Hitchcocks Forum

I wondered if anyone knows if Indian Bullet forks will fit the Pre-unit 250 Clipper, with regard to length etc, please?

Are you thinking of using the whole front end? I have a Clipper Parts Book somewhere (it's not on our Hosts site) and I'll have a look at the details if you want.

REgards, Mark

There are at least two different length Indian made forks; the 350 forks are slightly longer then the 500.


Even if they were identical regards length, the tops of the Indian fork are different to Redditch items where they screw into the casquette/speedo housing and the screw-in plugs. Not a bigge.

If you get new Indian forks pull them apart before you use them. I got a set of brand new ones and found the oil control collars fitted upside down and the 2 small springs that go on the spring stud were missing and a piece of rubber was put in place of them. This is no good and I purchased the proper springs from Hitchcock's. There is fork information in the Hitchcock's Technical Notes showing how the forks should be put together.

I have tried checking part numbers, the Indian numbers are different to the Redditch ones so not easy to know if they fit!
Just thinking ahead as the Redditch fork parts are getting harder to find, so i thought maybe to use the more easily obtainable Indian forks.
Thank you for taking the time to reply - very nice.

Lots of parts interchange, lots of parts are similar, eg; the wall thickness of the Indian made forks are thicker (different tensile strength) and thus use different springs etc. You can not fit Reddith made springs into Indian made fork tubes, but you can the opposite way...


Fork seals are similar but different, same with damper tubes.


To use a sweeping generalisation, wheels forks brakes and suspension are just about nearly almost not quite fully interchangeable from 1948 through to today.

Yes I have 1964 RE 350 Bullet that had the old style forks with the seals in a housing that screwed onto them. Very different to the type of fork that has the seals that you can replace by taking the old seal out and put a new one in again. Now these old forks were completely stuffed and so I started to look for a brand new set. Some one on the forum had fitted some new Indian ones and said that they just screwed into the necelle with no problems. I did this with the new forks and they screwed right in. The same length and everything. I do not know anything about a pre-unit clipper you will have to find out if this can be done with a clipper. Bullet Whisperer may know as I think that he races a clipper.

Thank you for all your kind replies.
I am using the trials top yoke that the catalogue says will fit English or Indian. The main concern is length, i will have to measure a pair of Indian forks. Hopeful!