Conventional fork upgrade

[mekket]

I have a GasGas 450 pampera 2008 with supermoto wheels. The forks that came with the bike are "conventional" forks. I think they are Marzocchi magnum 45 mm forks. They do not have any kind of adjustment at all apart from changing the fork oil weight. As I have been riding on the street I used slightly heavier oil than the manual suggests and since I have really not ridden any more bikes and have nothing to compare it to I would say that they feel okay. I had a GasGas 515 that I got to ride a couple of times and it had the marzocchi Shiver forks. As the riding time was super limited and the forks had leaks so they probably were not to 100% of their capability but they did seem to perform better.

I am also hoping to find a set of enduro wheels for my bike and would like to ride off-road too so having adjustable forks that perform well on other surfaces from pavement would benefit.

Now to my question: Would it be a worthwhile upgrade to buy a set of adjustable forks? I found a set for fairly cheap price. They do look well used and need seals, etc but I don't mind doing that work as it is a chance to see how they work and learn. The bonus is that they come with the triple clamps as I can not re use mine because of the diameter differences.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144862436716

Is the wearing coating on the lower parts a problem?
Are these forks even worth going for? As I said I have little to no experience offroad so having the "best" is not important.
Should I just keep my old forks?
Is there a better option that is "cheap"?
I have not yet cross-checked the part numbers to see if the axle etc fits but I would guess that they did not change that up.

 

[SS109]

Upgraded forks can make a huge difference in riding enjoyment and safety so I say do it!

That said, I wouldn't consider the forks you linked to. Those look pretty roached to me and I think you could do much better with some KYB or Showa forks.

Honestly, you can make just about any set of forks bolt on. In the KDX community I've seen all sorts of fork swaps done. It's just a matter of deciding how involved you want to get in to it. You need to find one that fits your axle/wheel setup, make the proper spacers to make it fit, or get the axle/wheel off the donor bike. Same with the front brake caliper.

Then you need to see about getting your steering stem pressed out of your current lower triple and see if it can be fitted to the new lower triple. Do a lot of research here to make sure it's close or you can run in to a problem that would require some custom machining which costs $$$.

 

[(F5)]

Or sell and buy the bike for the job. I've seen some video on riding in Estonia. I guess it might not be as super amazing everywhere but I'd come over if I was rich.

Can you find an EC300? You'll have great fun and a 2 stroke, which of course makes you more attractive to the opposite sex. Or the same one. We don't judge here.

 

[mekket]

I have thought about getting a 2stroke Gas Gas as a second bike but I would like to buy one in non-running condition to fix it in order to get it for a better price. I have not managed to find such a bike for sale yet. Another problem is the fact that I don't really have space for 2 bikes and I still mainly ride on the street so thats why I really don't want to sell the bike I have either.

As for the fork swap - I don't feel too comfortable about doing a full front end swap to some other brand because there are quite a few things that need to be changed and the possibility of messing something up increases. Going for the "stock" GasGas forks seems like a safer bet to me but I was not sure if those forks would even be a worthwhile upgrade

 

[(F5)]

Ahh missed the supermotard wheels bit on my quick skim.

Big fan of bike for the job. Room? Brits often make ramps to get their bikes into the hall way because they had houses with no garage. . The rest of us just park cars on driveway. There. Room for several bikes now.

Cheap roadbike and cheap dirtbike until you can afford to upgrade. That's been my progress through the years. Do they still have RZ350s there? Or has the inflation of old bikes followed the plaything middle aged investors pushing the price to crazy?