Hey guys,

After a lot of head scratching and confusion, I've now realised that at some point in this bike's past, the little tab on the neck of the frame that is essentially the 'male' section of the fork stop is gone.

At this point I essentially have 3 options, I'll list them in order of preference but any info you guys could help out with would be great. Also keep in mind that this bike is eventually aimed at becoming a bit of a show bike / chopper. ie. safety is not a priority but I would still be taking it out occasionally for rides.

Option 1 - Internal fork stop kit. There's plenty of fork stop kits out there but almost all of them say that they are for Big Twin models. There's some of them that I suspect may fit with a bit of modification but I'm not entirely sure.
eg. https://tcbros.com/products/hidden-i...l9CSHS_m0HxTz1

Option 2 - Shave 'em n chain 'em! I've seen a few pretty cool examples out there of dudes who have just attached the triple tree to the frame near the gas tank. My thoughts on this would be drilling and tapping space in the triple trees for some sort of eyelet bolt that would link to a loop welded onto the frame.

Option 3 - Reweld the original tab. Essentially 'repairing' the original fork stop tab on the neck of the bike but I would be worried about warping the neck stem and also missing out on a cool opportunity for something a bit more unique/aesthetic.

 

I run the internal fork stop kit and it will work but it is not quite plug and play. You have to shave a bit off the tab where it sits against the bottom of the neck as the race sits a tad too low. I have seen people install it and just not press the race all the way in which seemed unwise to me. The other drawback is they are cast and not terribly strong so you have to be careful installing it and when the bike is up in the air on a lift. If the wheel flops over to the stop while in the air it will likely break. It took me three tries to get it right when I did mine. Broke the first one installing it. Broke the second one knocking the front wheel by accident with the wheel up off the ground. Third one has held up but I have been careful with it.

 

The chain thing sounds like it would look cool for a chopper/show bike. But it might rattle and flop around quite a bit while riding. If that doesn't bother you then I'd go that route.

 

"becoming a bit of a show bike / chopper"

My vote: The internal choice may be best for that "show" look.
Could be worth the modification and experimenting to fit.

But, my first thought was to re-weld.
The shape, file smooth, polish, etc. could be unique

Let us know your decision, plus let us see this stop kit project progression .
Good luck.

 

@OCSpringer that's an incredibly helpful chunk of information regarding the stop kits. I had thought that it seemed like a fairly small piece of metal to be stopping something that can have a good chunk of force behind it.

@Bubba Zanetti good thought there, it would either add to the overall vibe, or become rather irritating. Though my thoughts are that it wouldn't really be too bad.

@Kenny94945 that's a nice idea. Seems like a good opportunity for a rather mundane part to have a bit of extra flourish.

I think I'm leaning towards the chain idea. I'll do a bit of research around what kind of ornate chains are available and post some updates as I progress through.