R65 front fork anomaly

[montmil]

I pulled this post from today's email Airlist digest of which I am a subscriber.

If you have ever admired, lusted after or purchased one of "Toaster Tan's" billet aluminum top braces, you'll understand that Stephan truly knows his stuff. I have his top brace on my R100S and it is a magnificent upgrade to the flat steel OEMs.


Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:51:54 -0700
From: "Toaster.Tan via Airheads" http://airheads@micapeak.com
To: "Airheads" http://airheads@micapeak.com
Subject: Fork size anomalies :: Euro


I just found out from a customer down under ?  the Euro R65 has the same forks as the R80RT, which are 36mm and a 'standard' steel top plate. I'm not sure what years are affected.

Also learned the Euro R80GS 88-on has R100GS forks, which are 40mm instead of the US 36mm.  I don?t know if they use the same cast upper triple.

Do any of you know of other anomalies in the world of forks for the US/Euro models?  I keep finding these odd pockets of bikes where my brace fits by customers sending photos and measurements. I?m building my own fork size spreadsheet to try and capture all this.

Stephen

Custom Top Braces
http://info@toastertan.com
http://www.pbase.com/toastertan/top_braces

This response from Anton just hit:

From: Anton Largiader via Airheads
Subject: Re: Fork size anomalies - Euro

They're not R100GS forks, they're just GS forks. The US only got the R100 version of the GS so a lot of people think the R80GS is actually an R80G/S which is, of course, not correct.

[Bob_W]

Not sure of the year in question, but after the mono shock, the R65 was the same frame as R80. My Haynes says 39.9 OD but a measurement showed about 38.5 OD-this is in keeping with the 38.4 and change quoted in another chapter for R80 '85on. My R65 is an 86.
Bob

[Barry]

I replied to Stephen suggesting his customer was mistaken as there is no major difference between US and Euro models at least as far as the forks on twin shock R65's were concerned.  The very rare R65GS may be an exception.