usd forks on an 86'

[kelroy_leon]

hey,
anyone out there with an 85'-88' cr 125-250-500 running usd forks? from what i gather, running early 90's fork is an easy way to go. i'd like to run my 1st gen forks possibly on my 86'. i have the complet front end but seem to having a hard time running part numbers to see just how close or difficult this is to do. any info will be greatly appreciated ! i saw somewhere an 84' cr 250 with all the suspension off of a 1st gen 250 ? ring a bell ?

[CR500R7]

At some stage the stem and bearing were made larger, you either get larger ID bearings for the Gen1 stem to fit inside your 86, or you get a smaller outside diameter stem made to fit the standard bearings on your 86.

[kelroy_leon]

sounds simple enough. i met with my friend who will be doing my a/f frame work today and have come up with my plan of attack. press the steer stem out of my 86' tree and the one from my 99' tree. turn two shouldered reducers to fit the smaller 86' stem to the 99' trees. i think this should work just fine.

[caseyracing222]

dont use 89,90,or 91 forks, they blow they dont have a rebound setting

[kelroy_leon]

My plan is to use my gen 1 cr 125 forks, a better, more updated design.

[CR500R7]

Press the steer stem out of my 86' tree and the one from my 99' tree. turn two shouldered reducers to fit the smaller 86' stem to the 99' trees. i think this should work just fine.

This was to be my next suggestion of how to go about it.

There is always more than one way to kill a dead cat.

[kelroy_leon]

Well,
I wont be using the gen 1 forks. I have a set of 91' clamps and forks that I can use but with the limited performance of the early forks, I'm gonna see if my 94' 125 forks will fit. The 94' kyb's should be ok if they fit, right ? Thanks

[87CR500Rider]

Well,
I wont be using the gen 1 forks. I have a set of 91' clamps and forks that I can use but with the limited performance of the early forks, I'm gonna see if my 94' 125 forks will fit. The 94' kyb's should be ok if they fit, right ? Thanks

My 87' CR500 forks outperformed my 93' KX125 and my buddies 94' KX250 forks. Both were much better than what Honda was slapping on their bikes at the time. Honestly, I like my 87' forks better than my 01' CR125 forks. Is there a reason you're swapping? There's a reason those 43mm cartridge forks are as highly praised as they are.

[kelroy_leon]

Honestly, I like the look better. I dont recall if in 85' anyone was running usd's on thier factory hondas ? I always thought rj's 86' looked cool with the usd's on it. On the 85' there is a wp shock on it already. There is a guy in lodi that has an atk for sale with the wp usd forks on it. I'd like to get it just for the forks, if not for the 500 I could run the wp goods on the mugen whenever that project gets off the ground. I think I might have an extra 86' 500 set of forks ? Those have the better intenals than the 85' forks, do they not ? Any input it greatly appreciated.

[CR500R7]

The 86-88 had the cartridge setup in them, which seem to have a good reputation.

[RideRed]

I was looking over at ThumperTalk and ran across this info:

"All Balls Racing has just developed a bearing to make some front end swaps possible. The bearing is a 30x47x12 This bearing makes it possible to put a USD front end from a CRF 250 or 450 on your XR 250/400/600/650L. The guys at All Balls Are great and can explain all of the different combinations. Their number is 888-228-3323."

Though this quote from TT is unrelated to your exact question, they would know about different stems and bearings to help you out.

[caseyracing222]

the stock 86 forks will perform better on your bike than the 91 usd forks

[kelroy_leon]

this is where i am at after finding out that i cant just drop in my 91' tripples. might just be running my 87' 250 forks for a while.


i'd love an old set of wp usd's to go with this !