Front fork stanchions.

[Johnny4428]

Anybody used Brook Suspension for front fork stanchion refurb, £219 for the pair.

[Laverda Dave]

I called Brook suspension about the rear shock on my NC30 and they advised me they could also replate the front stanchions for about £220 (dont quote me on that price but I know they were a lot cheaper than Philpotts. I asked if they did them in-house but they said they sent them away. I thought it may have been to Dynosurf but Ken said Dynosurf no longer do motorcycle forks so I'm not sure who they send them to.
I went to Philpotts in the end (£320 but I dropped them off and collected them, its £10 each way to have them collected and posted and you need to put them in a cardboard tube to protect them). I got them back in 10 days, a pretty good turnaround and as usual they were perfect.
It will be interesting to see how well Brook's do if you use them.

[Oddjob]

Maybe they don't do them over the counter for members of the public Dave but will do them in bulk for a dealer like Brooks.

[Murf]

I looked around quite a lot when I wanted my 550 stanchions rechroming, there is not many places left that do them now. The choice was Brooks or Philpotts, I was going to use Brooks on price really and see what they were like. However it was an 8 week turnaround which wasn’t great, but what decided me against them was that one of the stanchions had a slight bow in it, I asked if they straightened them before grinding and chroming, they would not give me a definite ‘yes’ to this so I used Philpotts as I know they do check all the stanchions before starting work on them.

Philpotts turned them around in just over 2 weeks and the results were great, the finish is so good I could not have been more pleased and they were really well packed when sent back to me. I would definitely use them again.

Check that the Brooks price includes VAT

[Johnny4428]

Just had a phone call from Marc at Brook Suspension who have recieved my fork stanchions, the price had increased by another £100, taking it up to £320! He said they have been checked for straightness and they are both bent. £50 each to straighten. Cant argue needs must. ( I have sneakily attached top nuts/bungs which he didn’t mention I’ll see if they get done as well. I know Phillpotts were quite good at doing them at no extra charge, just ain’t going to get them done for a couple of hundred any more.

[Oddjob]

If it’s a 550 then the nuts top nuts are available in polished stainless steel Johnny. No more rust.

[Orcade-Ian]

Hi Johnny,
Seems like everything has doubled in price - I'm not doing any more!  I'm sure the likes of Bryan and Ken will chime in soon with 'they are always bent'. I've had dozens apart and never found a straight pair yet.  Perhaps some of the more modern stuff with larger diameters might stay straight a bit longer but our 70's stuff is borderline for strength.  It's not that they've been crashed but all of the forces present are doing their best to bend them in "normal' use.

Ian

[Laverda Dave]

Just had a phone call from Marc at Brook Suspension who have recieved my fork stanchions, the price had increased by another £100, taking it up to £320! He said they have been checked for straightness and they are both bent. £50 each to straighten. Cant argue needs must. ( I have sneakily attached top nuts/bungs which he didn’t mention I’ll see if they get done as well. I know Phillpotts were quite good at doing them at no extra charge, just ain’t going to get them done for a couple of hundred any more.

That's actually the same price as Philpots Johnny!
I had a very interesting call with Philpots yesterday and was told they would be the only company left doing this work in the very near future. Dynasurf now send their customers to Philpot .

[Bryanj]

No mate the corect answer is if there was enough force to bend the legs the frame is out as well, which being honest at 50 yrs old i would think most are not perfect anymare, but we all have rose tinted glasses where our bikes are concerned!!!

[Johnny4428]

If it’s a 550 then the nuts top nuts are available in polished stainless steel Johnny. No more rust.

Ooo shiny! Didn’t realise that Ken, will have a look.

[Laverda Dave]

No mate the corect answer is if there was enough force to bend the legs the frame is out as well, which being honest at 50 yrs old i would think most are not perfect anymare, but we all have rose tinted glasses where our bikes are concerned!!!

This is the reason I always get a frame checked during initial strip down (although I haven't had the NC30 frame checked but I know it's UK history).
Every frame I have had checked has been slightly twisted. The only one that wasn't was the 400/4 (Ratty) . The reason why the frame wasn't twisted was because it had suffered a previous front end and was straightened just before it was taken off the road 25 years ago.
It costs £90 to have a frame checked where I go and is well worth it.
As an aside, the guy who checks the frame alignment told me even a brand new frame will have a slight twist because they are in a production line and manufacturers don't have time to inspect and true every frame off the line. The welding process causes the slight twist.
Apparently beam frames are more robust in a drop being more rigid and with heavily cast steering heads.

[Orcade-Ian]

The reason for my comment about them all being bent was from personal experience.  I bought a brand new CX500A in January 1981 and in June 1983 I had a leaking fork seal at just under 35,000 miles.  I stripped the forks in readiness for replacing the seals and checked the stanchions with a DTI between V blocks at the ends, one had a TIR of 0.007" and the other reading was  0.010".  I had certainly never crashed this bike or ill-treat it in any way other than normal use.  It's not possible to grind a bent stanchion (apart from using centreless grinding), hence the straightening process before grinding.
Ian

[Bryanj]

Ian, i did an insurance job on a cx500 where both forks and a lot of other things were bent, had to do a supplementary claim for a slider as it wouldnt slide then at end found i had to slide both tubes about 10mm upwards through the yokes to get the bike to sit on centre stand, wheels were in line and vertical so i suspect the headstock was pushed back shoryening the wheelbase a bit, explained all to ownerand said it handled fine and straight and if he wanted it back he would have to accept it as is or the insurance would write it off