that right. Anyways If this person does this they will be reducing the trail of the bike. This will lead to quicker steering or unstable steering. Not sure I would recommend this unless there was a sidecar attached.

[newmaac]

That is his application. He is wanting to put the Standard trees on the Specail, in order to change the rake, for a side car installation.

I have heard of this being done, I just have not personally seen it.

I actually have both a Special and a Standard out in the yard.
I should be able to take the loose parts and compare them to the two bikes to see which one they match, I would imagine.

[sidecarKev]

Okay I was a little bit off. The standard does have the more offset fron the neck to forks, but it is the one that is also offset in a different direction. The special is pretty flat. See pics.

This is a standard triple.


This is a special triple.


Notice that I now have a gap from the upper triple to the fork ears. Need to fill that in with something or use special ears. My headlight mounted fairing wobbles around alot. So if you were to put standard triples on a special I would also opt for the fork ears from a standard.
To get even more trail reduction I would use the lower from the standard and upper from a special. You have to force it on, but it will go. Thats what I have now. I think that would reduce the trail from 5.2 down to 2.75 or something like that. I think I posted an article on that before.

[newmaac]

Excellent!!
Thanks, Kevin