I have a list of stuff I want for my bike.

• Better brakes
• Tubeless tires
• Adjustable front suspension

I believe I have these things now, with a bit of elbow grease.

Behold....

Forks, rotors, calipers, axle and wheel from a 85 Kawasaki Zl900 Eliminator.
That bike has the same diameter and length forks (air assisted), which sit in a triple clamps the exact same width apart as the Savage (7.5"). The wheel is 18" cast tubeless design.

Big list of stuff needed yet.

Brake lines and splitter.
Speedo drive or replace with spacer?
Master cylinder?
Rebuild calipers.
New tire that fits.
etc. etc.

Now that the never ending kitchen rebuilding project is nearly completed I'm excited to finally be getting back to work on my bike!

Just made the $8 bike lift so I can get to work.

Wheel $75
Forks $55
Rotors $12
Axle $8
Calipers $21
Fender $10
Bolts for rotors 99 cents

For some parts the shipping was more than the part.
Rebuild kits for the calipers will run another $30.
Brake lines and crossover will depend on if I choose braided stainless or OEM. The braided will cost $114. OEM varies wildly.
If I choose to use the ZL900 speedo driver that's another $10-$15.
If the LS650 master cylinder isn't up to the job of actuating two pistons then that's another cost.

The wheel and forks are in excellent condition. Fork seals look nicer than the ones on my bike. Will change fork oil so whatever oil costs.
The rotors are pretty worn, I need get specs and check if they're still usable. Calipers look like crap but the pistons are free and the pads have alot of life.
And the tire, if I choose Shinko, is inexpensive. But if I decide to stick with Avon that's a buzzkill.


Overall this comes to much less than the Marauder front end. No matter how I went about it there's no way I could find of getting one for less than $500. I gave up on it.
This is much less work too. It's practically plug and play.

Looks like I definitely need to get the speedometer drive gear even if only for measurements sake. Looks to me it serves as the left side wheel spacer.

This was an interesting time for Kawasaki. Surprising amount of parts overlapping across the Eliminators, Ninjas and Concourse.
Bad thing is OEM parts for these years has mostly dried up.

If this all works out I can tell people my bike is a Kawazuki Davidson  

Thanks for that. I hadn't considered that possibility. Considering I'm so accustomed to squeezing that lever with a death grip coming down the end of a highway ramp I'll need to reevaluate how I apply brakes with this setup.

What is the best cleaning solution for really cruddy calipers?
Is it safe to power wash them?

Ok I'll try that stuff. I read somewhere to use denatured alcohol too.
Sounds suspiciously like alcohol abuse to me.  

Anyway I've got time to kill until I get paid again and can order needed parts so I'm gonna dig up some old toothbrushes and scrub the heck out of these things.