HD front end on oif triumph

[Vroomy]

Hi, new here. Been searching the internet for a while on this and cant find an answer. Is there a bearing kit to fit a narrow or mid glide HD front end to a 72 oil in frame triumph? I know its pretty much bolt on to a pre 70's but cant find any info on 71-72 models

[TriNortchopz]

This guy just got the HD bearings and had a sleeve machined to fit the bearing cup into the frame neck:

Thread; Re: O.I.F. bearings / cups for 1" stem?
"Update:
OK, what I found was that trying to get actual dimensions was impossible. 'specially from e-bay sellers.
So I called the DNA factory, they said their neck cups for '99 & earlier soft tails had a measurement of 1 1/4". ( about $55.)
Since I didn't need internal fork stops, I ended up ordering from a seller called "Middle Tennessee Cycles", & got the cups, bearings, & dist caps for $32.
The parts are from Custom Chrome, & are listed as for '49-'88 big twins.
Part #12253
Now the pertinent info:
The stem is 1" O.D.
The Triumph O.I.F. neck I.D. is 1 3/4"
The neck cup O.D. is 1 7/16" (Exactly 1.318")
So I'll just have some bushings made to make up the difference."

https://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71074

[Dougtheinternetannoyance123]

Ehhhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,.....WHY? Why are you putting a HD front end on a OIF bike? Are you building a bobber?
Are you missing the Triumph front end, and the only thing you can access is a HD front end? Whats the game
plan here? The reason I ask, well several, is the Triumph front end was not bad at all. A copy of the Italian
Cerrani, with a little tweaking it can be an excellent fork. If a 72 are you looking for disc instead of drum?
If so you DO realize Triumph went to Disc in 73 right?

Some issues with the post from TNC.. The pre OIF triumphs ran a 1" approx neck stem with 40 + or- tiny little ball bearings
in cups. The OIF went to a smaller OD neck stem, much smaller. 5/8" i think? And TAPER Roller bearings!

So to run a 1" stem in a OIF, you can try and play with a bearing book or vendor and buy taper roller bearings
that will help convert.
But you still have issues with steering stops, and making the trees work.

I did a number of conversions many years ago of putting Japanese forks on OIF Triumphs and some BSAs..I
used Kawasaki forks with discs off of KZ750-900-1000s in most cases but some other brands as well.
But the people that wanted it done wanted a non english set of forks and good brakes and cheap. But now days a KZ900 is
worth a small fortune. Anyrate... it can be done but not real clear on the why... not that you have to explain, \
but generally most people want an improvement and the HD front end is not that great?

[TriNortchopz]

right, its too easy if you want it...the original tapered roller races stay in the frame neck, get new HD cones; HD# 48300-60, install front end...stem length may be an issue (from a CC xs650 thread: "The HD neck is a total of 7.040 long (give or take)":

Tapered Steering Neck Bearing $9.95, (Sold Ea)all models, FX & FXR all years, Sportster 82-up HD# 48300-60

http://www.tcbroschoppers.com/tapered-steering-neck-bearing-sold-ea-all-models-fx-fxr-all-years-sportster-82-up-hd-48300-60.html

[Vroomy]

Looking at buying another triumph and saw a reasonably priced oif. Reason for fitting a hd front is i used to own a 65 thunderbird and always wanted to do a fat tire look similar to 48 sportster, would like to run 16" wheels with 130 wide tires front and back......just for something different

[Dougtheinternetannoyance123]

Thats cool,, I just was not sure the WHY since there could be a lot of different reasons. Often when people customize or modify the WHY is super important and not just the HOW. Also if you understand that you can be more helpful in answering. I think done right that fat tire look could be cool, But all in perspective as not too big either.

Many years back, there was a big scene with the fat tires on HDs and some guy on the internet built a fat tire triumph complete with jackshafts and it turned a lot of heads and sparked a lot of discussion. It was so different and interesting I admit at first I liked it although from a performance standpoint it was idiotic. But of course everyone and their brother decided to build one as well. A local guy was building one and I tried to talk him out of it. He wanted to be one of the cool kids on the internet, have women throw themselves at him and be instantly popular.

He spent a LOT of money trying to make it happen. He showed it locally at one event and a few people liked it but got a lot of grief about it as well. Sold it right after. Thankfully the really big dragster car tire on the back ends faded away. Every once in a while you see some HD someone spent $40k on back in 2005-2007 on Craigslist and cant even get interest let alone a fraction of their investment..

So,, tastefully done, Could be cool. But be easy to get sideways and not so attractive. Some of the period desert sleds ran some pretty fat tires, so its possible to do.