I would be somewhat wary of swapping to tapered bearings. They can be tough to adjust perfectly.

 

I want pics of what and how your riding the f2 now, after looking at the picture she looked like she got worked!

 

It doesn't look much different than before, but it has a dented tank, a Vance & Hines can as opposed to a Yoshimura, a twin clicker and about 1" more rear ride height. I don't have new pics but it's possible.

On the tapered bearings--yeah I hear they're tricky. I hear the hot ticket is to torque the stem bearing nut to 30+ft-lbs, turn the triples lock to lock 20+ times till they seat, back all the way off and re-torque to something like 8 ft-lbs. Ride, adjust whatever. I just hope everything goes smoothly during the install, sounds like a bit of a PITA.

 

But those forks were bent to hell!

 

The trick I've learned is as follows:

-Install new steering stem bearings. Tighten to just barely snug at all. Instal axle through forks so there is uniform movement when you move the ofkrs.
-Sit on your butt in front of the bike. Grab the now attached forks, give them a forward and backward movement. You'll at this point generall be able to feel a light thud from the steering bearings being to loose.
-Tighten the steering stem bearings a smidge
-Check for clunk
-Rinse and repeat until you just barely hit the point where it goes away.
-Tighten, ride for a hundred miles or so, come back, and rinse and repeat again.

 

Pics or it didn't happen

 

I've been sick pretty much all last week. I got a chance to do this Sunday. Yeah, the bearings were quite bad and rusty. The bottom race had actually been knocked off the seat!!! The bearing cups looked ok surprisingly enough. Lucky me. I should've pulled the triples earlier though. When I had them off, I had a chance to look at them more closely and saw they were slightly bent (not surprising). I ordered up a new set of F3 ones. The saga continues this coming weekend.

I haven't taken any good pics, but I'll get some soon. Seriously, they're not exciting. Just a streetfightered F2 with a rashed on one side, dented on another side tank.

 

I just put the front end together again with new F3 triples, everything feels pretty damn nice, the steering is nice and light but isn't falling into turns. Thanks for that adjustment technique Jesse, it worked on the first try. I've got some work left to do, I've got to make a bracket for the exhaust can, patch and mount the fender and set the sag before it's good enough for now.

Here are pics of my newly roadworthy beat to hell F2: