Gator boots?

I like the look of gator boots for the design of my 650, Any recommendations? I know they are not fiercely popular anymore, too bad.

 

Hi I have put gators on all my bikes. My British bikes had them and the
early Japanese bikes had them too. They were on the Honda 750s. I
like them for the" old school" looks and they protect the forks where they slide through the fork seals. I have just spent 300 dollars having
the forks on my XJ650 hard chromed and I know that a rock off a truck hitting this
vital area of the tubes will see me having to have that tube repaired
again and so I have fork gators. I am in Australia so I do not know how
relevant this info will be in the USA but I bought my gaitors from our
local dealer. He got them off a motorcycle accessory company called
M.C.S. and the number on the packet is FBSBB and it also says Road
Fork Boots Norton/Honda CB750. Perhaps you can find them in the
USA. I know that Fitz put fork boots on one of his restored bikes and
he may know where you can get them. Dont get the ones for trail bikes as they are too big and ugly. Have a look in my gallery and you will see how boots look on an XJ650. Have a look in Fitz gallery
and you will see his bikes with the gaitors on. They look good. Hope
that this helps.
Bob

PS Chacal may have them.

 

Re: Fitment. Interesting.

My concern has always been possible distortion of the uppermost bellows if the boot was stretched too much to accomodate a larger fork.

The 550 has 35mm forks, and the top of the lower tube is 55mm in diameter. The boots I used are a Kawasaki part number, with exactly the same dimensions, so they fit like they were made for the bike. I didn't even have to use any sort of "retainer" at the bottom, they snapped right onto the tubes.

However: My Norton has ~34.5mm forks; the 650 Seca has 36mm forks. If you were able to fit "Norton/CB750" boots to your 650 without issue, my concerns about distortion could very well be unfounded.

I haven't measured the top of the lower legs on the 650 yet (have to pop a dust cover off) but they do look very similar to the Norton (the two are sitting side-by-side right now.)

Stay tuned. I plan to put them on my 650 too, and will be solving the riddle soon myself.

Re: Popularity. I don't understand why they suddenly disappeared. Every single bike in the 1968 BSA and Triumph lineups had them, as did most other street bikes of the era. Five years later almost nothing came with them anymore.

I always thought they were a good idea, too.



Every bike.

 

I have them on my 750 Seca. I got mine from Dennis Kirk store (they have a website of course) Mine are made for dirt bikes and fit perfect. I just measured my fork diameter and bought the size that fit. The length is perfect, no distortion stretched or compressed. I used black wire ties to secure them top and bottom so they aren't noticed.

You can kinda see them here:

 

However: My Norton has ~34.5mm forks; the 650 Seca has 36mm forks. If you were able to fit "Norton/CB750" boots to your 650 without issue, my concerns about distortion could very well be unfounded.

I haven't measured the top of the lower legs on the 650 yet (have to pop a dust cover off) but they do look very similar to the Norton (the two are sitting side-by-side right now.)

Stay tuned. I plan to put them on my 650 too, and will be solving the riddle soon myself.

Hi Fitz The fork gators that I bought off my local dealer were listed on the packaging as for Norton/Honda 750 but they were made in Taiwan. They are just a universal fit and they only put that on the packet as some rough guide as to fitment. I find the quality to be
very good so far and I have had them on my TX500 for 2 years. One
thing that I did find in both the TX500 and the XJ650 was that I had
to leave the origional dust covers in place and then slide the bottom
of the fork gators over them to get a good tight fit. Once the gators
are in place you would not know that the origional seals were still in
there. You may find a set that fits your bikes better. I had to use a
stainless band clamp at the bottom and a black wire tie at the top.
It ended up looking much better than it sounds here or I would not
have used them.

The other thing that I had to do was put a small hole in the back of
the gators so that some air could go in and out. I just heated a piece
of wire up red hot and pushed it through the rubber at the back and
near the bottom. This left a nice clean hole that wont tear. As I said
these were just cheap Taiwan universal gators that I made work and
these were the only ones that my dealer could source here in Australia that came any where near close to what I wanted
Bob

 

The Kawasaki boots I got have little holes in them to let air in/out; I used black zip-ties at the top and had to "relieve" the backside of my fork trim piece to allow the speedo and tach cables to scooch over a tad and for the increased OD of the boots.

 

Yes I see what you mean from looking on your gallery. You ended up with a nice neat job.

 

It was sheer coincidence and pure luck. Our buddy Wiz was posting progress reports on his resto of a Kawi 550GT, and the bike had fork boots on it. I asked him for measurements, since it was also a 550, and they were a perfect match for the 550 Seca. He got me the Kawi part number, and I ordered them through a Kawasaki dealer here in the USA (North Carolina, IIRC.)

They look "factory."

 

Whats the part #?

 

Yeah Fitz...give up the part#

 

Oh, sorry, sure:

Kawasaki pn 49006-1096 BOOT, FRONT FORK

Be aware; they're not exactly cheap, plus they're 35mm/55mm ID. They fit the 550s with 35mm front forks perfectly, and "snap" onto the tops of the fork sliders with no clamp required at the bottom.

On bikes with bigger diameter forks, I can't say what effect stretching the top would have, whether it would distort the top bellows or not. I would think only 1mm~2mm shouldn't matter but I can't say for sure.

They do have a series of vent holes molded in.

Here's an "in progress" shot; you can just see the top of one as well. I used black wire ties at the top, which are hidden by the fork trim piece which hasn't been reinstalled in this photo.

 

Very good, thanks Fitz.
I covet your front disc.

 

It's an EBC I got from XJ4Ever, and painted the hub black. (They come "natural.")

Caliper is a stock caliper, rebuilt and painted with caliper paint. Rear brake backing plate was powder-coated, along with the lever.

 

Thanks Fitz. More on my project list