It's not necessarily the tubes, but the bottom design of the triple tree. It has extra meat to clamp the fork tubes. Basically, I just looked at the photos Howard sent and matched roughly. I think if you were to take it in half way through the ridge on the plate, and 1/2" inside the frame tube, you should have enough clearance.

 

Today was finishing the fitting and final install of the trees.There were a couple steps in this one. The first was the conclusion of the fork stop.

Here are the sleeves my neighbor made.








The first set was made from 9/16" aluminum round stock. 3/16" ID hole was drilled and they were tapped for a set screw. I originally thought that was too small and had him make a larger diameter set, but it turned out 9/16 was the closest size, so he turned down the larger ones. One is probably a small bit under 9/16" which is probably the best size, seems the steering lock pin lines up perfectly with the pocket. Standard 9/16 stock would probably work, but I'm done prototyping, it works on mine

Next, mocking up the trees and test fitting. The bearings slide onto both ends of the stem, so there is no pressing necessary (yesssssssssss). Simply drop the lower dust shield and bearing on, then screw on the coupler nut by hand. then it's ready to mate with the top. Top bolt through the triple, then dust cap and bearing and screw together. Easy peasy.

Or so I thought. In my haste, I failed to put any antiseize on the triple where the bolt goes. While disassembling, the weight of the triple when not fully seated pulled the bolt towards the rear. The freshly machined aluminum hole is a very close tolerance with the bolt, and the bolt galled while unscrewing from the coupler nut. Uh oh.

Long story short, I used to work at a machine shop. I had to swing by and borrow their 7/8"-14 die (that's a big ****ing die) before all was right with the world. Lesson to all others - sand the hole smooth and use the antiseize. It should have been common sense with the aluminum/steel coupler.

The fit of the triples to the forks is extremely tight. So much so that Howard said it would be necessary to use wedges to open up the triples a bit to get the forks to slide through. In the initial fitting this was definitely the case. However, it wasn't as though it was just a tight fit. Once the caps there through, the forks slid easily, even with the wedges removed. I've disassembled various front ends, usually Italian or Japanese sports bikes, and I've never had an interference fit like this. While trying to move the forks in the triples, I noticed the caps would actually unscrew from the fork if I twisted counterclockwise. This combined with the smooth slide of the fork tube once the cap was through meant the caps were the problem. I decided the best course of action would be to hand fit the caps OD to the fork tube. I did not want to be fighting them in the future and scoring up the triples taking them off and on.

Enter jewelers file and 400 grit paper. Don't worry, the cap is aluminum and the tube is chromed. You'd have to try REALLY REALLY HARD to damage the tube near the cap. And even if you managed to, this section of tube lives in the triple clamp.



In this photo you can see where the cap is still interfering with the triple after a fitting session. The smooth sections you can see are the high spots.





After about an hour of filing and sanding and fitting, the right tube slides in and out like butter (ok maybe not, but at least the same as every other fork tube I've replaced) without wedging the triples or needing lubricant. FANTASTIC.

However, the other tube was still catching, and seemed to actually be smudging on the tube itself. Uh oh. There is a barely perceptible indentation near the top of the tube, a couple mm from where the metal was showing a high spot. My finger nail JUST BARELY catches on it. It seems like during some clamping process at some point, a slight deformity was created in the tube.

I'll split this out so it is obvious - I supplied USED tubes to Howard, that I purchased from what I was told was not a crashed bike. Howard checked them for obvious problems before working them, but this was definitely only perceptible once attempting to install the tubes. And only after fitting of the cap. Could have been from original manufacture, could have been from use on the Rushmore, could have been from the machining process for the cartridges, could have been in shipping one way or another (however they were over-padded on the way back from FL). This is just an advisory so anyone interested can be on the lookout in the future. Even still, I wouldn't have noticed this had I not spent the time to fit the caps.

Now that this is all done....I CAN HAZ OHLINS



Final install involves loctiting the coupler nut to the lower stem AFTER packing the bearing. Packing a bearing isn't just slathering lube on the outside of the rollers and cage. That's probably what the dealer does. Then they put a dumb *** zerk fitting on the neck of the bike and tell you to squirt grease into it. If you ever disassemble your front end, you'll see a bunch of grease on the stem and if you think about it, no conceivable way to get the grease INTO the bearing where it belongs. Pack your bearing properly and you take the grease gun out of your maintenance kit.

I managed to fit it together and set the stem nut to it's final setting. As you can see, they had to come back out to install the beercans, so that'll be happening later.

Setting the stem - I asked Howard how he set up the preload, since this is no longer a factory designed triple. He doesn't use the "fall away" method. Basically, there needs to be no play in the bearings, and no load which would cause premature wear or difficult turning. No play, no resistance. Once this point in found, the pinch bolts on the upper triple lock the stem bolt so it can't move. Lock the pinch bolts and your torque is set. Howard said this usually necessitates an initial setting and a test ride to allow everything to settle. If after riding you get some clunk, you have to go back in and reset the bolt to take the slack out.

I have a Road King. This basically means I'm not installing the nacelle before I test ride it. Bummer. Other manufacturers use a "torque and release" method for their stems. Basically, you torque down the stem, then back it off a set fraction of a turn. This is conceivably a method that could be used with this front end. However, you have to take into consideration the bolt diameter and thread pitch. These are what would dictate torque values and release turn distance. If someone were ambitious enough, they could find another bike that uses a 7/8" nut or bolt with 14 threads per inch and follow those factory procedures. I doubt Howard will be publishing any recommendations or spending much time trying to find what those values might be. He's a busy guy and he knows how to install them.

Well that's the hump. The triples are installed. Primary stem torque is set. It all goes back together now. Finger's crossed

 

I have clicked on all link & all of them says to sign into your google all in one account. I hate these spying rooster suckers who want to know what you are doing and track all to sell you targeted merchandise. I hope you can figure out how to post this without other companies profiting from your work. Maybe you can send me the pictures to my e-Mail. Screw G-Mail & Google.
I do not want to be tracked. Thanks for your great effort.

PS, I want to go up to the machine shop with these pictures so no one has to deal with any problems. I will fix every and all problems.

 

First, thanks to Howard for making this option available to us and second thanks to Kingmoochr for this fantastic tutorial thread. I am so itchy to flip from my 41mm CCE/Race Tech/Ricor to a 49mm MM/Ohlin setup. (Or maybe I'll just buy the Ducati ST-3 and leave my Harley as it is.)

King, using a pretty powerful computer and connection, I could not open the images in your most recent post.

BTW, Howard, I believe there is an untapped and lucrative market for parts that shave weight off FLs. I'd gladly trade all my expensive, heavy chrome for expensive lightweight stuff.

Best

 

But tell us how you really feel Howard hahahaha

I fixed it, they should be visible now. Google has made it trickier to update privacy settings, so they default to private in the album. I'll double check that going forward.

 

This. However, after stripping the bike apart, there really aren't a ton of components that make it up. I think a huge chunk of weight is in the frame, motor, and trans. Might be hard to make real appreciable gains.

I do know from prior experience that lightweight wheels make ALLLLLLL the difference in the feel of a bike. If you've got 3k to spend and you want to make your bike feel way lighter than the weight you take off, get CF wheels. You'll DEFINITELY feel it.

 

I hope you will re-post so we can see the pictures.
Thanks

 

Ok, now they're really fixed...

 

Thank you for fixing the pictures!

Great progress! I'm sure you can barely wait to get on the bike for a test ride. I look forward to reading your test ride post!!!

 

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