Topic: fork tube in the top triple tree?

[JBMorse]

I have what may sound like a dumb question:  When sliding your forks back into the triple trees, how far above the top triple tree should the fork tube stick out?  I can't remember how much tube was showing above the triple before I took it apart.
Thanks!

[Motoguy23]

I have my forks where the cap is just above the tree.  I've been told that you can put them lower or higher but it depends on how you want your bike to handle.  Lower gives you better turning and higher up gives you better stability at high speeds.  Thats what I was told at least, I'm not sure how much of a difference an inch makes up or down.

[Alan F.]

That's it alright, slip the tubes up an inch and the front of the bike goes down an inch, trail is reduced and the bike handles better at lower speeds but may become unstable at higher speeds.

Extended forks won't handle better, but out on a long stretch of straight road the bike will be nice and stable at speed.
-Alan

[JBMorse]

Cool thanks for the info guys!  I was going to add a pic to clarify my question and saw I already had some answers!  Thanks.  I'm posting the pic anyway.  I like to leave a clear and concise post if possible so that future searchers may find them useful.

So what I was talking about was the fork tube sticking up out of the top triple tree, as shown here:


I'll probably leave mine around an inch high.  Thanks again!

[Alan F.]

It looks cool too, I forgot to add that.

[wdhewson]

I just inserted a pair of front forks and faced the same question. 

You will want the clamp to completely hold the fork tube, so don't go lower than flush with the top of the clamp and the top of the tube. 

Also, the top of the tube will have a millimeter of so of chamfer or radius.  So I put the chamfer distance above the top of the top clamp.  So in brief, the tubes were about a millimeter proud of the top surface of the upper triple clamp.  More later, Don