fork Gaiters or covers

[Brett unsupervised]

Hey all -- turning a max into a more touring friendly bike. thinking about getting Fork covers/Gaiters. like ones in the picture. anyone with any recommendations or experience with these on a Max?
Am i correct to assume you need to remove the fork to slide them on? Or are they split and you just wrap them around? I think an old bike of mine had them and they were split, but that could be just because it was a Honda Z50

 

[Fire-medic]

40mm I.D. 1985-1992
43mm I.D. 1993-'07

Yes to removing fork legs from the triple tree for the installation. Wheel is to be removed. Slip them onto the dwntubes, replace downtubes into triple trees, replace front wheel. The calipers should be removed/replaced too.

 

[Parminio]

Hey all -- turning a max into a more touring friendly bike. thinking about getting Fork covers/Gaiters. like ones in the picture. anyone with any recommendations or experience with these on a Max?
Am i correct to assume you need to remove the fork to slide them on? Or are they split and you just wrap them around? I think an old bike of mine had them and they were split, but that could be just because it was a Honda Z50

Touring or off road?

Reason I ask: that's an off road mod. If you look at your forks, you'll see there's a protective ledge already on the forks that prevents damage to the travel area of the forks.

Unless you're planning on going off road to where your forks are going to travel 5 inches instead of only one or two, you're wasting your time, effort and money.

 

[wilks]

a lot of folks do this for looks only….form over function.

 

[Fire-medic]

It reminds me of bikes of the 1960's, when two-carbureted Triumph, Norton and BSA 650's were the hot performance bikes.
I think it might be a good idea to drill a small hole in the backside of the lowest pleat, to allow any moisture a place to be able to drain-out.

Parminio, recall that most of the VMax Gen. 1's (1985-2000) don't have a stone-guard on their front side of the sliders. The '01 to '07 models do. You can buy the covers, still available, but the fork needs to be one which had them originally.

COVER​

4PU-2331G-00-00​

Yamaha

Cover
4PU-2331G-00-00
Retail Price: $10.99
Your Price: $7.62
https://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/a/yam/500445b4f8700209bc78f7df/front-fork

 

[Brett unsupervised]

As fire-medic said, this is a 98 and has no stone protector
In my part of the. Country we do get our fair share of gravel trucks, and just general crud on the highway. Plus if I'm going to doing mini-tours on it there will be rain and associated road grim. So just thinking Abt keeping life pleasant ... Plus it does look cool a-la the bikes he mentioned. Looks like either way I need to remove forks

 

[Brett unsupervised]

Touring or off road?

Reason I ask: that's an off road mod. If you look at your forks, you'll see there's a protective ledge already on the forks that prevents damage to the travel area of the forks.

Unless you're planning on going off road to where your forks are going to travel 5 inches instead of only one or two, you're wasting your time, effort and money.

On road ... An off-road vmax would be a terrifying thing

 

[Fire-medic]

As the heavyweight 'adventure bikes' of modern times aren't much lighter than a Gen. 1 w/gas (~600 lbs), maybe the world needs a VMax dressed for on/off-road use! The R1250 GS BMW is 549 lbs. https://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/en/models/adventure/r1250gs/technicaldata.html#/section-equipment

The R1250 GS starts at $18K (USA) MSRP

 

[child_of_fire]

They make a neoprene Velcro version that is split so you don't have to waste hours disassembling your forks to make it look like a 1970 off road Suzuki.

 

[Parminio]

On road ... An off-road vmax would be a terrifying thing

Then you don't need those. Waste of time, effort and money. The guards you already have protect the travel length of the forks.

 

[Parminio]

As fire-medic said, this is a 98 and has no stone protector

You didn't mention the year in your post. I assumed it was a later model. My bad.

I would buy the Yamaha guards then. They look a ton better because you don't notice them and do the job. Here they are on mine:

 

[Brett unsupervised]

You didn't mention the year in your post. I assumed it was a later model. My bad.

I would buy the Yamaha guards then. They look a ton better because you don't notice them and do the job. Here they are on mine:

View attachment 93971

thanks for the note -- I have built in guards on my '02, didn't realize I could just install them on the '98 ... thought they had to be designed to accept them. my bad. thanks again!

 

[Brett unsupervised]

As the heavyweight 'adventure bikes' of modern times aren't much lighter than a Gen. 1 w/gas (~600 lbs), maybe the world needs a VMax dressed for on/off-road use! The R1250 GS BMW is 549 lbs. https://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/en/models/adventure/r1250gs/technicaldata.html#/section-equipment

The R1250 GS starts at $18K (USA) MSRP

View attachment 93963

View attachment 93962

well .. actually ... since I have two, I was sort of thinking making the "98 a bit of a do-all .. wide multi surface tires, gaiters and adapting a frame mounted fairing or going the dual headlight look, and of course a 3.5gal keg of gas on the back . At this point just imagining possibilities. other option was touring vibe ... with gaiters ... oh the possibilities

 

[Fire-medic]

didn't realize I could just install them on the '98 ... thought they had to be designed to accept them.

See my post #5 above.