Good stuff. I've learnt something today so it's a good day. I'm thinking of the T7 as my next steed and being a bigger guy I know that I will need to do suspension work (just the same as I have with every dirt bike I've ever owned) which is what led me here. I'm happy to have found your page. The trick to removing the fork lug is fantastic and knowing now that the forks on the T7 are only 43mm I know what I'm getting into. I've got 43mm forks on my 1982 Honda XR500! I guess Yamaha saved some money and made the T7 a bit more comfortable on road by allowing more flex???? I look forward to watching the rest of the mods you have for the suspension so I am going to subscribe. Cheers from Australia.
Love this You're an animal recently bought a skid plate for my t7 from you unfortunately I don't have the bike yet been waiting over a month lol but it looks very nice 😂😂😂
Awesome Video! I loved the series on swapping the forks on your Africa Twin, and that already had me planning this fork swap on my T7( once it arrives in BC). I was planning on using the entire front end out of a YZ(forks, triple trees, wheel, brake, and machining the steering stem to fit into the T7's head tube bearings). Your approach seems much more advantageous though, and I look forward to seeing the final outcome! If it all works out, I would be very interested in a kit, instead of taking my original route and losing some stopping power with the YZ front brake.
Using all the stock YZ stuff was my plan, I have it all here. There are a bunch of reasons that I decided against it. I'll go over that stuff in upcoming videos... due to the current situation in the world, it looks like I'll have lots of time in the garage to shoot new videos!
Great engineering brother, thanks for posting. I've been looking at the T700 and everything looks great except I'm 6'4" 240 and my biggest concern with going with the T700 was the suspension issues for a big guy. I've always had big ground pounders and dirtbikes, but this would be my first jump into combining both passions with and ADV bike. In your experience would my size be an issue for the T700 forks to handle with just simple spring/valve mods?
It is interesting how Yamaha describe their 43mm forks as flex resistant and run the same diameter fork on the Tenere 1200 which is considerably heavier. Possibly just marketing babble but do you know what the thickness of the fork tube is?
@@CamelADV gas torch. I was warming up for a long time. Only now that I found your video, at the moment that I was looking for the part that was melted. My lathe did not remove the part, it is between the spring and the one that shows at 18:29. sorry i don't know the name, i don't speak english.
Awesome! Really looking forward to seeing the rest of this project. I've been debating getting the T7 once it's finally available to us down here in the states but my biggest drawback for getting the bike is the stock suspension. I love ridding the big bikes offroad and on my 950 SE, having good suspension made a world of difference. Are you going to be selling these adapter parts to the public or is this just a personal one off project?
when you say you're gonna make a new upper shock mount, do you mean some kind of part to change the place where it is fixed to the frame? I'm guessing that's because you want to get thoose extra 40-45mm travel but not raising the bike so much? Do you think a good cartridge (30 or 35mm piston) for the forks would be good enough? I mean... I know 43mm is gonna flex more than 48mm, but apart from that, didn' that solve all the valving limitations?
You have basically every dirtbike from the major manufacturers in the last 20yrs has had 48mm forks. These bikes are 1/2 the weight of an ADV bike. Yes, the motocross bikes are flying through the air and landing after getting huge air... that requires stiffer forks, good oil flow and top-notch valving. Singletrack woods bikes don't generally get hucked off of huge jumps yet they still have 48mm forks and amazing damping components to soak up the big hits. The T7's stock suspension works well for regular road riding, gravel, fire roads, light trail work, etc. When the terrain gets rougher and the speeds pick up, you hit the limits of the stock stuff sooner than later. With the small ID of the forks, I don't know what the maximum size aftermarket cartridge and piston would be. I have no doubt that Ohlins and a bunch of others are working hard on a bolt in cartridge for this bike. Yamaha will sell a pile of T7s and many people will want to upgrade. Anyone that comes up with an upgraded cartridge at a reasonable price will make a ton of money.
