Topic: Fork length on a cafe

[CDN Marvin]

With all of these threads about building cafe racers, I am starting to think about cafeing my 74 CB750.  Do you use shorter forks, push the forks up the trees, or leave stock length?  Also, what is the stock length for the fork on a 750?  I bought mine done up as a sort of chopper.  It has the mini apehangers, king queen seat with sissy bar, 17"? Harley rear rim, and the front forks appear to be longer than they should be.  Oh yeah, and it had big hard saddlebags.  

[bgfootball67]

You can buy stock length fork legs from Cycle X for a good price.  I just replaced mine due to rust under the headlight ears.  Per running up or down in the triple trees that has a bunch to do with personal preference, mounting clip-ons and general look you are going for.  It effects handling in different ways.  Good luck either way.

[bill440cars]

             I don't remember what the difference is but, I think CB550 forks are shorter than the 750s and you could put them in your triple tree (if you are looking to lower the front of your bike, without sliding the tubes up into the triple tree). Like bgfootball said, it's your choice. That's the whole idea, you do it your way. So, just look at some of the others, maybe get some info from some of those who've done it and decide which way you want to go. Keep in mind that, if you lower the bike, you make sure you have plenty of room for your suspension travel. LOL with your decisions and your build.

                                                Later on, Bill  

[physician]

are you in canada? i'm near montreal, quebec, a local guy have a 750 front end if your interested. i have a 550 and gl 1000 front end, that both need rebuild if you want

[Stu400]

This one looks approx 12 feet

[CDN Marvin]

So I am guessing then that most people are using stock length front forks then.  One of the local bike shops thought my forks were about 6" longer than stock.  I like the general look of most of the cafe bikes that I have seen here, but didn't know if I could achieve that look with stock forks.

I am in Winnipeg.  I am going to ride it this year in chopper form, and then work on changing it to a more cafe style next winter.

Thanks for the help!

[Kamal]

I have lowered bikes before, and there's a dandy way that you can put a spacer underneath the damper rod to limit the rebound position of the forks (You have to completely disassemble the forks and then cut the springs to suit).  On the lowered bike to the left, I used 4" long pvc pipes in each fork leg, which left almost no suspension travel.  And no, I don't ride harleys!  It was just a fun project. And a blast to ride...it would scrape so easlity around turns that it forced you to learn how to lean your weight off the bike around corners and ride it upright so you wouldn't scrape so much!

I would suggest a stock set of forks, and if you want to lower the bike a bit, slide them in the trees a bit.  You could also find a set of CB550 forks, which will slide into your trees, but are a little shorter.   If you are looking to race or corner hard, then I would suggest setting your suspension up a bit more like the racers do.

Most important thing first is to figure out if what you have is stock height or not.

[CDN Marvin]

I don't think I want to lower the bike much more than stock.  I measured the front fork lenght with the bike resting on the center stand.  From the top of the fork legs it was 22" to the top of the lowers, and 35" to the axle.  I just realized that these measurements may be meaningless, as I did not ensure that the forks were fully extended with now weight on them.  If anyone can check these measurement on a stock set of forks it would give me an idea how much longer my forks are.

[Spikeybike]

From the top of the fork legs it was 22" to the top of the lowers, and 25" to the axle. 

ok...so..your fork lowers are only 3" long ?

[CDN Marvin]

Oooops that should have been 35".