Fork Gaiters for 1981 GS450E in Aus?

[pete]

Anyone happen to know where I could locate suitable decent quality fork gaiters in Aus for a 1981 GS450E?

Will be painting my lowers soon and getting ready to reassemble the forks, so time to start trying to locate gaiters.

I took some measurements and the lowers are 55mm diameter, the indent for the dust seal is 5mm wide, and the stanchions are 33mm diameter.

I've searched on here and found nothing much except a lot of lighted hearted debate about fresh water vs. salt water gators/crocs

I haven't done the bike shop crawl, but I don't really get time to do that these days and so I tend to search the 'net for parts and get them shipped if I can.

[simon kuether]

Have you tried Ray at Suziparts in Adelaide ?

Cheers , Simon .

[pete]

Hoping to avoid Suziparts unless necessary... they ain't cheap! Nothing against Ray as I just got excellent service getting some gaskets etc. but the prices scare me too much at the moment.

If I can't find them reasonably priced elsewhere then I'll see what he has to offer, but they're not a standard part for my bike either so I'll have to find what models have suitable gaiters before asking him.

[pete]

Not having much luck here.

I did remember one thing I missed in my rush posting this this morning though which was to do the reverse parts lookup on Bike Bandit.

I found the following models have dust boots in common with my forks, so I guess the next question is do any of these models have an alternative model that has gaiters? Time for the painful side of the search now...

1974 Suzuki GT380L
1975 Suzuki GT250M
1975 Suzuki GT380M
1976 Suzuki GT250A
1976 Suzuki GT380A
1977 Suzuki GS400B
1977 Suzuki GS400XB
1977 Suzuki GT250B
1977 Suzuki GT380B
1978 Suzuki GS400C
1978 Suzuki GS400XC
1979 Suzuki GS425EN
1979 Suzuki GS425LN
1979 Suzuki GS425N
1980 Suzuki GS250TT
1980 Suzuki GS450ET
1980 Suzuki GS450LT
1980 Suzuki GS450ST
1981 Suzuki GS250TX
1981 Suzuki GS450EX
1981 Suzuki GS450LX
1981 Suzuki GS450SX
1981 Suzuki GS450TX
1982 Suzuki GN250Z
1982 Suzuki GS300LZ
1982 Suzuki GS450EZ
1982 Suzuki GS450GAZ
1982 Suzuki GS450LZ
1982 Suzuki GS450TXZ
1982 Suzuki GS450TZ
1983 Suzuki GN250D
1983 Suzuki GS300LD
1983 Suzuki GS450ED
1983 Suzuki GS450GAD
1983 Suzuki GS450TXD
1985 Suzuki GN250F
1985 Suzuki GS300LF
1985 Suzuki GS450GAF
1988 Suzuki GN250J

[pete]

Well that led me round and round in circles and no better off.

However, a more detailed and extensive Google search did reveal the following...

http://www.pyramid-parts.com.au/34-x-50-x-250-motorcycle-fork-gaiters-pair-black

My problem is knowing if these will fit.

The first two measurements look good to me, ie 34mm stanchions and 250mm length should be fine.

My question is the 50mm diameter at the bottom as I have never fitted a set of gaiters before.

The outer diameter of my fork lower is 55mm, but the indent where the factory standard dust seal seats is about 50mm diameter, so does anyone know if the gaiter is designed to sit in this recess or is there some other secret way that I'm not coming to grips with here?

[GregT]

Those should work for you - ideally the gaiters should be a tight fit onto the slider tops - and forks designed for gaiters usually have a parallel portion,often with a retaining lip, for them to seat on.
Seating the tops direct on the stanchions is not ideal but should be OK.
The best is an inverted cup attatched to the bottom yoke - with them direct onto the stanchions it's possible to destroy the gaiters if you bottom out the forks.
The dirt bike shops here in NZ carry a pretty extensive range of gaiters, I'd assume it's the same in OZ.

Greg T

[pete]

Cheers Greg, I haven't had the opportunity to go looking at shops yet but it looks like that's what I should be doing.

I'm trying to visualise what you're saying and finding it a little difficult, but I think I get the general idea.

[Suzuki_Don]

Pete if you get some dirt bike gaiters, the bright yellow or orange ones might best suit your purposes.

The Suzuki GT series cycles had gaiters on their forks. And as our GS bikes replaced the GTs the forks could be very similar. I have a friend who has a 380 and a 550 in the GT series and they both have gaiters on the forks. Unfortunately he is too far away for me to take any measurements.





This is the 380 Sebring from 1972.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[pete]

Thanks Don I must be going blind, or perhaps I just looked at too many models on the Alpha Sports site and got confused.

The GT380 Sebring is one of the models I looked at but didn't recall seeing fork boots there... oh well.

When I get a chance, I'll compare what parts are in common between the 380 and my GS, as from memory the 380 I saw had the dust caps in common with my GS' dust caps.

If that's the case, and the same lower and stanchion are used for the 380 models with both the dust cap and the gaiters, then those gaiters should be an exact fit for my GS.

As for the yellow or orange ones... well... I'll stick with black for the look I want

[pete]

Just posting a quick end to this thread in case anyone comes along looking for the same thing.

I found Honda CL450 gaiters that may or may not fit and the dealer wanted $80 each, so I passed on them.

Honda CL350 gaiters probably would fit, but the part appears to be discontinued but if it was able to be ordered, they're $60 each, so pass on them also.

Suzuki GT380 gaiters would probably also fit, but they were also $60 each, so I passed.

Fortunately, the dealer had just received new stock of aftermarket ones and it just so happens they should fit pretty much like a glove. They're 250mm long whereas the forks only have 140mm fork travel, but hopefully that will be ok as I don't recall ever bottoming out my forks.

Aftermarket ones were $20 for the pair... worth a try

[bwringer]

There's no point in searching for OEM parts. I have aftermarket dirtbike gaiters on my VX800:



They're stretchy, and the manufacturer specifies a range of sizes they will fit. Pretty easy, really.

[pete]

I only looked at OEM because I was confident they would be at least a close fit, if not a perfect fit.

However, at the price, after market does me just fine and if I need to trim them up and get it wrong, then it's only $20 down the tubes, not $120+.