Tarozzi Fork Brace - '80 850GL?

[Guest]

I have a Tarozzi fork brace on an '82 850G and it's great, am looking to put one on another bike, an '80 850GL. I looked up Tarozzi fork brace applications on the Fast From The Past website, but 850GL's were not on the list. I contacted Fast From The Past, and they said they only publish what they get from Tarozzi - unfortunately, information for 850GL's wasn't provided.

I measured the fork tube diameter on both bikes, and they are the same, 37MM. The space between the tubes appears to be the same also, as best I could measure.

So two questions:

1) Has anybody used a fork brace on an "L" model? A search on this site turned up a lot of info on fork braces, but I couldn't see that anyone had put a fork brace on an "L". Given that the fork tubes are longer on an "L", it would seem that this would do even more to keep the bike stable.

2) Does anyone know if the tube spacing on an 850G (185MM) is the same as an 850GL? If so, I can just order the same brace I already have, Fast part #24-0024.

Worst case, I'll just take the brace off the "G" and see if it works on the "L", but I'd appreciate any input before doing that.

[bwringer]

I'm about 99% sure the same brace will fit -- I checked this a while back as well. The center-to-center spacing is the same on both bikes and the other dimensions check out too.

The one potential variable might be the fender -- the GL fender is mounted a wee bit differently than the G, but I don't think it's actually a problem.

[DPage]

A followup from my original question on whether the Tarozzi fork brace for a GS 850G works on a GS 850GL. It does, but it's a VERY tight fit because of the fender, which rides up higher than the 850G's fender.

The first step was to lower the fender about 1/8" by elongating the fender mounting holes. Then I filed the middle of the fork brace (on the front side only) into an arc that follows the line of the fender, a little less than 1/8" at the middle. That's not as hard as it sounds because the middle part of the brace is lipped - you're not filing into a solid block of aluminum. Lastly, there is a little pad on the front outside braces that needs to be filed about 1/16" to clear the outside part of the fender. All this filing took less than 1/2 hour.

It sounds like a hassle, but Fast From The Past brace # 24-0024 works on an 850GL with some modifications. Fast From The Past also has some arched braces in their catalog that may fit (make sure the spacing is 185MM), but it would take someone with hands-on experience to know.

These Fast guys are missing an opportunity - they should know what fits an 850GL.