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View Full Version : '82 200E Big Red - Front Forks/Suspension Incident



EPOCH6
11-28-2016, 02:01 PM
Got a bit carried away with my Big Red Friday night. After a few hours of good riding I move myself into position to pop one final wheelie before loading up, yet this time I manage to pull up hard enough to fully extend the front shocks to the point where the inner shaft completely clears the outer tube, colliding on the way down, bending my left fork into a near right angle. At first glance I thought it was over for this front end but upon closer inspection it was clear that nothing had actually bent other than the inner spring itself. I was able to slide the left fork off of the axle, fit the shock back together, slide it back on, lube it up a bit, and pretend that nothing had happened. Obviously I'm delaying the inevitable, this front end is shot and a replacement would make my life a lot easier, now that this has happened once I'm sure it's much more likely to happen again, but I'm not quite at the point where incidents like this are enough for me to fork out the $$ for a front end swap.

Has anybody else here with the early Big Red forks had this happen to them? Gave me quite a scare.

I wonder if I could just clean up the forks a bit with some steel wool and find a new spring in a hardware store that's a close enough match.

http://i.imgur.com/pGAM6qH.jpg

350for350
11-28-2016, 11:00 PM
I don't think a hardware store spring would even be close.

schlepp29
11-29-2016, 02:44 PM
Those front ends in that design are notorious for this. I recommend maybe a 200s or just welding them and make it a solid front out of it. If you are really wanting to keep it stock you may have to have new sleeves made out of brass. I used a 200s on mine though

schlepp29
11-29-2016, 02:51 PM
Oh yeah, did the nut on the bottom of your fork come out?

EPOCH6
11-29-2016, 05:34 PM
Nope, everything stayed in place and the nut is still tight and holding the spring in, nothing broke, it was just a hell of a stretch. 200S or 200M forks would be a nice treat, that may be the route I go once these old forks are too beat to ride. My understanding is that if I went with the 200S forks I'd have to size my front tire down from 25 to 22, is that correct? If I went with 200M I could keep the huge front tire.

schlepp29
11-30-2016, 12:10 PM
I'm not 100 percent sure of that, but the way it sounds it makes sense to me. The 200 m may be the better choice. I'm sure someone will chime in though. You can even weld the old tabs on for your rack

tripledog
11-30-2016, 06:23 PM
You may find this thread helpful, EPOCH6. http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/135875-1984-200es-with-a-200m-front?highlight=200es+front+fork+swap

EPOCH6
12-05-2016, 03:31 PM
Thanks tripledog

The forks jumped out of their sleeves again after an hour of riding yesterday, these poor 34 year old springs are far too beat up and weak to continue relying on, so we decided to retire them and went ahead with welding the front end solid. I took it for a quick test run on the welds and it wasn't too bad, it's not like the '82 shocks were much better than solid forks to begin with. I'll continue to ride it like this until I'm ready to throw a couple of hundred bucks at swapping a nicer front end on.

http://i.imgur.com/aORumNn.jpg

Smith
01-16-2017, 08:01 AM
thanks guys, I just picked up one of these, and the right side is wobbling around in the tube. not sure of it's condition yet.. but I do know it was wrecked.

barnett468
01-16-2017, 08:42 AM
.
Obviously something is not right because that never happened when the bikes were new . To eliminate the problem, you probably could have simply put a 1/2" long spacer on the damper rod . This would have lowered the front end 1/2" making the steering slightly quicker and possibly 'twitchier" but it also would have moved the tube 1/2" farther into the lower leg.


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