GS850 fork swap?

[lemmon95gt]

I have a 82 GS850.....I'm curious to know what gsxr...katana or other newer bike front fork setup will work with my bike?

[Cooperss]

Same situation I am in, looking now for answers. Any comments would be appreciated as I will be using clip ons and the top tree def needs to go! Cheers!

[Dogma]

The problem with a front end swap on a shafty is that you usually wind up with a radial tire on the front with no easy way to do the same on the rear.

If you just want a better ride and handling on otherwise healthy forks, get some straight rate springs (Sonic) and cartridge emulators (RaceTech).

[hillsy]

With a few exceptions, Suzuki did a really neat thing and ran the same steering head bearing on all their GS's and most GSXR's as well. Upper: 25 x 47 x 15 and Lower: 30 x 55 x 17mm

Probably the best candidate would be a Bandit 600/1200 as it is the newest and you will probably find better condition forks available.

[bwringer]

The problem with a front end swap on a shafty is that you usually wind up with a radial tire on the front with no easy way to do the same on the rear.

If you just want a better ride and handling on otherwise healthy forks, get some straight rate springs (Sonic) and cartridge emulators (RaceTech).

Yep. The front end you have is quite capable with a few well-chosen upgrades.

The big mistake I see on most of these conversions is that sportybike donor forks are a lot shorter and the wheel is a 17" wearing a low profile radial tire instead of a 19", so you end up with MUCH lower ride height and severely compromised cornering clearance. Kinda silly to install spiffy forks if you can't lean the thing over, plus it just plain looks stupid with its nose slammed to the pavement. I've seen perhaps one, maybe two examples of the front end done right, where it retains needed ride height. Bandit forks might be a good option, or maybe even something like a V-Strom.

As mentioned, another issue is your rear tire size is limited by the rear wheel. A 140 tire usually rubs the swingarm and definitely goofs up handling, so there may or may not be a good solution for that on a shaftie. Even a widened rear wheel would have tire interference issues on the left.