I bought a 1985 750 Slabby to restore (pics coming). They were always one of my favorite bikes although I never owned one back in the day. I got the frame, fork legs, swingarm and footrests Vapor Blasted and hit them with some red Scotchbrite. It came up a treat so I don’t think I’ll bother coating it as I will never be in the rain. I just gave them a wipe down with ACF-50 to protect them.
The forks were straight but completely pitted. I normally just have these re-chromed and I have a friend that works at a local Hard Chrome place that will do it through the back door, but they are having supply chain issues. So, I was stuck trying to get the rolling chassis complete. I did try a few other local platers as well with no luck.
Ended up buying a set of fork tubes from Alibaba. I ordered on Friday and they came yesterday. 4 days for shipping from HongKong was pretty impressive considering I ordered the seals and bushings from Partzilla on the same day, and they will be delivered next friday.
They look fine, but I took them to Kyle to check them out and he was actually impressed. He measured the thickness of the plating with a device and it was 0010”. He said that when he does shafts for high wear hydraulic applications, he plates them between 0005” and 0010”. The original Suzuki forks have less than a mill... LOL. He also said they were around 75 Rockwell which should wear very well, and they were within a thou of the original Suzuki tubes. Given the thickness of the plating he had no concerns about the rusting.
For $160 including shipping I really can’t fault them. Told my kids they should be learning Mandarin as the Chinese will be running the world in 20 years… LOL
The forks were straight but completely pitted. I normally just have these re-chromed and I have a friend that works at a local Hard Chrome place that will do it through the back door, but they are having supply chain issues. So, I was stuck trying to get the rolling chassis complete. I did try a few other local platers as well with no luck.
Ended up buying a set of fork tubes from Alibaba. I ordered on Friday and they came yesterday. 4 days for shipping from HongKong was pretty impressive considering I ordered the seals and bushings from Partzilla on the same day, and they will be delivered next friday.
They look fine, but I took them to Kyle to check them out and he was actually impressed. He measured the thickness of the plating with a device and it was 0010”. He said that when he does shafts for high wear hydraulic applications, he plates them between 0005” and 0010”. The original Suzuki forks have less than a mill... LOL. He also said they were around 75 Rockwell which should wear very well, and they were within a thou of the original Suzuki tubes. Given the thickness of the plating he had no concerns about the rusting.
For $160 including shipping I really can’t fault them. Told my kids they should be learning Mandarin as the Chinese will be running the world in 20 years… LOL
