Hitchcocks Forum

Are they the right ones? They're SO tight. I can't work out how to get them on at all. By heating it up to soften I have managed to get one on this far but now I'm stuck:


What's going on?

Matt, best and easier to get the fork tubes off and slide the gaiters on. Anyway you need to remove the tubes metal shrouds to fit the gaiters.

Ah. How do I remove the fork tubes?

Undo the pinch bolt on each side of the lower yoke/triple clamp remove the two plugs at the top of each fork leg and using a suitable tool screw the fork tubes clockwise (when looking from the top)and the legs will wind out.
If you look in the technical notes on this site there is some useful info.

http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/pi ... o_1988.pdf

I'm not sure what is the suitable tool for the later bi-hex tubes, but I haven't got one so I presume I used a large allen key when I did mine.

Thanks John. All done now. I just removed the lower aluminium sections and then unscrewed the steel forks by hand, fitted the gaiters and put it all back together again. Now I know how it seems so easy, like all these things. It's just doing it the first time that is the hardest. The bike looks great now!

You will not get the gaiters over the tubes. Carefully cut the tubes with a junior hacksak 1 inch below pinch bolts Use wd40 slide the gaitors inside the tubes. Job done.

Thanks everyone. The job is done now. I'm about the refill the forks with oil but before I do I am a bit concerned. With the bike on the center stand propped up on some wood I can rock the bike on and off the front wheel. The suspension fully extends with a loud clunk... metal on metal as the forks top out without any weight one them. Will this sharp snappy clunk be resolved by the addition of oil? or have I assembled the forks wrong do you think? Thanks again.

Additionally. I just took the bike off it's stand and under it's own weight I think the forks bottom out... I'm disappointed and a bit frustrated in what I've done wrong. All for gaiters. If it aint' broke don't fix it - comes to mind. It's no massive problem obviously, I'll just have to strip it all down again and work by the workshop manual putting it back together instead of just going by feel and what I think. I'll get there. Any tips are welcome though.

No oil = no damping so they will top out. Shouldn't bottom out under their own weight though. They might just bottom out as you took it off the stand I suppose. I'd bung some oil in and see.

I could be wrong of course but you appear to have fitted Gaiters to forks with long shrouds, if you have the shroud will press on the lower part of the gaiter and stop the forks moving correctly.