XR600 Upside down forks

[Sage]

Hi All.

Any one who has done this mod, would you have the dimentions of a XR 600 steering head stem, mine is a 1996.

Reason being, I'm going to fit a Yamaha front end and want to make a new stem, but as I use the bike a lot I would like to make it prior to stripping the bike, so I can keep using it and not have it in bits for to long.

Thanks Andrew

[sliabhrossa]

Hi Andrew,
I'd be slow to swap over the whole front end untill you are sure you wont change the geometry of the bike, that is, examine the relationship between the stem centre and the fork centres, I have an xr650r with the front end off a crf450, she corners lovely but has a flighty front end at speed, especially accelerating while vertical.
By changing the yokes the rake has been affected, i am trying now to get a set of custom yokes made up, the same as the original but machined out to accept the much wider forks.
Measure the length from the centre of the stem to a line drawn between the 2 fork hole centres on both bikes, if they are the same then grand, if on the yamaha yokes its a shorter distance then you will reduce your rake as i have done. You might be better off sending away your xr forks to get set up.
Just my 2 cents, hope its of some help, rossa

[Sage]

Hi.

Thank you very much for the info, the main problem I'm trying to sort out is the over hang on the bottom of the fork, the bottom of the fork is lower than the disc, which I thought was a good idea to protect the disc from rocks, but when your in deep ruts they aren't very good at all, thought I'd broken my thumb two months a go, pressing on in a rut, must of been a rock/stone in the side of it and then bang and the handle bars are ripped out of my throtle hand.

So I have fitted XR 400 forks, better but still not as good as USD forks, trying to do it as cheap as I can just in case handling is worse.

[jamie92j]

i have some WR426 forks on my xr600 93, the previous owner fitted them, the bike handles fine although the fork seals are leaking so need to be set up properly, but i havent noticed any thing wrong just better, more stable front end which dosent crumble on drops like standard xr forks
go for it you wont regret it!

[Sage]

Hi Jamie.

Got the front end and starting to plan the machining that I need to do, I looking forward to it, look cool as well, did yours have the Yam front wheel as well?

[jamie92j]

Hi Jamie.

Got the front end and starting to plan the machining that I need to do, I looking forward to it, look cool as well, did yours have the Yam front wheel as well?

yes it has the whole yam front end including wheel, brake disc and complete yam brake set up. here is a picture, its not the best can get a better one if you like...

View image in gallery

good luck with your conversion