Yesterday I installed a Fork Brace I purchased from chuck81

First off can I say its an excellent piece of engineering.

Chuck's brace
- is 12mm thick compared to 2.5mm for the stock brace.
- holes are round and in exact locations unlike the elongated oval holes on the stock brace
- has a nice rounded front edge for aerodynamics
- came with longer alan head stainless steel bolts to replace the brace and fender bolts



I tried to take a short cut by removing the brace without taking off the front wheel 


Some short cut!!!

I used a long reach 8mm spanner to hold the fender nuts. It was a tight difficult task to access the nuts between the fender and the tyre and then trying to use an alan key to remove the bolts.

After a long battle I got all 4 of them.

Next, to remove the fork brace screws.


I got the two left hand screw out with just a little force on the alan key.

The right hand ones were near impossible! 



So I got a hacksaw blade, and cut a slot into both bolts heads. Tried using a screw driver to remove them. Nope! Still wouldn't budge. 



So I got a hammer and chisel and banged in under the screw heads, till they lifted a little. I then grabbed the screws with some vice grips and 1/4 turn at a time (painstaking! ) removed the screws.



Lifting the frame brace straight up and off, I could then rotate the fender forward to remove it. I also removed the attached speedo cable holder and disposed of it (don't want anything there that may loosen the grip of the bolts onto the brace)



i then tested to ensure the new frame brace's holes lined up. They did!!! 


I removed the new frame brace again, placed it on the ground upside down, with the 4 brace screws poking up through it.
I then laid the fender upside down onto the new brace, allowing the screws to penetrate through. To give me an exact positioning of the screws.

I then inserted the fender washer onto the screw and super-glued it to the fender. After they dried I threaded on the bolts and super-glued them to the washer    (make sure you don't glue the screws to the bolt or washer! )

After they dried I un-screwed the screws.

( Now I didn't have to worry about trying to get the bolts onto the screws when I tried to reinstall the fender! They will be held nicely in place as I thread the bolts in )





I put the fender into position on the tyre.

Now I installed the new brace to the bike and screwed each screw in lightly (4 turns) working in a diagonal pattern to ensure they all lined up correctly.

I then raised the fender so it would line with the brace holes and lightly threaded the fender screws into the bolts glued to the fender. I tightened each screw lightly, then started to torque each down. The glue's hold breaks under the strain and now its just a simple case of using a long reach 8mm spanner to give them their final tighten.

I then torqued down the brace bolts.


DONE!!!!

Here's what SuperBrace say an upgraded Fork Brace does.

# Reduces low and high speed wobbles.
# Improves stability in tight cornering.
# Improves tire life and reduces cupping.
# Decreases sensitivity to rough road surfaces and rain grooves.

http://www.superbrace.com/proddetail.asp?prod=3329



What does a fork brace do?  Basically it forms a bridge between your forks, increasing their rigidity.  Fork tubes without a fork brace installed have two points where they are connected - at the top near your handlebars and at the bottom near the front wheel.  Under stress from high speeds, off-roading or hard braking the front forks can flex between the top and bottom connections.  This results in decreased handling, speed wobbles, tire cupping, increased sensitivity to rough road surfaces, decreased stability in tight cornering, etc.

Smaller diameter fork tubes are more likely to flex than thicker ones, and the GS is renowned for having relatively small 37mm fork tubes.


I did some for and after testing with the stock and chuck81's brace and I have to say on rough sweeping country roads the front definitely feels tighter and gives more feedback.

Love it!


The only downside to an upgraded fork brace is it contributes a little more to the front wheels un-sprung weight, and the increased stiffness makes the ride a little rougher (very acceptable though)

Went for a weekend of hard riding on some very technical back roads.

The beefy new brace has given me so much more feel than the tin foil stocker!

You can feel the front tyres grip on the road and its feeback of when the front starts slipping is instantaneous and very progressive. FANTASTIC!


The only down side is the older tin foil brace was more forgiving  if you picked a bad lean angle into a bumpy corner. The new one means your front end does exactly what its told even if what you are telling it is beyond your tyres traction ability.