Hey guys, I only have two mods left I want to accomplish before the season starts. First is to send my gauges to Bluegauges.com and second is to polish my upper tree. I have t-rex stands, is it safe to just take it off? Also, if anyone could direct me to a how-to it would be greatly appreciated. That is one part I have never takenb off. Thanks!

 

funny...i have a vortex triple to get powdered and put on...and i need to do my gauges at bluegauges....i held off on the gauges but i have the triple...from what i understand, it's very easy...just unbolt the center stem nut, lossen the pinces on take off the handlebars...slide off, slide on...retighten....at least, that is what i am TOLD...lol

 

pretty much that is it. make sure to not bend or lost the little clip rings that go on top of the forks above the clip ons. Also if you have never taken it off before it will take some work with the loc tite the factory has on the underside screws holding the ignition in. Other than that it is easy. I suggest a rubber mallet to help with taking it off and putting it back on but it really isnt needed.

 

You will need to take both clip-ons off, just loosen a a pinch bolt or two on each side(12mm) and slide them up off the fork tubes. There will be a thin ring that sits in a groove on the upper fork tubes that you will need to take off before you can slip the clip-ons off. Once the clip-ons are off there are two pinch bolts on each side of the top tripple (12mm)that clamps on to the forks. loosen those two bolts on each side. Next, you can remove the top yoke nut that botls to the center stem. I think it is a 32mm. Then, you will need to remove the ignition switch from the tripple tree. If I remember right, there were two allen head bolts that bolt the switch to the tripple. Once you remove the switch, you may or may not need to gently tap the top tripple with a rubber mallet to take it off the forks and stem. you can do this with the bike on the ground and do not need stands. You might even have to turn the steering left and right to get to the allen bolts to take them out. Once you are done, you wont' believe how easy is was. Good luck with the polishing, hope it turns out good. Much luck to you

ps- while you have the top tripple off, make sure the jam nuts are tight that hold your steering head bearings in. Mine were loose on my 01 when I did this last year so it is a good thing I checked it...

 

Thanks fingers, jumpman, and xtreme! All great tips and I'll be sure to do so. Hopefully I can start it Friday night and finish Sunday night. If I do I'll show you guys how it turned out. Also, fingers, did you ever install that LED kit? I put one on last weekend it turned out pretty good!

 

shawnyc01f4i, not sure if you really want to spend too much money, but like ffingers mentioned, you can buy aftermarket triples that are pretty cool as opposed to polishing yours. not sure if youve seen them or not, so thought i would let you know......

 

Ya I thought about it but I fabricated a bracket for my GPS that will "hover" over the stem so to spend over 100 bucks on something that isnt going to stand out just didnt seem worth it. Good call thou....

 

yea youre route seems like a better choice, some people just like the bling of the vortex more than a polished triple. one piece of advice i would give you is to make sure you have the right size socket for the steering stem. if its a little big it will jack up the edges of the nut. trust me, i know.......