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Front wheel swap?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
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Anonymous

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I would like to put a smaller front wheel and better twin disc brakes on my '82 GS550LZ, does anyone know if a "83-'86 GS550E or ES 16" front wheel and caliper will fit the '82 L front forks? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks. Tom.
 
The front fenders have different bolt locations and offsets, because of the "L" model leading axle, compared to the standard axle. Therefore, you could change wheels, but you'd have to fabricate offset mounts for the fenders.

Also, it's possible that the brake caliper mount points are different, but I'm not sure.

Best to check first, before buying the replacement wheels. If it's a local sale, good. If it's a long-distance Ebay sale, don't risk it.
 
Now that I've thought about this some more, it occured to me that if your "L" has only one front disk, then maybe only one of your lower fork legs has a "boss" to mount the disk. The other fork leg may not have a boss at all.

If this is the case, you should be looking at a whole front end off a newer twin-disk bike.
 
I don't mind fabricating a fender mount bracket, but
If I can't mount the dual calipers then I will have to change the fork tubes. I'm not sure if the E/ES tubes will fit the L triple tree.
 
just look for a complete newer front end, brakes, wheel, forks, triple. Otherwise you will just cause a headache for your self looking for every little part you need. i would go with a new gsxr 600 inverted frontend. they should bolt right up.

-ryan
 
The "L" has a 19" wheel and I would like to replace it with the E/ES wheel which is a 16". I think it would be easier to replace just the fork tubes and calipers rather than swapping in a whole new style front end. Besides I like the gearshift indicator and the fuel gauge on the "L", the new bikes don't even have them. I will have to measure the tube diameter and span between the tubes to see if they will match the triple tree.
 
Going from a 19in to a 16in front is going to radically alter your bikes rake/trail and change handling probably for the worst. I am guessing that you probably have a 16in rear- I don't think that both 16in wheels front and back will work well together.

You could try using a 18in front-many of these were dual disc equipted. This would be a more moderate change and would not drastically alter your bikes handling.

Also, you can do a complete front end swap and still use the stock gauges, I am in the process of grafting a 1993 Katana 750 front to my 1983 GS750ED. I am getting rid of the 16in front in favor of a 17in so I can run modern radials. I had brackets fabricated to mount the instrument cluster to the Katana triple clamps. It is even easier if you do not have to work around any plastic bodywork.

Good Luck, Ed
1983 GS 750EDhttp://groups.msn.com/SuzukiGSGarage/gs750edbacktolife.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=3334
 
Ed- One of my main reasons for trying this experiment is to change the handling of he "L" to make it more like the ES which handles great. By changing to the 16" front it should drop the front end 1.5" (just based on the wheel dia.), plus whatever effect the fork length and angle will have, and the tire height difference. What negative effects do you think the change could have if I try to duplicate what was done on the ES. Is there any particular reason the rims can not be the same dia. front and back? They really aren't the same dia. anyway because of the tire height differences(aspect ratio). Are there some basic rules for rake/trail & fork angles? I always wondered about those custom choppers you see and whether those designs were safe or not. So far the fork tube centers do not match up, the ES is about 3/16" wider than the "L" so I could still try to remove that amount from each side of the front axle spacers equally dividing the difference. Or I could just swap the entire front end as you guys have suggested, which may work really well, because the ES has the same features as the "L" (fuel gauge & gearshift indicator) and they might even work as is. I don't know if the speedo drive will adapt, and I'm not sure about the other elec. connectors but I will look into that. Ed, what are you doing with your 750ED front end? Thanks. Tom.
 
Stability and maneuverability work together, increase one and you decrease the other. Going to a 16in front on a bike designed with a 19in front is quite a change. This will surely quicken up steering, but at what cost? The change in head angle, weight on the front wheel and reduction in wheel diameter will degrade stability for sure. In addition you are going to lose a good bit of ground clearance which may present a problem. I guess you don't know till you try, but I would be careful. The ES works well with the 16 as it was designed with that wheel.

I have never ridden one of those splayed out choppers, but I would expect them to be stable with the large head angle-just not very maneuverable.

I am putting a 1993 Katana 750 front end on my 1983 GS750ED. I have long wanted to go to modern 17in rubber, I got a smokin deal on an entire rolling chasis with everything included. It has 41mm forks compared to the original GS 37mm units and floating discs. Wheel sizes will be 17x3 front and 17x4.5 rear. The increase in front wheel size -16in to 17in- will be balanced by the shorter Katana forks. Ground clearance should only be slightly reduced due to using lower profile radials.
Entire bike is being rebuilt with a fresh motor- should be done by Spring.
Good Luck, Ed.
 
Well I can't use the "L" triple tree the fork span and the tube diameters (35mm vs 37mm) are different on the ES. So I may try a swap at the steering head, I'm thinking to try the ES front end and see how it goes. It looks like the front end will drop about 2.5", 1.5" due to wheel dia and 1" on the fork tube length.
 
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