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New TW fork

13K views 25 replies 8 participants last post by  joedirt1970 
#1 ·
So after lots of dicking around I'm finally making progress on my new fork for the TW. Found a pair of 97 RT180 forks on ebay, pulled them apart replaced the seals, found an old pair of 92' tw forks on ebay for the crown, had them bored out to accept 35mm tubes and ordered some new boots.

Originally it looked as though the TW caliper might work, but after getting both forks apart and side by side that is not the case. Have a caliper and hose from a 97' RT on the way, shoudl be here by the weekend.

Here are some pics of the fork legs and a couple from the front of the bike.

So far I'm into this project about $100 for the two forks,front brake/hose, seals and new boots.

Josh







 
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#4 ·
Looks good Josh, looks like my idea worked, Do you still need pics of the XT200 caps?

BTW for those of you with front drums, the same mod can be made with XT200 forks which are very similar in dimension to the RT forks, except they are setup for drums.



PS Josh: If it still doesn't work after new RT caliper, you may need the RT or XT rotor
 
#6 ·
I think the forks will add about 1.5" of ride height (not counting sag). Tough to say until the bike is back on the ground. Hopefully this will give me better front in suspension and level the bike out. Here is a shot of the bike form the side. Keep in mind I'm sporting a 3" lengthened swingarm, and banshee rear shock with a spacer and v-star rear spring. Lengthening the swingarm made the rear suspension so much more active I needed to play with the front.



More pics of the 7? I'll have to dig around for those. I've been lagging on building the seat bottom and reviting in a plate for the anit-sub strap.




Josh

 
#8 ·
Ok, so long time no post.

Been working on my new (to me) 4runner, cause I need something to haul the tw to the trailhead.
Pic at the bottom of post.



So when I swapped the forks, I lost my speedo due to cable routing. Picked up a Vapor from a forum member with speed, and temp sensor. Allowed me to remove the tiny tacometer I had been using and go with one unit. I couldn't use the guard sent with the vapor, but mounting turned out good. Cut a piece of alum and sandwiched a rubber gasket between it and the plastic speedo mount. Works awesome, although I haven't the "up shift" warning lights.

Still not enough seat time on the forks, but will likely need stiffer progressive springs, suspension feels like my ttr250, read: very plush.







and this is what has been occupying most of my time.



 
#14 ·
Too funny, no not a keiser sled (my dad was captain in the LA city FD for 21 years)

Actually it's the underside of an alum ramp for my race car trailer. The PO loaded a passenger car on the trailer that was made to haul a sub 1100lb car. Ramps bent and I was trying to straigten them before having an additional support welded in.

J
 
#10 ·
sweet, 35mm forks in stock triples. Did you finally get the brake working properly? did you go with air caps or stock? I would get springs match directly to your weight.

What was the problem with the speedo routing? It should be on the same side as TW forks.

Did you have to shim rotor to get caliper to line up?





Anyone with drum brakes can do a similar mod, just substitute the rt fork for xt200 units and bore the triples the same way as Josh did, but remember Josh's bike also has a slight rear lift as well.
 
#17 ·
Anyone with drum brakes can do a similar mod, just substitute the rt fork for xt200 units and bore the triples the same way as Josh did, but remember Josh's bike also has a slight rear lift as well.


Actually it might be even better with a stock swingarm and shock, due to the front end beeing a little taller.

I needed longer forks to balance out the height with the banshee shock, bighorn tire and lengthened swingarm.
 
#12 ·
So the problem with speedo clearance, the fork legs don't have enough clearance where the speedo cable goes to the inside of the fork leg. If you had a longer speedo cable you might be able to rotate the reciever around, but the cable would be exposed to front impacts with braches etc.



Brake is now fixed, good stopping power, and didn't have to shim it. Used a rt180 caliper.



Here are some pics on the ground.









thanks
 
#15 ·
"Brake is now fixed, good stopping power, and didn't have to shim it. Used a rt180 caliper."



Do you mean an RT180 ROTOR? or does the TW rotor work with the rt180 caliper?



bummer about the speedo cable, I was hoping that would work, You'd think it would work because it works on a rt180/dt200 bike (however that is routed) Or are you trying to use a TW speedo drive with RT forks instead?

