Fork tubes

[Skjoll]

Looks like a soft-ish hard chrome plating...

Yes, or a hard chrome plating on a mild alloy steel. I'd like to know what alloys are typically used for forks and if there are variations of hard chrome plating. I'm familiar with the 'show' chrome process and the difference between cost-cutting shitty chrome and good chrome but that is all.

Good luck with the surgery... are you getting it or performing it?

[DoomBuggy]

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.

Best of luck to you bud, take the rehab seriously and you will be pushing a plow again in no time

[Tattooo]

Good luck with the surgery... are you getting it or performing it?

He is getting it..............

Best of luck farm.............

[AlbertaFarmer]

Good luck, Farmall.

That's pretty awful wear for 7000 miles. And yet, others here have had nothing but good experience with the Moto Irons. After seeing this, I'd buy Franks again.

[Skjoll]

...That's pretty awful wear for 7000 miles...

Agreed wholeheartedly. I kept the forks clean so no grit should've gotten into the seals, I installed new bushings and made sure that the metal spacer between upper bushing and seal was smooth with no sharp edges or burrs yet the wear on the tubes is pretty dramatic, not to mention the huge gouges and nicks on the upper sections. We'll see how the new ones do because I should be putting another few thousand miles on the bike by early Sept.

[AlbertaFarmer]

I really appreciate you taking the time to put all this info up, Skjoll. Before reading this, I would have considered the MotoIron tubes in the future. I just wouldn't now. As a Canadian, I can't fool around with shipping, something like tubes cost at least $60 American to ship one way. TC Bros themselves handled it very well, and I would buy from them any time.

Have you got any pictures you wouldn't mind showing of your bike, Skjoll? Always cool to see another Sportster.

[Skjoll]

I don't have any recent pix so I'll probably take a few of this Sporty (a '98) this weekend after she gets a bath.

[Skjoll]

Got back from another road trip yesterday, the new forks have a few thousand miles on them now and they still look good with no visible wear.