Are My Front Fork Pipes Good????

Clayton

Active Member
Hey everyone I was wondering if my front fork pipes (not sure if I am calling them the right name ) are good to use and if not what's my options for replacement? Do I have to have them rechromed, but new ones, or hunt Ebay for NOS? They have pitting in them that you can see in the pics I have attached.
Fork Pipe 3.JPG
Fork Pipe 2.JPG
Fork Pipe 1.JPG
 

69ST

Well-Known Member
I know that the camera may be making the damage look worse than it is but...daayyaaam, that's fugly. The best repair method would be having them welded & centerless ground, then polished. I've had success brazing, metalfinishing & polishing when the damage is tightly localized, like this. Brazing rod, being softer than steel, can be dressed-down using a fine abrasive sanding belt, leaving a finish that only needs polishing. The surrounding, healthy, metal serves as a "guide". This method isn't perfect but, a.) there's enough virgin metal surface remaining to keep the fork leg located positively and b.) the rubber seals can deal with a few thousandths eccentricity and still do their job.
 

Clayton

Active Member
I guess I’m not sure what centerless ground means, I could braze it for sure but what is metalfinishing? Sorry for al the questions I’m pretty green at this lol. And yes it’s DAAAAAMMMMM FUGLY!!!
 

69ST

Well-Known Member
Metalfinishing means leveling-out the surface(s), getting them just smooth enough for polishing. Steel can be polished to a mirror finish.

Lathe-turning a fork leg, after brazing, is not as workable as you might think. Here's an explanation of centerless grinding, shamelessly lifted from wikipedia.

Centerless grinding is a machining process that uses abrasive cutting to remove material from a workpiece. Centerless grinding differs from centered grinding operations in that no spindle or fixture is used to locate and secure the workpiece; the workpiece is secured between two rotary grinding wheels, and the speed of their rotation relative to each other determines the rate at which material is removed from the workpiece.
 

Clayton

Active Member
Perfect! That makes sense now, I’m a little slow some times lol. I think I’m gonna try brazing and grinding-polishing down.
 
Top Bottom