Hi all. On my /5, I've got chromed fork caps, but I seem to remember that some were just polished aluminum. I think I used to have a set, but I sure cant find them. The reason I ask is that I have clubman bars on the bike and they hit the fork caps, preventing me from rotating the bars back as far as I would like. I was thinking that if I had a set of aluminum ones, I could grind out a trench in them to accommodate the bars, allowing me to rotate them further back than I have them now. I wouldn't want to do that with the chromed ones. The other thing I thought about doing is to have some caps made up that are completely inside the fork tube, allowing more room for the bars, but i'd rather come up with something I can do myself. Thanks all.
The aluminum ones were pretty thin. I don't know how much yoy could clearance. You could use 1977-1980 /7 fork caps that use a 8mm or 10mm nut instead of the large caps.
wouldn't it be easier to just build some shallow riser plates to put under the handlebar mount/clamp doohickeys? That's the road I would take, probably wouldn't take much as far as thickness is concerned.
I thought of the riser plates, but as was mentioned, I'd need to come up with some longer studs. As it is, there is about 2 mm of extra stud showing when it's all put together. I havent even tried to get the studs out. I wonder it they're threaded in, or cast in to the aluminum. Guess I should try. I'll try to see what the later fork caps look like, maybe they'll work. Thanks for the replies.
They are threaded in. Even if you have to replace them with longer ones, that still seems easier and less unsightly as gouging your fork caps. If I remember correctly, there's lots of thread in the bases and you can easily and safely back them out 3 or 4 mm.
