Fork Gaiters

Over the years and the last three bikes, I've maintained a preference for gaiters over bare fork tubes and scrapers. They seem to do a better job fending off rocks, bugs and dirt, with no fork seal replacements ever needed after installing them. Dust scrapers also cause extra stiction. So I took the Concours fork 'protectors' and dust scrapers, threw them over my left shoulder and installed gaiters.

At the time of gaiter installation on the Concours, I didn't capture pictures or a write-up. Recently (2007) bought a new camera (Kodak C653) and had the forks off to install new springs (Race Tech 1.0 kg/mm), so I was able to take some pictures disassembled.

The gaiters (also called fork boots, fork covers) are the large size from Progrip ( model 2510 ) intended for dirt bikes and available in various colours. The bottom inner diameter is 62 mm which fits perfectly onto the top of the post-'93 fork slider, held with a supplied ty-wrap. As they come, the gaiters are way too long for a Concours, but can be trimmed with scissors at the top of the 15th pleat.

To center the gaiter top, I cut a circular piece of milk-jug plastic with outside diameter approximately 75 mm to fit (with minor stretching) into the top pleat, with a hole in the middle of the disc, diameter approximately 43 mm. Inside this hole goes a rubber grommet with an inside diameter of 41mm (slightly stretched as it goes over the fork tube). The plastic disc fits in the groove around the outside. This grommet is not strictly necessary and only serves to keep the plastic donut from rattling against the fork tube, but they were free found 'ems.

Once all these bits are assembled onto the fork tube, and the fork installed on the bike, the rubber grommet/plastic disc presses lightly up against the lower triple clamp due to the springiness of the rubber. Has worked well for a couple of riding seasons already.

FYI, also installed the fork springs and a 50/50 mix of 10W40 and 20W50 to give roughly 15W damping, and they're keeping their cartridge emulator friends happy.