Hey everyone My name is Andrew I am new here so i would like to introduce myself to everyone. I live in NY and although I am not newe to bikes, I am working my my first bike build that is not a chopper/cruiser type. I used to race closed circuit street bikes and dirt bikes.
I picked up a 1987Honda VT700c, its is just a mess right now its been sitting for a while and sat outside for the last year uncovered and untouched. was not kept properly but its an extremely good bike for a build.
I am tearing the bike apart and am here just checking out what people are up to. mostly here for info, knowledge and ideas.
since the bike did not come with front brakes at all, no calipers, master cylinder or levers and a seal leak.. I was thinking of replacing the whole complete front end of the bike with a Yamaha R1 front end. It would make my front end look alot beefier ofcourse but i am thinking it will also have 10 times better stopping power. Has anyone ever done something like this? or should I just rebuild the forks to stock and just add whatever is missing?
would like to hear peoples opinions and stories if anyone has any to share.
Thanks all and pleasure meeting everyone!
I am pretty new here but from looking around this site it is pretty clear the anything can be done to a motorcycle. If you are looking for a new front end I would take a look and figure out your steering stem length and diameter. Once you have these numbers then I would search for (look at modern Honda bikes, more likely to find a match in the same manufacturer) a front end that would be a direct bolt on. Depending on your end goal you might look at sport bike front ends or dirt bike front ends. I have spent a bit of time trying to stretch my front end out and in the end had to order longer fork tube to suit my build.
Happy Hunting and good luck with the build.
I would look at the neck bearing part number for the front end that you want to use. I suggest looking at All Balls or even Bike Bandit. If the part number is the same then the only thing you would have to look at is stem length. The Japanese bikes are usually pretty good about standardizing their stuff. For example: a Road Star and certain year R6 front forks will bolt on to a XS650 chassis. Hopefully this helps.
How would i do that? Just get shorter shocks?
Quickest cheapest way to lower a swingarm bike is with struts. Make 'em any length you want.
Rebuild the stock forks if the tubes arent pitted.
You can swap tubes/lowers from any bike as long at the diameters match the trees... axles, spacers and brakes will need some thought/effort. Pay attention to overall length too.
Stem swaps are not unheard of.
Ride now add front brakes later. If youre ok with that sort of thing.