I have been thinking of a t700 in my garage, the question I want to know I am 5ft- 8in tall and weigh in at 260lbs do you think I will have a problem with this bike?
The forks were revalved a couple years ago for use with my Africa Twin. The AT is much heavier than the T7 but the fork valving was a bit light when they were in AT so I'm hoping they will be close for the T7. We're running a lighter spring rate too so I'm thinking everything will be pretty close. If they do need a shim adjustment, I'll likely just give it to George @ Suspension101.com
why dont you just put a better spring and revalve in your forks. africa twin is a lot heaveyer than the t7. this seams a lot work for no gain. buy a enduro bike if you ride that hard off road.
They are re-sprung and re-valved by a great tuner and they work much better than the stock set up. However, even the best tuners can only do so much with 43mm forks/20mm cartridges. The KYB SSS and TFX components are a HUGE upgrade. The T7 is a great bike but the suspension is it's limiting factor, I'm addressing that limitation on my bike. If a re-valve / respring is all you need to get your bike where you want it, great. As far as buying an enduro bike, I already have a 350.
Do you happen to know the piston dia on the KYB SSS you put in here? The Rally Raid kit has a piston dia of 35mm, which is much bigger than the 20mm oem- have you tried that kit?
@@JohannesDalenMC to be fair the stock stuff revalved works very good. i could not ride any faster. look on my chanle what we ride. look at this vid watch it all. electorn450, tenere700s at play we shouldnt be doing this at our age. at them speeds you need good suspention slower rock stuff is no problem i dont think many riders could ride faster with the cartridge kit. i have had a T7 over 18months.
My suggestion use the flame torch to preheated
ive done this once with SSS and i used the same exact technique! Worked like a charm!
They came off far easier than I expected.
Cory keep the videos coming and in such detail. I live it. Like what you have decided to do with the T7 suspension.
My pleasure.
Good stuff. I've learnt something today so it's a good day. I'm thinking of the T7 as my next steed and being a bigger guy I know that I will need to do suspension work (just the same as I have with every dirt bike I've ever owned) which is what led me here. I'm happy to have found your page. The trick to removing the fork lug is fantastic and knowing now that the forks on the T7 are only 43mm I know what I'm getting into. I've got 43mm forks on my 1982 Honda XR500! I guess Yamaha saved some money and made the T7 a bit more comfortable on road by allowing more flex???? I look forward to watching the rest of the mods you have for the suspension so I am going to subscribe. Cheers from Australia.
Love this You're an animal recently bought a skid plate for my t7 from you unfortunately I don't have the bike yet been waiting over a month lol but it looks very nice 😂😂😂
Awesome Video! I loved the series on swapping the forks on your Africa Twin, and that already had me planning this fork swap on my T7( once it arrives in BC). I was planning on using the entire front end out of a YZ(forks, triple trees, wheel, brake, and machining the steering stem to fit into the T7's head tube bearings). Your approach seems much more advantageous though, and I look forward to seeing the final outcome! If it all works out, I would be very interested in a kit, instead of taking my original route and losing some stopping power with the YZ front brake.
Using all the stock YZ stuff was my plan, I have it all here. There are a bunch of reasons that I decided against it. I'll go over that stuff in upcoming videos... due to the current situation in the world, it looks like I'll have lots of time in the garage to shoot new videos!
@@CamelADV looking forward to watching them 👊✊
Great engineering brother, thanks for posting. I've been looking at the T700 and everything looks great except I'm 6'4" 240 and my biggest concern with going with the T700 was the suspension issues for a big guy. I've always had big ground pounders and dirtbikes, but this would be my first jump into combining both passions with and ADV bike. In your experience would my size be an issue for the T700 forks to handle with just simple spring/valve mods?
If you don't ride super aggressively, you should be OK with a respring, revalve.
