Can a chopped front fender serve as a fork brace?

[tybalt_214]

Complete fabrication newb here.

I'm tooling around with a 1972 CL350 basket case I picked up a month or two ago and the front fender on it is pretty warped up in the front. I'm trying to do this project on a budget and from what I've been reading not having some kind of bracing on the front forks is a bad idea for new riders.

So simple question: will a chopped OEM front fender have enough structural integrity to serve as a fork brace afterwards?

 

[onefourx]

Usually fenders have thicker material where they bolt to the forks, chopping up the fender shouldnt do much as far as the fork bracing ability. That being said, fenders offer little fork bracing...

 

[VonYinzer]

No fork brace is a bad idea for any ride. Not just new ones.

As far as your 350 fender, the fender itself is useless as a "brace". Its the actual mount that the fender is riveted to that does the trick. If you wanted to you could grind the rivets out, amd run the mount alone. Sucks in the rain or on dirty roads though.

 

[Tim]

Short answer is yes, a chopped / bobbed / warped / otherwise modified front fender will continue to work as designed to lock the forks together, keeping them aligned while in corners etc. (which is when the forces want to change the angle of the axle etc. and without a fork brace it gets twisted).

On some forks it's less of an issue - those that clamp down on the axle on both sides. But, on many forks, such as the XS650, there is only a clamp on one side and a hole on the other where the threaded end goes through and has a nut put on. That end is essentially 'loose' and can be subject to some twisting.

Modern inverted forks on sport bikes do not have fork braces as such, but the axles are typically much larger diameters and clamp strongly on both sides.

As the good VonYinzer has stated, there is likely a separate piece of metal that the fender is riveted to. It is this that acts as the fork brace. I'm sure the riveted on fender adds a small amount of extra rigidity but it wouldn't be much.

So hack away!

 

[CarbsAndCylinders]

You can get good inexpensive fork braces for vintage bikes, a good investment and much stronger than the stamped steel ones that came on these old bikes. I put them on all my old bikes.

 

[Big R]

Tybalt - is the chrome part of the fender warped? Something to keep in mind: depending HOW the fender got warped, it may have "tweaked" the actual bracing that mounts to the forks. So if you just have the brace mounted, and your tire doesn't point the same direction as the steering assembly, you might know why.

 

[tybalt_214]

Thank you very much gentlemen. I'll be starting a build thread soon once I get it back from my buddy who's doing some engine work.