Say I wanted to upgrade the front end of my s2r1000, ideally to ohlins and monoblocs, apart from trying to find an s4rs front end what are my other options? I don't really want to mess about with different diameter forks from later super bikes as I've got a rizoma top clamp and clip ons to go on at some point. Ideally I want to keep the wheels standard for now although I am considering carbon wheels and want to keep my options open but I may do it all in one go if necessary... To cut a long story short, I'm thinking of making my bike awesome and a bit more individual rather than rushing to give a dealer my bike +10k for a nice shiny lump of depreciation when the monster 1200 is available.
The forks on your S2R are 50/54mm, same as the Ohlins on an S4RS/Paul Smart (non radial), I'm not sure what other 50/54mm Ohlins there are... If it were me, I'd swap out the whole front end!
thanks, I've do a bit of googling. What would I need to swap the whole front end? You're talking yokes as well I assume? I read somewhere that the superbike forks are a little longer than the monster ones so they are not such a straightforward swap
Monster forks are the same as the ST iirc, 50mm top, 54mm bottom. Superbike forks (non ohlins ones) are 53mm top and bottom and slightly longer. I am fitting 1098 forks to a ST frame as part of my project, I could have had the top yoke machined out to fit the bigger forks but in the end I had a custom top yoke made by Mark at MADASL. the bottom yoke is easily shimmed out with some 1/2mm ally sheet.
SBK Ohlins are 53mm top, 56mm bottom - you can machine out the yokes to fit. I have Showa SBK (with radial mounts & Ktech internals) forks on my Monster which are 53/53, I machined the top & shimmed the bottom, they work great.
Interesting reading, I have been thinking of doing something similar myself and am at the information gathering stage. I have heard of the Showa install while researching and there are loads of forks at a reasonable price on E-bay, £250 ish. I have also contacted Reactive Suspension to see how much new seals, internals and a Gold Tit Nitride coating would be, £400 with a 4 week turnaround. I would be interested to know what your outcome and difficulties were before I go ahead with my own project, I am not very mechanically minded but fancy having a go rather then dropping it in somewhere and picking up the finished article; it is about time I learned
Much as it appealed to me, I cheated and bought a streetfighter :wink: Hopefully someone else does the upgrade so I can see what I missed...
