These things are usually made of 7/8 tubing, and the way I see it, there are basically two major problems most of us would have in attempting this. The first is the triple trees. These are usually made of 3/16 plate, which I would probably suggest making out of cold rolled stock. Luckily, I have a friend who happens to run a small machine shop. He says, give him (or a guy like him) a drawing of what you want, including accurate dimensions with the radius of the curves and he can simply program this into his small CNC machine and make these no problem. The beauty of this is the flexibilty of design you have with respect to things like tube spacing.
The second problem is the axle mounts. Here's where I had to do a little homework. One solution I thought might work would be to use something like these tie rod ends:
JEGS Performance Products 64157 JEGS Rod Ends with Jam Nuts
Now if you were to use 7/8 tubing with a .120 wall (thick enough to help prevent fork bending) you'd find the inside dimension of this tube is .635". Since the Jegs ends are .75" threads you would simply drill-out the ends of the fork tubing (only to the depth of the threads) to accommodate these and simply weld in place. I'm thinking a suggestion here would be to first drill 1/64 *less* than 3/4" first to possibly get a tighter fit.
Oh yeah, one more thing about the trees: I know it may cost a few bucks more to have a machine shop make these but keep in mind that these guys work with very close tolerances. Another good idea if you go this way is to have that fork bolt is hand so that the machinist can accurately "mic it". This could mean the difference between a tight or sloppy front end. :thumbsup:
All the best, Sunny
The second problem is the axle mounts. Here's where I had to do a little homework. One solution I thought might work would be to use something like these tie rod ends:
JEGS Performance Products 64157 JEGS Rod Ends with Jam Nuts
Now if you were to use 7/8 tubing with a .120 wall (thick enough to help prevent fork bending) you'd find the inside dimension of this tube is .635". Since the Jegs ends are .75" threads you would simply drill-out the ends of the fork tubing (only to the depth of the threads) to accommodate these and simply weld in place. I'm thinking a suggestion here would be to first drill 1/64 *less* than 3/4" first to possibly get a tighter fit.
Oh yeah, one more thing about the trees: I know it may cost a few bucks more to have a machine shop make these but keep in mind that these guys work with very close tolerances. Another good idea if you go this way is to have that fork bolt is hand so that the machinist can accurately "mic it". This could mean the difference between a tight or sloppy front end. :thumbsup:
All the best, Sunny
