82 1100E with 92 GSXR suspension swap - questions

[Guest]

picked up a complete 92 gsxr roller a few months back for $150 (steal, I know) and am planning on swapping the entire gsxr front onto the E, then grafting the mono setup onto the rear.

but I notice right off that the height at the top of the steering stems are about 3" apart - the gsxr sits about 36" from the top of the neck to the floor, and the E sits at 39". know others have done this swap before, but have not seen any notes about the differences in height before. If I bring the front down then I'll need to bring the rear down to keep the ride height and geometry in sync. any tips?

it reading through the various posts about the swap that the steering head bearings will not need to be changed and that this is a straight bolt up, just looking for validation here.

photos to come, looking to build something like the blue one in the foreground:

[Billy Ricks]

When I did my first suspension swap I used the '88 750 forks which were the shortest Suzuki ever used on a Gixxer. I did have the advantage of going to a 17" wheel from a 16" wheel so I gained a little there. But the front of my bike still sat way lower than before. It didn't make the bike fidgety or unstable.

Do you already have a 17" radial on the rear? That alone might lower the rear if you don't. You won't have to make up all of the difference. You can quicken the steering by bringing the forks up in the triples on a stock bike so don't worry about making it all up. These old GS's are so stretched out that an inch less will probably still keep the bike very stable. Even on new GSX-Rs racers will bring the forks up in the triples that much and more depending on the track. If you can get 2" back you'll be safe. When are you doing the swingarm swap or have you? Maybe do a combination of a slightly shorter shock and changing the angle it's mounted at a tiny bit.

[Duke]

wanting to do some thing simular so i will be watching this with much interest.
Please keep the info rolling.

And yes I have an E sitting ready to go... just need to find a donnor GSXR.

[saffa]

gsxr 750 wp/wn forks are a direct bolt in. even the lockstops are the same.
ive used them on my 1100 ez and have had no real issues with ground clearance as yet. Bike handle pretty well.

[miked]

have the frontend off the E as of the other night. need to slot some time to get the donor bike apart and get the GSXR front end onto the E

@saffa - great looking bike, maybe its the photo perspective but front wheel looks larger than stock GSXR? which swingarm? extended? nice bike, very close to what I'm hoping to do

[saffa]

glad you like it..

front end complete is stock gsxr 750 wp (93/94). rear wheel and ancilliaries also from same donor. swinger is a JMC swinger which are sadly no longer in production but do pop up on ebay or oldskoolsuzuki from time to time. you can get the same sort of result by having a bandit 12 swinger extended. clocks are gs1000 and use the gsxr speedo drive and cable as well as the gsx rev counter cable....totally interchangeable.

on the lock stops though i found the frame to not have the equal amount of meat around that area to prevent the fork tube and tank saying hello so i bolted a small plate in under the headstock to sort it ..

[miked]

you can get the same sort of result by having a bandit 12 swinger extended.

how much did you extend? I'm thinking that 3-4" should do the trick. I've got the mono shock setup off the '92 donor but not sure if I'm going to go with it, right now I'm thinking that I'm not, but will deal with that when I get there. first things first, need to eat the elephant in small bites

[saffa]

the jmc i have is 6in over. twin shockers look really good i think....gives a nice period look.

[MikeG]

I'm looking at this for my 82 750E. Any of you done this before?

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/mcy/2792638894.html

[Billy Ricks]

Looks like a good deal. You could easily spend more than that gathering parts.