Hey Owldaddy would you be able to give me more info on powder coating. Where do you get the materials what you will need etc. I never thought of it, don't know how to do it. Thanks for the insight hope the see you post something soon.:thumbup:I'm kind of surprised powder coating hasn't been mentioned. That would be the perfect product for this job, it comes in many colors, and it will last the life of the bike.
:banghead::I am not sure if I want to remove the forks, thats a little more than I wanted to go. Well I may just paint anyway, I will probably wait till I need a new front tire, then I will either paint them or get them painted.:don'tknow:I think the only problem some might have with powder coating the forks is that you have to remove them from the bike to have it done. It will last though, not sure what the cost is either.
Powder coating would definitely be the way to go but it would be much more involved. I am considering painting mine black and I don't mind taking them off to do it. The problem with powder coating is that after they spray them they have to bake in an oven, which means the forks would most likely have to be fully disassembled so because of the oil and all the rubber seals.I'm kind of surprised powder coating hasn't been mentioned. That would be the perfect product for this job, it comes in many colors, and it will last the life of the bike.
I put the bike up on stands, both front and back. I Had to take off the front fender first in order to fit the stem in the hole and I also took off the horn mounting bracket which gave me a little more clearance with the stand. I then took off the brake calipers and hung them from the frame with zip ty's to keep the weight off the brake lines. Then take the front wheel off. All you have to do to get the wheel off is loosen the pinch bolt (6mm allen I think), then remove the axle bolt. It comes out a lot easier if you hold the wheel with one hand to support the weight of it then pull the bolt out. Once the wheel is off all you have to do is loosen the upper and lower triple clamp bolts. I have Apex clip ons on my bike so I had to remove those too. After you got the triple clamp bolts loose, you can very carefully put a flat head screwdriver in the "crack" of the lower triple clamp and very gently twist the screwdriver in order to spread the triple clamp a bit, but make sure you are holding the fork with the other hand cause it might slide out once you twist the screwdriver. Do the same thing for the other side. Then just do it all in reverse to put it back together. There is a sticky for all the torque specs in the "technical" section of the forum. Hope this helps.. :iconbeer:how did you go about getting the forks off?