78 gs550 front end upgrade.

[porterville]

are there any front ends that i can just trade out for my 78 gs550? Ive hurd that the gsxr is a bolt on application to the 750??? i dont remember which one, is it possable that the gsxr front end would work on my bike?

[cm113]

Well, on your 78 GS550 you can not put a GSXR type frontend on it without some machine work.
The GS550 has the smaller of the 2 sizes of steering head bearing that suzuki has used over the years. And the bigger bikes has the larger of the 2 sizes. The difference is the lower steering head bearing on the 550 is smaller (ID and OD) than the bigger bikes lower bearing.

That being said, it can be made to work with a little machining. You can machine the later model (bigger) steering stem to fit the older (smaller) lower steering head bearing. That way you can use the modified steering stem and trees in the GS550 steering head using the GS550 bearings or aftermarket replacement bearings for the GS550. I have just done this to my 78 GS550 project and everything worked out great.

If you have any detailed questions on this conversion, would be happy to try to answer.

[Nerobro]

You could grab the forks off a 1983 + gs550e or ES. Or you could just rebuild what you've got. The forks aren't really lacking. $200 in parts and you can have forks that have cartirage emulators and springs set for your weight.