garyS-NJ
Forum Mentor
results on the front end swap and rear shocks ?
results on the front end swap and rear shocks ?
How's your swap going?? I'm about ready to part a '97 kat600 and grab the front end and wheels for my '79 gs1000e. sooner before later if my GS1000e front end ****es out the fork oil I put in the other day.. Anyway, I looked into rake and trail and stock GS is about 28 deg with 4.4" trail and the Katana is 25 deg with 3.9" trail. These numbers from on line specs but I gross measured the katana and looked like head angle 25 deg and fork angle of 28 deg due to a rake built into the trees. I measured 28 deg on the GS and seemed there was an offset but no rake built into the trees. I measured 3 3/8" trail on the GS which is way off the 4.4" and far from a reasonable number for steering geometry.
Anyway, in order to preserve some of the GS trail and not be sitting all on top of my handlebars with the kat forks and wheels on the GS, I'm thinking I need to drop the rear end. The shock I have on the GS is 12.5" long. Does that sound stock? and then either of you guys buy shorter shocks for the rear? (or cut shocks and get soft short springs?).. Which ones? and how was the ride with stock shocks and the shorter shocks.. If 12.5" shock is GS oem, I'm thinking it should be an 11" shock dropping the front wheel from 19" to 17". maybe even a 10.5" shock. I met a guy recently and he said after swapping a front end, he arrived at his rear ride height by ratchet strapping the rear down until he got the frame parallel to the ground.
results on the front end swap and rear shocks ?
How's your swap going?? I'm about ready to part a '97 kat600 and grab the front end and wheels for my '79 gs1000e. sooner before later if my GS1000e front end ****es out the fork oil I put in the other day.. Anyway, I looked into rake and trail and stock GS is about 28 deg with 4.4" trail and the Katana is 25 deg with 3.9" trail. These numbers from on line specs but I gross measured the katana and looked like head angle 25 deg and fork angle of 28 deg due to a rake built into the trees. I measured 28 deg on the GS and seemed there was an offset but no rake built into the trees. I measured 3 3/8" trail on the GS which is way off the 4.4" and far from a reasonable number for steering geometry.
Anyway, in order to preserve some of the GS trail and not be sitting all on top of my handlebars with the kat forks and wheels on the GS, I'm thinking I need to drop the rear end. The shock I have on the GS is 12.5" long. Does that sound stock? and then either of you guys buy shorter shocks for the rear? (or cut shocks and get soft short springs?).. Which ones? and how was the ride with stock shocks and the shorter shocks.. If 12.5" shock is GS oem, I'm thinking it should be an 11" shock dropping the front wheel from 19" to 17". maybe even a 10.5" shock. I met a guy recently and he said after swapping a front end, he arrived at his rear ride height by ratchet strapping the rear down until he got the frame parallel to the ground.
