As there has been a lot of talk about replacement forks of late (YZF USD being the topic of choice at the moment) I got to thinking about theoretical possibility of using a road based set up from one of the current crop of superbikes (rather than adapting an off road set up) to make a more focussed street bike.
For example, I believe that early Fireblades and some R6's ran 45mm RWU forks so would bolt straight into the existing yokes (spacers etc would need working out for the existing wheel and brake). Alternatively perhaps a complete triple tree, fork, wheel and brake set up could be persuaded to fit ? Alloy wheels and twin discs would certainly make the baggy look 'different' and no doubt help in the braking department.
Certain problems imediately spring to mind:
1) The forks are probably 4 to 6" shorter than those used on a Baggy so would need to be lengthened. Is this feasable ?.....I have had forks shortened so know that isnt a problem but as for fitting longer stanchions I have no idea.
2) The Baggy has a leading axle whereas pure street bikes tend to have the axle directly at the bottom of the fork. If problem 1 was fixed and such forks were fitted this would alter the steering geometry (reduce trail ????) but would be enough to just speed up the turn in etc or would it be too much and make the bike very unstable.
3) Street bike suspension tends to have much less travel than off road derived suspension so would the rear shock travel also need to be altered to 'balance' with the forks ?
4) Getting the matching rear hoop to fit could be difficult with regard to chain clearance. Having said that I think that the supersports 400's ran the same rim / tyre size options as fitted to the Baggy and Stiffy SM's.
Personally, though I currently lack the engineering skill to pull it off, I love the concept of a mad Baggy with a twin disc, USD fork and alloy wheels .........
Perhaps I should just buy a good novel to read in my lunchtimes !!