 
#16 ·
Rotor: tw200 disk and 97 RT180 disk are the same. Didn't figure that out until I bought one off ebay. At least I paid less than $10 with shipping. Live and learn.



For the speedo, I was using tw speedo cable and tw gear (or whatever you call that thing attached to the front hub).



Josh
 
#19 ·
[quote name='bikerjosh' date='11 May 2011 - 08:49 AM' timestamp='1305132573' post='18206']

Ok, so long time no post.

So when I swapped the forks, I lost my speedo due to cable routing. Picked up a Vapor from a forum member with speed, and temp sensor. Allowed me to remove the tiny tacometer I had been using and go with one unit. I couldn't use the guard sent with the vapor, but mounting turned out good. Cut a piece of alum and sandwiched a rubber gasket between it and the plastic speedo mount. Works awesome, although I haven't the "up shift" warning lights.

Still not enough seat time on the forks, but will likely need stiffer progressive springs, suspension feels like my ttr250, read: very plush.







Quick question, regarding engine temps. I hooked up the temp sensor to the engine case, to get a ballpark temp reading. Using this technique any idea what I should be looking for or rather when the oil is likely getting too hot?

thanks josh
 
#20 ·
As an update to the RT180 fork swap:

Just got back from Death Valley trip the combination of the rt180 fork legs, extended swingarm/banshee shock/v-star spring and spacer exceeded my expectations. The bike is awesome in the dirt. I was a little worried I'd bottom out the front suspension because it seemed so plush in the initial part of stroke, but that didn't occur. This was my first real world test of the suspension. The bike now feels like my ttr250, lots of fun and great for floating through sand.

Josh
 
#22 ·
Glad to hear it, I knew those would be the right fork....and Yes when I researched it, they seemed to be the shortest possible leading axle fork that would still fit the stock triples with only minor bore modifications, so yes, they can be slipped up a bit for near stock ride height (they are approx and inch longer than stock TW)
 
#21 ·
Is it so "plush" that you have static sag?



Reason I'm asking is that I'm trying to do it with as little ride height increase as possible without whacking the bottom tree on the hard hits.



Are you using all of the fork, or could it be slipped up in the trees a bit?
 
#23 ·
Regarding static sag (sag under just the weight of the fork?) Yeah a touch maybe, I think once you get about 20lbs of weight on the bars it will compress a little. I never did bottom it out, so you could probably raise the fork tubes up a little bit. Most of the trails were so rocky I was averaging 15-25 mph a number of good hits on the front end w/o upsetting it. To be honest when I was standing up on it going through the rough washes it brought back memories of being on jet ski and cruising through wakes (very fluid).



I want to take it out to Carnegie SVRA the weekend of the 19th to see how it compares to the original set up on trails I'm pretty familiar with.

Josh
 
#24 ·
Hey Josh,

I hope all is well. I am still waiting to do the front hybrid fork conversion on my TW. I put a banshee on the back and need to do the front. How has your bike been ? I still have the stock rear swing arm and stock rear tire. I need a better place to do the conversion. I bought some YZ 80 forks so is should be a relatively easy process. I do however need to get a hex/allen wrench so I can loosen the lower end of the forks.



I am guessing you are going to stay with the longer swing arm and big tire set up ? Any input is welcome.





Have a great week.





Brock in AZ

5nglassy@gmail.com
 
#25 ·
Hey Brock,

Been good, my daughter was born about 12 weeks ago so my wrenching time has been greatly shortened. Yes, I'm staying with the banshee, big tire and swing arm. I have a new spring from a Raptor I need to swap out with the v-star/spacer I'm currently running.

The RT180 forks are working well, balanced out the stance, gained more travel etc. Last fall, on my Death Valley trip the new forks worked great on the rocky washes that I was traveling on. I'm going to try a slightly thicker oil in the forks to see if the compression changes w/o upsetting rebound. I still need to do some research to find out what springs will fit the forks in favor of going to a slightly stiffer spring.

josh
 
#26 ·
Congrats on the new arrival.



How much actual travel (vs. ground clearance did you gain). I don't ride hard enough to replace the whole front end. I know that I won't gain any actual travel, but the ground clearance gain will even/level out the bike and it won't look so goofy standing still. It seems to resemble a Shetland pony.
 
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