Getting USD forks....

I have been pondering over this for some time now but not found the answer anywhere. I am hoping some tech wiz that has tinkered in this will share his/her knowledge...

The factory forks are rather road orientated so I was thinking of changing them to USD just like the TT kit (costs way too much). If I were to obtain the steering system of lets say KTM Adventure would the whole assembly slide straight into the GS without majour mods?

I don't think the KTM forks would fit, what sort of performance are you looking for?The Touratech springs are a huge improvement IMHO for road and trail use.You can also change the viscosity (SAE No.) of the fork oil to alter the damping.
If you want serious offroad ability then buy a KTM,it'll be cheaper than trying to make the GS something it isn't.
Try a search on the chaingang site at www.f650.com

Tony

Or buy a GS that has already been fitted with a WP fork!



Seriously, if you're really destined to fit some USD forks, go to a salvage yard, and try to find a complete front end of let's say, a Kawasaki KLX-R, Husky or any motorcross bike. Fork, wheel, brake, fender everything. Have a tube machined to fit the triple clamps to the frames headstock, tada!!

Let a specialist revalve/respring the fork and you're done. You will however run into complications with the steering lock/ignition switch.

I asked around a bit and found that the best way to do the conversion is to get the whole front end of a USD'ed bike including wheel, caliper, yokes etc and mod the stem and maybe top yoke. It can be done relatively cheap providing you can find a front end that is.
It beats buying a £1000+ TT kit. Now to ring up afew breakers. Any suggestions or preferences guys?

Busy upgrading my xtz660 with an usd.
So far managed to collect a matching set of
Forks - WPUSD 4053 from a '90 Husqvarna TE610, fully adjustable
Yokes - WPUSD from a mid '80 KTM 500
Brake - Brembo 2 piston floating from a '90 Husqvarna TE610
Wheel - Nordisk 21" from a KTM 300
Axis - WP

As I'm planning to use a SIXO rallycomputer, I do not have to worry
for a speedo attachment on the wheel, although according to the KTM
manuals it's not a problem fitting one in ths ancient wheel.

Disk - Not sure yet.
AFAIK a F650 disk wil fit this KTM wheel, but I'm still looking for
a conversionkit to fit this larger disk.
Otherwise a smaller diameter Husqvarna or KTM disk will have to do.

This weekend I'am going to see if the offset of these yokes will fit with
the xtz; it could be a problem when using the newer ktm yokes.
Alternative would be some Ducati yokes I've been told, but I haven't figured out yet from which type.
If the can get the right bearings, and the yolks fit, the next step is
to get the forks adjusted to the heavier xtz.

A good resource to see which parts can be combined is this site,
Ktm Info,
with al the partno etc of every ktm since '95...

Costs so far 170 Euro's, all parts found on e-bay, most in Germany.
If you want to extend your e-bay search to the German spoken countries,
these words can be handy:

Gabel = forks
Gabelbrücken = Yokes
Vorderrad = Frontwheel
Bremsscheibe = Disk