fork upgrade

[liuthyy]

hi anyone know of a fork upgrade for the gs500e maybe from a different make or model bike more modern specs ? thxs

[moe_tunes]

Last year someone posted about having fitted the upside down forks from a hyosung 250 to the GS. They didn't give much detail about it.
I do like how the upside down forks look on the GS.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=73475.msg882606#msg882606

[ShowBizWolf]

I personally kept the stock forks but rebuilt them and upgraded to Sonic Springs.

For info about fitting forks from a different bike, check out this section of the wiki:

https://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Upgrades.FrontForks

[The Buddha]

Last year someone posted about having fitted the upside down forks from a hyosung 250 to the GS. They didn't give much detail about it.
I do like how the upside down forks look on the GS.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=73475.msg882606#msg882606

IMHO while all these fork swaps are all very cool sounding, practically no one has IMHO ever solved the problems of guage cluster mounting and headlight and turnsignal mounting.

As much as I'd like to take credit for fixing those ... well not really.
I fit pre 96 Katana 600 forks to many many bikes.
Guage cluster - well, I made brackets, I welded the GS carriers I cut off the GS triple to the kat triple, I did this and that. IMHO, my hand made brackets (NLA) are my preferred idea.
Headlight. I spread the GS ear holes, welded them if they split and used Bandit grommets. Actually this was my first way to do it, and I love it.
The later iteration was machined "ear carriers" that I made for my MZ's but they also fit the GS and they when on a GS turned out to blow headlight bulbs, and sadly MZ vibrates more, I need to isolate them a lot on the MZ. Which of course uses GS headlight. I'll be likely using bandit ears on the MZ because its got the space to fit em between the triples. GS does not.
Anyway, fork swaps are possible, and I have done many, but be prepared to have some unfunctioning stuff.
Steering lock is another classic one that wont work, but a kat6 swap done with no spacers will get it working like normal but then again, you're looking at machining a lot of crap.
TBH, the kat6 clip on's and the feel of it - yea worth doing if you've got a 100 you would do, not 1.
Cool.
Buddha.

PS: The GS ears without grommets will fit on a kat6 fork, you can run the grommets under it as a cushion and sandwich it on top too so you retain some beam focus on your headlight, but the original GS one sucks anyway.
And you need longer headlight ears to keep the back of the headlight from hitting the underside of the gauges and lock. Just cut up some sheet metal and you're good.

[GS Man]

Ive heard the easiest is an SV650 front end. Just put everything from the SV front end and wire it into the GS.
Not done it myself but met a chap at a bike meet that had done it. Looked really good.

If you learn a bit about springs, Oil viscosity, Air space and Spacers it is possible to get the stock forks working quite well. The Pioli Forks were the best ones made for the GS from 2000 on

[The Buddha]

03+ SV was 30 and 30 for stem diameter. Good luck finding 30X47 bearings. I dont know if the 1st gen SV was 28 mm ID. If so, it may also have the ears for gauges on the triple if you got the naked one.
Cool.
Buddha.