DT1 flat track project

During mock-up I'd slid the forks up in the trees about 1.5" to get the bike to sit right, so I wanted to internally lower them. These forks use a long spacer at the top, so I cut a 1.5" and 2" spacer from 1/2" pvc. The shorter one goes on the damper tube, and the longer one on top where the old one was. Normally you'd get new aftermarket springs, or at least use a longer top spacer to increase preload, but during mock-up the sag felt about right, and since the TX650 the forks are from is about twice the weight of the DT, the old springs might be alright. If not, it is an easy swap later on.


This spacer pulls the fork tubes 1.5" lower into the legs at full extension, which lowers the total length.


Later Yamaha forks use a 17mm hex key to hold the damper tube from turning when tightening or loosening the bottom damper bolt, but for the early forks you can use a 12mm 6 point socket with 4 sides ground off.


I'm using All Balls fork seals, but got genuine Yamaha dust boots from boats.net for about $30 for the pair.


Here they are ready to go.