Got myself half a K2 Gixxer. How to fit the susp. on my GS?

[Spiff]

A friend of mine wanted to get rid of his gsx-r 750 track bike which he had bought as a donor for an engine swap into an atv

So I got the rest dirt cheap, i would call it a steal...

I have been wanting to upgrade the suspension and handling of the GS so a gixxer front swap was on my list along with a bandit or gsx alu. rear swing and rear wheel... But then this popped up so I bought it.
Any tips, tricks etc of fitting this to my gs is very welcome!
Links, photos, personal experiences thanks. Was thinking i would start dissasembling stuff tomorrow

 

[Guest]

A member that is no longer on the site did it with his 1100. Saw his old bike just today. Not sure how it handled in the corners when he was done though, I do remember him saying it went like greased lightning on the straights though.

 

[ShadowFocus603]

The front should* be as easy as finding proper bearings. The rear you have to make sure the swingarm fits in the stock location but more importantly when it's in (again with new, correctly sized bearings) you have to space the wheel in such a fashion that the front and rear sprockets on your bike are in as close to a straight line as possible.

 

[Spiff]

That looks awesome! Looks like a modern retrobike or something!
Okey, so here's where I am at as of now.
Old GS fork is removed, and new GIX fork is avaiting assembly and new fork seals . Found the correct conversion bearings at allballsracing.com

Any tips on removing the upper outer bearing race?

And the lower inner? I tried to pry and hammer it like the service manual says but it didn't budge

 

[GateKeeper]

A long punch for the upper bearing race, or a dremel with a cut off wheel and carefully cut it...

I punched it out on my bike, the FZ not the GS, but both seem to be identical in how they are sitting

the bottom bearing you can break it, have the bearing out of the way and then cut it, again being very careful, and or a punch and slowly work your way around it will eventually come off, I nicked the stem a bit on mine, but no worries, just filed it smooth and all was good, there was still lots of surface area to have the new bearing sit in place correctly....

nice score on the Gixxer parts......

.

 

[78550GS]

I (VERY carefully) cut slots with a dremel on opposite sides and chisel till they split. Works on inner and outer with a little patience.

 

[Spiff]

I saw that dremel method on youtube. But my dremel sort of died a couple of weeks ago... Doesn't run full speed, makes a rattling noise when I try and there are huge sparks inside it I can see when looking through the air vents...

 

[Spiff]

Today I've disassembled both rear ends to compare them.

I've measured the width of the swingarms by the mounting points and the GS is 225mm wide and the gsxr is 235mm wide.

So in order for the gix swinger to fit in the gs frame I need to shave 10mm off somewhere... But where?
I was looking at the swingarm but shaving 5mm on each side means you'll start shaving off the welds on the swingarm or at least the end caps will interfere.
But on the inside of the gs frame these stick out about 5.75mm,

so grinding them down would clear the gixer swingarm. What do you think?
I can always have a 0.75mm spacer made up so fitment is spot on.

Then there is the case of fitting the swingarm pivot shaft.
I was thinking of using the stock gs and have new spacers made up with a smaller ID for the gsxr swingarm.
But is there any downsides to doing this? I notice the gsxr shaft is much bigger and beefier, but its hollow.
The GS shaft is smaller in diameter but solid. They're both similar in weight.
Will it break? Why is one bigger than the other? Are the forces acting on it bigger on the gixxer because of the monoshock or are they similar?

 

[sam-jaffa]

with regards to the front end, easiest way would be to do a stem swap.
my 550 has a bandit 1200 front end in and i used the stem from a slingshot 750 as it is the same as a gs, you need to take the bottom yoke to a machine shop who has a press and press out the k2 stem and insert the slingshot stem, use new bearings (standard 550 ones) and thats done, really easy swap
as for the rear, not so simple, i have seen people widen the frame to take these arms but personally i would fit something like a bandit 1200 arm, they are slightly narrower than the frame and all that is needed is 2 top hat spacers made to sleeve the arm to suit the standard spindle and take up the gap each side

 

[rwnielsen]

It's bigger because that gives it more bearing surface . It's hollow because it's bigger. Given a choice I would figure a way to use the one that came with the swing arm

Nice score !!

 

[Big T]

How long are the 750 forks?

That's the big question, lots of GSXRs have shorter forks

On the swing arm, I'd see what you can shave of the swinger, the take the balance off the frame

Much easier to use the solid axle and make new spacers

You'll need an offset sprocket at the front to clear the tire

Is that a 5.5 or 6" rear wheel?

 

[Spiff]

Yeah they're shorter, I don't remember how much right now...
The rear wheel is 5.5 inches.

