Hello from an ambitious amateur

[Mjdc]

I am from Portland, OR and just purchased my first street bike. I bought a 1980 XS400 Special that ran well until I tore it apart to build a simple stripped down cafe. I am an architect by training so I have a firm design intent in mind. However, the parts selection possibilities are a bit overwhelming right now. After reading this forum for three weeks I bet I can get some help here, or least some strong opinions.

With that I'll ask my first question.
1. I have read a lot of posts about fork swaps, but none seem to be 100% complete. Has anyone completed a FZR 600 swap? If so what did you do about the length? I believe the FZR forks are about 4" longer and I can't see how having the tube cut and re-threaded by Frank's isn't going to screw up the fork. I also don't want 2" of fork sticking above 2" of clip-ons on top of the triple. The bigger question I suppose is, is a fork swap necessary for a decent performing, braking and damping, 400cc bike?

Thanks for the help. I look forward to riding with some of you this summer.

 

[drewpy]

welcome to the forum Mjdc.

only complete swap was the Aprilia one.

 

[MotleyCustoms]

Also curious about updating my front end. preferably with inverted forks. Any ideas Drewpy?

 

[drewpy]

not really, only what's been talked about already!

 

[OleDoc]

welcome aboard

 

[XSLeo]

The reason sport bike forks are longer is to get the bike farther off the ground, The higher the bike the farther over you can lean it before hard parts touch the ground.
Put on the fork of your choise, then put on longer rear shocks to get the rear up to match the front.
Leo