Best forks ever made?

mosslander
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mosslander
Edited Date/Time 4/19/2018 1:00pm
Whats the best forks all time ever made, upside down, conventional or brands?
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pitbike502
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pitbike502 6/18/2009 4:49pm
6/18/2009 4:49pm
Tiki
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Tiki 6/18/2009 4:49pm
6/18/2009 4:49pm
When I get to ride with them, I will let you know. So far to date I have not experienced the best forks ever made.
mosslander
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mosslander 6/18/2009 4:55pm
6/18/2009 4:55pm
Tiki wrote:
When I get to ride with them, I will let you know. So far to date I have not experienced the best forks ever made.
Have you only ridden one bike or do you pick them off before riding?
stillwelding
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stillwelding 6/18/2009 5:01pm
6/18/2009 5:01pm
mosslander wrote:
Whats the best forks all time ever made, upside down, conventional or brands?
That's debatable, but for the individual, I'd say the best forks ever made are the ones that you can find someone that will work (understands your explanation of what you like) with you on tuning your forks to your liking without it costing you an arm and a leg. And I'd say 99% of the people that ever bought a bike will never know what "Real" factory forks are like so this is the wrong place to ask, for the most part
I remember drooling over the all Aluminum YZ500 in 1987 and then last year hearing from Keith Bowen what a load it was. Deflated my 25 yr. wood.

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Tiki
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Tiki 6/18/2009 5:11pm
6/18/2009 5:11pm
Tiki wrote:
When I get to ride with them, I will let you know. So far to date I have not experienced the best forks ever made.
mosslander wrote:
Have you only ridden one bike or do you pick them off before riding?
Having ridden through the years, I really cant pinpoint the best. I can tell you what the worst was easy. 99 CR 250 Showa forks. I am sure there are better out there. Yamaha KYB's come to mind. This is in comparison to Honda's. I did like the Conventional forks on my 97 Suzuki. But if there was sticky dirt they tended to twist.
mosslander
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mosslander 6/18/2009 5:17pm
6/18/2009 5:17pm
mosslander wrote:
Whats the best forks all time ever made, upside down, conventional or brands?
stillwelding wrote:
That's debatable, but for the individual, I'd say the best forks ever made are the ones that you can find someone that will work (understands your...
That's debatable, but for the individual, I'd say the best forks ever made are the ones that you can find someone that will work (understands your explanation of what you like) with you on tuning your forks to your liking without it costing you an arm and a leg. And I'd say 99% of the people that ever bought a bike will never know what "Real" factory forks are like so this is the wrong place to ask, for the most part
I remember drooling over the all Aluminum YZ500 in 1987 and then last year hearing from Keith Bowen what a load it was. Deflated my 25 yr. wood.
OK ! forget the worksbike stuff
and consentrate on OEM and what normal peaple can buy.
My 87 cr got the best I ever felt.
breck
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breck 6/18/2009 5:20pm
6/18/2009 5:20pm
2009 CRF250 Revalved.
CR500Rider
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CR500Rider 6/18/2009 5:52pm
6/18/2009 5:52pm
Best production forks? For conventional it's easily the 87' CR forks.
JOHN CHOATE
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JOHN CHOATE 6/18/2009 6:31pm
6/18/2009 6:31pm
Several magazine test riders have had very positive comments about the '06 and later SSS forks on the Yamahas. One mag. in particular said they are about as close as you can get to "works" forks.
SPYGUY
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SPYGUY 6/18/2009 6:37pm
6/18/2009 6:37pm
Yamaha SSS
The Rock
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The Rock 6/18/2009 6:56pm
6/18/2009 6:56pm
CR500Rider wrote:
Best production forks? For conventional it's easily the 87' CR forks.
Agreed.....the 87 CR Honda cartridge forks were the kind.

For rear suspension the Suzuki full floater....
CamP
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CamP 6/18/2009 7:03pm
6/18/2009 7:03pm
I had an '87 CR250 and the forks were excellent, but the forks on the '89 KX250 I had were even better.
newmann
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newmann 6/18/2009 8:39pm
6/18/2009 8:39pm
I was going to mention the 89 KX250 46mm KYB's.
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newmann
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avidchimp
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avidchimp 6/18/2009 8:43pm
6/18/2009 8:43pm
'06 YZ 250 hands down.
gt80rider
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gt80rider 6/18/2009 8:45pm
6/18/2009 8:45pm
count me down as another vote for the SSS's.......
TerryK
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TerryK 6/18/2009 9:14pm
6/18/2009 9:14pm
TM's Ohlins forks.
trick121
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trick121 6/18/2009 9:14pm
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my 93' RM 125 showa twin chambers were great

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CamP
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CamP 6/18/2009 9:18pm
6/18/2009 9:18pm
newmann wrote:
I was going to mention the 89 KX250 46mm KYB's.
BTW, I scored a set of nice 84 RM250 43mm forks for my 82. Now I need to figure out if I should install a set of emulators or Simons anti-cavitors.
dunn2500
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dunn2500 6/18/2009 10:56pm
6/18/2009 10:56pm Edited Date/Time 6/18/2009 10:56pm
SOLVA!......
Maber
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Maber 6/19/2009 2:02am
6/19/2009 2:02am
Marzocchi conventionals.

Amazing performance. Wore through bushes etc too quick though.
The Rock
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The Rock 6/19/2009 6:45am
6/19/2009 6:45am
After thinking about this I think one could make the argument for breaking this question down into what decade, production or works.

70s Production

any year Maico

80s Production

87 cartridge CR250 Honda
SMITH201
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SMITH201 6/19/2009 6:50am
6/19/2009 6:50am
My Factory Connection tuned 02 YZ250F suspenders. They were soo plush. Felt like riding a Cadillac!Smile
NetMXer
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NetMXer 6/19/2009 6:57am
6/19/2009 6:57am
CR500Rider wrote:
Best production forks? For conventional it's easily the 87' CR forks.
I agree. I had the 87 CR250 and they were great. Then I bought an 89 CR500 which was the first year of the inverted forks and they were about the worst forks of any bike I ever owned, and that includes the bikes with 4" of travel I rode in the 70's.
Ing
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Ing 6/19/2009 7:14am
6/19/2009 7:14am
TerryK wrote:
TM's Ohlins forks.
X 2
xnationalwrench 6/19/2009 9:27am
6/19/2009 9:27am Edited Date/Time 6/19/2009 1:28pm
Richard Thorwalson's THORKS!!!! But I'm biassed, too bad they never got into production
calimxer91
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calimxer91 6/19/2009 9:30am
6/19/2009 9:30am
They werent Forks at all .RIBI.
leeroy
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leeroy 6/19/2009 10:27am
6/19/2009 10:27am
the fox factory 44 mm forks were the best for a while.
teggers
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teggers 6/19/2009 12:31pm
6/19/2009 12:31pm
I get the best forks every year - no lie.....Anything Shockdoc (Doug Harvey) valves for me. (Do I still have to pay "retail"?)

Stock production forks - the last year of Suzuki conventionals.
Suns_PSD
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Suns_PSD 6/19/2009 1:10pm
6/19/2009 1:10pm
No particular order:

2009 250SX
'86-'87 CR250
'08-'09 YZ450F

I'll probably get called an idiot for including the 250SX forks but those are the best forks I ever rode on and I've ridden and owned the others as well.

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