Hi all,

My 86 savage has been sitting in the garage for a few years untouched.  The plan was to chop it and do a hard tail build.  I haven't done anything towards that yet, but I'm looking at how difficult that would be...

The forks are toast.  Pitted and leaking and always have been.  Tires are toast too.  Dry rotted and bald.  Since I have this "opportunity", what would be involved with replacing the forks with something from another bike?  I assume I could find some more modern forks at a good price used.  

I have a machine shop in my garage with a welder, lathe, and CNC mill, so I'm okay with fabricating parts.  I know there's some specific angles in the steering geometry, so I assume I can't just get any used fork off ebay.

Thanks!

You should also try to find a front end with a similar offset of the steering stem and fork tubes.  That distance is part of the geometry that establishes the "trail" in the front wheel.

I installed a set of yokes from a TM250 that had a lot less offset and it created a lot of trail.  The bike steered like a truck as there was too much trail.

You should likely look at cruiser type front ends that have a front fork angle similar to the Savage - sport bikes and similar bikes with more vertical fork angles will likely not work well.