i really couldn't face another night of attacking the frame with hacksaw and file so turned my attention to stripping the honda vfr 750 forks that i recently scored at the stafford classic bike show, i really wanted a set of hefty forks in the front of this bike and these 41mm jobbies really look the part when i stuck them in the frame for a 'visual', i dropped the 'legs out of the yokes, [and there in lies another story, the steering stem and bearings will require surgery to fit the bmw headstock, no one ever said it was going to be easy] the pre-load adjuster's and fork caps showed sign of adjustable spanner rash from the efforts of a previous heavy handed owner, [why do they attempt to do job's without the proper tool's?]i dropped the correct size socket over the nut, gained a bit more leverage by slipping my trusty mz fork stanchion over bar and gently warmed it with the torch, the nut came free with barely any effort, much easier than bruising the aluminium or risking injury when the adjustable slips off, i can rescue the damaged fork caps with a little gentle 'massaging' on the miller, the fork seals proved a little harder, i tried to prise them out with an engineering hooked pick, but again, resorted to the torch, the metalflake gold finish wasn't to my taste anyway, with the fork seals out and a good soaking with wd40, the stanchions and the lowers came apart easily after removing the allen bolt in the bottom of the leg, the bronze and teflon split bushes had seen better day's and will be replaced along with all the seals and some decent fork-oil, a pleasant surprise was the discovery of a set of progressive hyperpro fork springs, a look at the stanchions revealed some pitting so these will eventually end up being hard-chromed, i've used this on a few bikes and it's much more durable than the o.e,m soft chrome for durability [and looks] and the fork lowers will need blasting to remove the chintzy gold finish, i tried a quick dab with the old 'nitromor's' paint remover but that proved ineffective, so, it's off to the blaster's along with the frame, as soon as i get the other redundant metal cut off it, back to the saw and file again tomorrow night then.....
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