ABE FORK TUBES (STANCHIONS)

I bought ABE fork tubes (stanchions) from wemoto and they started to rust
or pit after 12 months, I also had trouble with the shuttle (read below).
A good set of second hand fork legs would be better than ABE tubes.

Tarozzi Paolo also make fork tubes for the Bros, I don't know what the
quality is like but they might be worth a try, I believe they come with a shuttle.
Fork tubes from many other hondas will fit the Bros. To see a list of fork
tubes with there diameters and lengths go to the Tarozzi Paolo website, the
Bros J fork tubes were 41mm diameter and 646mm long.
tarozzipaolo.it
On ebay or David Silver Spares you can find many new cheap Honda fork tubes at
reasonable prices.


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Info: Fork tubes are electroplated with chromium because:

• It doesn't corrode.
• It is extremely hard so it is scratch and wear resistant.
• It has very low friction on a rubber seal.

On the down side chromium is a pourous metal which means air, water and salt can
pass thru it and corrode the steel tube underneath. To prevent this a sealing
metal is first electorplated on, usually nickel, the more nickel the longer it
will last without corroding. I believe 120 microns of nickel will last upto
15 years. For "Hard Chrome" (like on fork tubes) The layer of chromium on top
must be thick enought to have strength or else the surface will be very brittle
and will crack easily. For "flash chrome" (like on exhausts) a very thin layer
of chromium is applied to produce a better finish. If something like a chrome
mirror starts to rust after a few weeks then not enought nickel was applied
during manufacture.
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ABE (All Bike Engineering) manufacture pattern Fork
tubes and brake discs for the Bros. However there is a slight problem
with the fork tubes, you must remove the shutle from your old fork tubes
(by grinding) and install it into the new fork tubes, the shutle will be
held in by an internal circlip. The problem is that the shutle will not
be held in tight by the circlip, it will have about one milimetre of
free play which will result in a rattle coming from the forks while
driving the bike. There are two methods of eliminating this rattle.

METHOD 1

Bend the main body of the shuttle so that it's no longer circler,
so that it will fit tightly into the fork tube This should stop most
of the rattle.
Note: This is risky because if you break the shuttle you will not be
able to buy antother one.

METHOD 2 (RECOMENDED)

Fabricate a steel washer with dimensions: Outer diameter=38mm,
Inner diameter=30mm, Thickness=1mm. Place this washer behind the
circlip.
Note 1: You may need to file a small bit off the washer before it will fit.
Note 2: Don't file too much off the washer because you want the shutle to be tight.
Note 3: It is very very important to make sure that the circlip seats properly,
because if the circlip falls out later you could do serious damage. If the circlip
doesn't seat file more off the washer until it does seat.
Note: Ensure the circlip has seated properly.