Front Fork Brace Source

If you have a 900 Seca or one of the Maxims with the front fender brace you probably will not be interested.
But if you have any of the other XJs - read on!

I've been in communication with TKAT (the same guy in California who makes front fork braces for the Yamaha XS750/850/1100 here) to see if he would be interested in making them for the XJ-series too. Here's his reply:
"Sure, I've built several for the XJ 1100(?)s. All they need is a little higher X-bar. the 1200s I don't know about. But most all of them have a factory attempt @ a F/B under the ft. fender so they didn't NEED 1 as badly as the XSs.

I've my ol' 900 Seca here inna shop that has laser point steer'n & fer sure don't need a'more help. In fact, that's what started the whole XS thing. It froze an engine & I picked up an 1100 Spc. for cheap.
It was a yr ana 1/2 B4 I cud keep 1 for m'self!

I'll be happy to look @ do'n them for the XJ bikes but I'll need some close help. Generally I like a bike in here @ the shop so I can make sure that the Beta model fits. That owner gets it for free. [See reference drawing here] The male tube Ø is inconsequential. The important dims are #s 1, 3, & 5. Plus the fender clearance. Go ahead & bring it up 2 the Grp & see what the feed back is."

TKAT's email address is tkat@tkat.com and his other info is
1745 Grant Street, Unit 5
Santa Clara, CA 95050
408-980-8880

If I lived in the area I would take him up on his offer; still might send him my measurements. Hopefully demand will be high enough to warrant production and, who knows, maybe Chacal will be the distributor? :wink:

 

He's right, you know. Most all of the XJs have quite a beefy fork brace "built in" to the underside of the stock fender.

Your "market" would really only be those folks who have removed the front fender, or installed a lightweight aftermarket cafe type fender.

 

Thats a fact............the standard front fender is spot welded in 4 places to a substantial brace/mount. I made a change to the fender but kept the brace under it. Quite stiff, fits as it should and a great place to mount my new alloy fender...and the price was a real stunner.....free....

 

Well this is very interesting news indeed! I did a search ("fork brace") and found some advice to use the OEM fender (or just the center section) on some bobber projects where there was no front fender, but I also saw some instances where an additional fork brace was used/desired WITH the OEM fender because these old forks are fairly thin for their length.

I am now curious to see if anyone has had any experience with adding a fork brace to the OEM fender to see if there was any signficant difference in handling. If not, then OK - Yamaha did the front fork stiffness just fine. If there is a significant improvement, then that's good info too (maybe Yamaha didn't get it right) and there may be a market for this item after all. I find it interesting that both Tarozzi and Telefix still sell over-the-fender fork braces for the XJs (at high $$$).

 

I think there may be a market for a bridge type fork brace in certain applications.

When I upgrade the brakes to a monoblock 4 pot and 320mm rotor the 35mm Seca forks may be at their limit or close to it when using what the brakes have to offer. I may look into either buying one or making one up if thats the case. I had trouble in the past with the bridge type braces getting them squared away without any preload and they also added a bit of stiction from the sliders on the fork tubes travel. A lot of that was in the set up / procedure installing them.

Vintage track bikes that have to use RSU forks all run them as a general rule. For a every day street bike they may fall under the nice to have but not necessary clause.
TKats unit looks to be a real nice one. All billet construction made to specific specs would be the most appealing to me. Was waiting to see if anyone on the forum had any experience with one.

Had a lot of experience with a diecast version (ATK) "back in the day" and for the most part were no improvement at all...but....they were made from a generic set of specs and included shims to fit different slider dias.......This was a good example of a "performance" improvement that was anything but, however many variations of these were available in the 70s/early 80s and most followed the one size fits all ( and sells) formula.

If someone is willing to sort the details and has a need for a stiffer brace than what the standard oem unit offers, no question a properly designed and installed bridge type brace may be the answer.

Here are a couple of pics of the oem brace under the Seca fender..



and a nuther...........



Cleaned up/plated this may be a good low cost brace for a Bobber that the Rider wants the no fender look as it really cannot be seen from a casual side view. Cafe guys can hang the fender of choice on it with a little thought. The rad fit my alloy fender to a T but need to clean up the brace so I can finish mounting it.

 

if the price is right, count me in. tarozzi dont make them for my xj750, just about any other yes of course. although they are willing to manufacture one for me, they just need the dimensions... so whoever will do it cheaper

ps i dont think the "fork brace" on the fender is stiff enough