I saw a post where the resident guru from Luxon said that you could use 2023+ triples on pre-2023 bikes if you swapped the upper triple gasket assemble from the 3 piece (rubber seal, stamped steel cap, oring) to the newer 1 piece version.
The reason this is needed, based on my experimenting is that the 2022 gasket setup actually allows the top of the stem to protrude up through the 2023+ triples so the triple nut bottoms out before achieving any significant compression on the head bearings. The 2023+ 1 piece gasket is “thicker” than the prior 2022 and before. Fair enough, easy $19 swap.
While playing though, it made me wonder. is there any reason you can’t just run the 23+ gasket on older bikes with the 22 or earlier if you need to service the head, the gasket and how it mounts just seems superior for sealing
@Luxon MX or anyone else who has thought about this, care to chime in? feel free to correct me if my explain above misses the mark too.
The frame interface on the KTM/Husky/GasGas for the triple clamp and bearings is identical 2016-2025+. But in 2023 they came out with the single piece upper bearing seal. It's a rubber over-molded aluminum piece that replaces the old style seal that was three pieces: o-ring, stamped steel cup, and rubber seal. The new seal is about 2.5 mm thicker than the old seal assembly, though, so they made the 2023+ top triple clamp thinner by that same amount to accommodate that.
So, you can run the 2016-2022 clamps on the 2023+ bikes if you use the old 3-piece seal instead of the new one-piece seal
and, you can run the 2023+ triple clamps on the 2016-2022 bikes if you run the new one-piece seal instead of the old 3-piece seal.
It's possible (as in it bolts together) to run the 2016-2022 clamps with the new one-piece seal, but it's not ideal and not as strong as the pinch bolt moves up more than it should be on the stem. I wouldn't recommend it.
It's not possible to run the 2023+ clamps with the old 3-piece seal as it won't compress enough to preload the bearings (unless you used a spacer to take up the 2.5 mm that it needs. But I'm not sure why you'd do that anyways.
Thanks @Luxon MX! That description matches my experimenting and measuring exactly.
Ack on the 16-22 clamps with the 1 piece seal. I was thinking about the fact that you could compress the bearing enough (which is opposite of trying the 23+ using the old 3-piece). Agree that you'd lose 2.5mm of clamping surface on the stem.
The clamping surface loss isn't a big deal so much as the movement up of the pinch bolt to a lower strength portion of the stem. It's doable and people have ridden that way without issue, but it's not ideal. I've seen stems break because of it, but that's a pro level rider too.
I wouldn't do it personally, it's not worth it just to get the new bearing seal. The old seal setup works fine, just don't spray the pressure washer directly at it (which is good practice for any seal, really).
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