Forum

[Dennis]

Hi, would like to change my fork shrouds and fit gaiters. Before buying the bits how easy or difficult is it ?

[John M]

Remove front wheel.


Remove mudguard.


Remove fork legs from yokes /tripple clamps.


Remove shrouds and fit gaiters.


Re-assemble.


Stand back, look at bike and wonder if it looked better with shrouds!


 


Have fun. 

[PeteF]

You need a 1/2" hex to unscrew the fork leg from the top yoke. This goes through the top of the yoke once the caps are removed. The rod that holds the front footrests happens to be 1/2" hex or you could get a piece of bar or allen key.


The job looks better if you use short shrouds at the top of the gaiter to fill the gap between the casquette and the gaiter. Available from Mr H or cut down the ones you take off.

[John J]

Hi. No need to take out staunchions. After removing fork bottom legs, cut off fork covers 1 inch below clamp bolt. Then fit gaiters. See earlier post about 2 weeks ago.

[John J]

Should have added, the end result is well worth it.

[Dennis]

Thanks for the info, not as difficult as i thought, where`s my tea mug .......................

[PeteF]

Yes, you can work from the bottom but you can run into problems with the spring stud nuts. These tend to spin with the spring studs.


Cutting the shrouds off neatly would be easier with them off the bike I would have thought.


Perhaps it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.


'Course, if you need to check the seals or want to change to softer springs while you're at it then it's bottom up.

[ChrisD]

Dennis


I went through this a couple of weeks ago (look down to the item "Fork
Shrouds" started 14th Feb). You can follow JohnM's advice and all will be well.  Suggest you get the shorty shrouds to cover the top of the gaiters. 


I couldn't get the upper tubes off even with the 1/2" allen key and a
big hammer, there was no movement (turn clockwise to unscrew).  I’d heard
of people who had persisted and ended up stripping threads in the
casquette. 


So I pulled off the lower legs (changed spring and oil to ATF).  It needed a fast hit with a ring spanner to
get the oil stud nut loose (and its a good time to change the oil) then easy
once the lower leg is off (follow our hosts technical notes on
ForkSpringReplacement).  The only difficult
bit was getting the gaiter over the top of the lower leg.  But the report by Jenny (Bulletmania ~2006)
made it so easy (I’ve copied her critical text with images onto my photobucket
ChrisD).  Note if you don’t get the main
tubes off, you will have to cut the old shrouds off and cut the new shortie
ones – do it the way shown in  my images
in photobucket and it worked perfectly (see address from the previous Fork
Shrouds discussion).  nIf you do it that way, they can still be bolted on using the upper clamp bolts.


Having gaiters feels no better but looks much better. 



Note, even if you do get the main tubes (upper legs) off, you will still
have to use Jenny’s method of getting the gaiters on.  That takes about 1 minute!


Was it worth the effort. Yes, they look great.


Have fun.