I did a lot of searching on this forum yesterday and found a couple of guys who had done this conversion but not a whole lot of pictures or info, except for one guy. 80GS1000 I think was his name.
He used a newer svingarm (05 i think) and that was 225 mm wide so a perfect fit with new bearing spacers, he also used the gs pivot.
5/8 offset front sprocket with 5.5 wheel, 180 tire and 520 chain/sprockets. That worked like a charm according to what I read.
I'll have a look on ebay to check for a svingarm like that. If not then I guess it's grinder time...

 

[Spiff]

So me and a friend who works at a big engineering company with access to mills and lathes and whatnot tok a second look at the swingarm today and deviced a plan.

Firstly, I've measured wrong, the swingarm is not 235mm at the pivot but slightly less; 233 or something (I'm tired and can't remember). But more importantly there's is more than enough "meat" on the swingarm pivot to remove up to 5mm each side without interfering with the welds or anything.
That means I won't have to do anything with the frame.

I'm gonna remove the swingarm bearings, take some measurements and then my friend will try to mill off the extra mm's and make som new bearing bushes.

Best way to remove swingarm bearings? Big chance of destroying them so I need to order new ones?

If this does not work I see swingarms are plentyfull and cheap on ebay

 

[ozman]

So me and a friend who works at a big engineering company with access to mills and lathes and whatnot tok a second look at the swingarm today and deviced a plan.

Firstly, I've measured wrong, the swingarm is not 235mm at the pivot but slightly less; 233 or something (I'm tired and can't remember). But more importantly there's is more than enough "meat" on the swingarm pivot to remove up to 5mm each side without interfering with the welds or anything.
That means I won't have to do anything with the frame.

I'm gonna remove the swingarm bearings, take some measurements and then my friend will try to mill off the extra mm's and make som new bearing bushes.


Best way to remove swingarm bearings? Big chance of destroying them so I need to order new ones?

If this does not work I see swingarms are plentyfull and cheap on ebay

use a heat gun on the swingarm around the bearings then tap them out, yes you will usually need replace them

ozman

 

[ArttuH]

Best way to remove swingarm bearings? Big chance of destroying them so I need to order new ones?

If you are going to use the GS axle you can make bushings to fit the GS bearings to new swing arm. Might be simpler and easier that way.

 

[Guest]

But more importantly there's is more than enough "meat" on the swingarm pivot to remove up to 5mm each side without interfering with the welds or anything.
That means I won't have to do anything with the frame.

Good news, IMO it is much better to butcher up the GSXR swingarm than to attempt to tweak the GS frame. At least this way you can always put the GS swingarm back in and have a functional bike if the GSXR swingarm doesn't pan out.

Best way to remove swingarm bearings? Big chance of destroying them so I need to order new ones?

If you are going to use the GS axle you can make bushings to fit the GS bearings to new swing arm. Might be simpler and easier that way.

If it were me I would have your friend turn some brass/bronze bushings to suit the new arrangement (modified GSXR swingarm mating to a GS pivot bolt) and not even worry about bearings. Bushings are the best arrangement going for a swingarm pivot anyway and in this case are the simplest way to mate the different parts easily.


Mark

 

[Spiff]

Exactly, but I need to remove the bearings to shave down the swingarm. They might get destroyed, but anyways I'm sticking to the gsxr bearings and turning a spacer to use the gs pivot. I'll probably draw up a spacer with a collar since one of the endcaps on the gsxr swinger is damaged or is that part often included in swingarm bearing kits?

Another question, is the number of teeth on the output axle the same on the gs and the gsxr so front sprockets swap over?

 

[Guest]

I'll probably draw up a spacer with a collar since one of the endcaps on the gsxr swinger is damaged or is that part often included in swingarm bearing kits?

I have never bought a kit for the swingarm bearings, it has always just been the bearings as loose pieces. Normally you would reuse the caps so you will probably have to replace the damaged one separately.

Another question, is the number of teeth on the output axle the same on the gs and the gsxr so front sprockets swap over?

The oil cooled GSXR countershaft sprockets work on my 1100E and it appears that your K2 750 has the same splines on it so it should fit. You are most likely going to need an offset sprocket to clear that wide rear tire, though.

The GSXR sprocket details: http://www.jtsprockets.com/catalogue/model/5893


Mark

 

[Spiff]

Ok thanks, I got the swingarm bearings and lower triple three bearing removed today. Measured and need to remove 3mm each side of the swingarm, my friend picked up the swingarm and a drawing of the new bearing spacer. Will probably get back to me in a couple of days

 

[Spiff]

Back with an update and maybe a new dilemma....
Because allthough I have all the bearings for assembling the front end now. A 2007 SV1000S appeared in my stable and as some of you know the gsxr usd fork is a bolt on upgrade for the sv1000 with them using the same bearings. So now I'm contemplating putting the sv fork on the gs and the gsxr fork on the sv....