Love your products. Cheers
It is interesting how Yamaha describe their 43mm forks as flex resistant and run the same diameter fork on the Tenere 1200 which is considerably heavier. Possibly just marketing babble but do you know what the thickness of the fork tube is?
I melted the rest of the spring when trying to remove the lower part of the suspension
How much heat did you put to the lug to melt it?
@@CamelADV gas torch. I was warming up for a long time. Only now that I found your video, at the moment that I was looking for the part that was melted. My lathe did not remove the part, it is between the spring and the one that shows at 18:29. sorry i don't know the name, i don't speak english.
Awesome! Really looking forward to seeing the rest of this project. I've been debating getting the T7 once it's finally available to us down here in the states but my biggest drawback for getting the bike is the stock suspension. I love ridding the big bikes offroad and on my 950 SE, having good suspension made a world of difference. Are you going to be selling these adapter parts to the public or is this just a personal one off project?
We'll see how they turn out and what the final pricing will be. If everything works out well, we'll likely offer them on our site.
when you say you're gonna make a new upper shock mount, do you mean some kind of part to change the place where it is fixed to the frame? I'm guessing that's because you want to get thoose extra 40-45mm travel but not raising the bike so much?
Do you think a good cartridge (30 or 35mm piston) for the forks would be good enough? I mean... I know 43mm is gonna flex more than 48mm, but
apart from that, didn' that solve all the valving limitations?
You have basically every dirtbike from the major manufacturers in the last 20yrs has had 48mm forks. These bikes are 1/2 the weight of an ADV bike. Yes, the motocross bikes are flying through the air and landing after getting huge air... that requires stiffer forks, good oil flow and top-notch valving. Singletrack woods bikes don't generally get hucked off of huge jumps yet they still have 48mm forks and amazing damping components to soak up the big hits. The T7's stock suspension works well for regular road riding, gravel, fire roads, light trail work, etc. When the terrain gets rougher and the speeds pick up, you hit the limits of the stock stuff sooner than later.
With the small ID of the forks, I don't know what the maximum size aftermarket cartridge and piston would be. I have no doubt that Ohlins and a bunch of others are working hard on a bolt in cartridge for this bike. Yamaha will sell a pile of T7s and many people will want to upgrade. Anyone that comes up with an upgraded cartridge at a reasonable price will make a ton of money.
I have been thinking of a t700 in my garage, the question I want to know I am 5ft- 8in tall and weigh in at 260lbs do you think I will have a problem with this bike?
Great video! I learned quit a bit, if you revalve them could you provide the details on the shim changes.
The forks were revalved a couple years ago for use with my Africa Twin. The AT is much heavier than the T7 but the fork valving was a bit light when they were in AT so I'm hoping they will be close for the T7. We're running a lighter spring rate too so I'm thinking everything will be pretty close. If they do need a shim adjustment, I'll likely just give it to George @ Suspension101.com
why dont you just put a better spring and revalve in your forks. africa twin is a lot heaveyer than the t7. this seams a lot work for no gain. buy a enduro bike if you ride that hard off road.
They are re-sprung and re-valved by a great tuner and they work much better than the stock set up. However, even the best tuners can only do so much with 43mm forks/20mm cartridges. The KYB SSS and TFX components are a HUGE upgrade. The T7 is a great bike but the suspension is it's limiting factor, I'm addressing that limitation on my bike. If a re-valve / respring is all you need to get your bike where you want it, great. As far as buying an enduro bike, I already have a 350.
Do you happen to know the piston dia on the KYB SSS you put in here? The Rally Raid kit has a piston dia of 35mm, which is much bigger than the 20mm oem- have you tried that kit?
@@JohannesDalenMC to be fair the stock stuff revalved works very good. i could not ride any faster. look on my chanle what we ride. look at this vid watch it all. electorn450, tenere700s at play we shouldnt be doing this at our age. at them speeds you need good suspention slower rock stuff is no problem i dont think many riders could ride faster with the cartridge kit. i have had a T7 over 18months.