Fork tubes

[Skjoll]

I heard back from TC Bros and they requested pix, replied with the expected "we do not hear of this issue ever" response and offered to replace the tubes but I have yet to find out what that process entails. If I have to pay to ship the damaged ones back I doubt that I'll take that chance because I just may get another set from what could be a bad 'Friday afternoon' batch where quality control was lacking. I don't follow up a bad purchase by spending even more money on it... I would rather bite the bullet and just go with Frank's Forks. At the very least I'll try to do a hardness test on the Moto Iron and compare it to several Showa and vintage Cerianis I have laying around.

[vonhelmet]

As others have said- Custom Cycle Engineering. They offer Show chrome, Hard chrome and Titanium plating. Forking by Frank are good but they are a pain in the ass to deal with.

[AlbertaFarmer]

Up until a few years ago, Franks wouldn't take credit card payment. Had to mail them a money order. I always thought that was kind of cool myself, like they are doing enough business to set the rules on how it goes. When I called to order mine a couple years ago, they had started taking credit card payment over the phone. They said 6 week wait for 12 over 39mm, but I had them up here in Canada within 3 or 4 weeks. Everyone was really pleasant to deal with, you could tell they all knew what they were doing. I can't think of anyone else in the custom motorcycle game that has been turning out top notch parts for as long, and with such consistency. I'm not associated with Franks in any way, I just think it's cool to support a small American business that's been doing it since 66. I wouldn't say there was any pain in my ass during the purchase, and it's not like tubes are something you usually need in a hurry, the wait time didn't inconvenience me a bit.

[jwhosoever]

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of miles have you got on them?

Well I have been running them for two years and I commute 3-4 days out of the week and I have not had any issues with pitting or anything else for that matter.

[hurricanebrax]

If you're going with franks anyway I'd recommend getting the TC bros replacements either way and just flipping them on the classifieds here or elsewhere online so you can recoup some cost - but that's just my broke ass instincts shining through

[AlbertaFarmer]

Well I have been running them for two years and I commute 3-4 days out of the week and I have not had any issues with pitting or anything else for that matter.

Well, that's good to hear. Thanks man.

[james69]

My TC bros fork tubes were fine, put 2000 miles on them before I sold the bike. Looked fine to me. Pretty sure theyre made in china though so take that for what its worth

[cocothedestroyer]

I imagine going 6over in my forks would put me in the same boat as adding six” taller bars with respects to running a longer brake and clutch lines? Is my thinking right on with this?

[AlbertaFarmer]

I imagine going 6over in my forks would put me in the same boat as adding six” taller bars with respects to running a longer brake and clutch lines? Is my thinking right on with this?

For the front brake line, yes, you will need a longer one. Unless you happen to have 6 inches of slack in the line already. Not a big deal to swap. The clutch line doesn't change at all with longer forks.

[Skjoll]

My TC bros fork tubes were fine, put 2000 miles on them before I sold the bike. Looked fine to me. Pretty sure theyre made in china though so take that for what its worth

Yes, it's my understanding that Moto Iron fork tubes are made in China, which doesn't automatically make them bad. As with other countries there are companies that put out crap and others that manufacture high quality products but no manufacturer offers products with a perfect record of quality control.

With that said TC Bros has shipped me new fork tubes which I should get Friday and they are covering the cost of shipping the worn fork tubes back to them for inspection, so props to TC Bros. However this time I'm going to document the installation to eliminate concerns about possible 'user error' if these also fail prematurely.

[AlbertaFarmer]

That's good to hear TC Bros is doing the right thing. They sound like a pretty legitimate outfit. Just out of curiosity, was it your idea or theirs to document the installation? I can't think of anything you could have done to cause what you have described, short of using acid instead of oil to lube the seals.

[Skjoll]

I'm going to document the installation (should get to it this eve) just to cover my ass because after all, I'm sure TC Bros has had their share of dealing with ham-fisted cretins who've blamed the product rather than their own bubba-ness. This past week I got a decent camera so I'll be able to get some closeups of the old fork tubes and the new ones, one of which has a small manufacturer's defect, a dent in the tube about 6" above where the slider would be but that shouldn't affect the seal. I'm looking forward to seeing the response from TC Bros and you guys here once I post photos of the worn fork tubes... they seriously look horrendous like they were flogged with a chain or had rocks thrown at them (yet I don't attach anything to the tubes like tool rolls or such) and the wear marks look like I used Scotch-brite pads in place of fork seals and dust caps. I don't think I've ever seen fork tubes in this bad shape aside from old rusty ones on junkyard bikes.

[AlbertaFarmer]

Looking forward to seeing the pictures. TC Bros comes out very well in this one. I know they have gone up in my books.

[Skjoll]

Dent in one of the new fork tubes found during unpacking. The box appeared to have been the original straight from the Moto Iron factory since there was only one layer of unbroken packing tape so I think that no one at TC Bros inspected them.



The worst sections of the old fork tubes:



The nicks and gouges on the upper sections of the tubes occurred during ~7,000 miles of use until I replaced them yesterday.

[farmall]

Looks like a soft-ish hard chrome plating. That's a lot of wear for 7K unless it was a dirt bike.

I'm off to morning surgery in a bit so no time to look up Rockwell hardness values for plating but it would be interesting to know and test.