Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

Can anyone tell me what a fairly easy mod would be to hop up the front end suspension of a 1976 XR75.
Looking for more travel. Does a later honda front end fit nicely (bolt on)?

Is there a website that deals specialises in XR75 mods??

Thanking you

I gave up on oil levels and preload on these spindly little stock forks.

Bolting up a set of 1980 CR80R forks cured all. It required the CR front brake assembly, but I think I used the XR80 wheel. I did have to make a turn stop so the forks wouldn't hit the tank, and a mount so the front fender fit properly.

The CR80R shocks were also a near bolt-on mod - after reshaping part of the muffler for clearance of the shock reservoir. Reshaping means denting big-time with a ball peen hammer. These are rebuildable shocks that are sooooo much better if a grown up is to ride it.

There's a fellow selling a roller on Craigslist SF Bay area right now that looks like a great donor.

go to: http://re-mx.com they make lots of XR75 stuff.

Excuses/excuses.
~2 years back I built a XR75 for my then 3 year old grandson. He is five now so he will probably get to ride it himself for the first time this summer.

At the same time I picked up an XR100 front end, triple clamps and tubes because I heard they were the hot set up for an XR75. I figured somewhere around 8-10 years old my grandson may want an upgrade. I haven't installed them yet naturally. I did check and it looks like the they will bolt right up.

Now for the excuses part, I don't remember the year probably around 1980ish. They are 30 mm diameter vs. the stock XR75 27 mm. The length is ~4" longer which means everything else being equal they will raise the front that much. I don't know how large of front wheel you could use, I'd imagine up to 21" but that would have the effect of raising ground clearance even more. I don't know what modifications have to be done to the rear in order to keep frame geometry to the point where you won't have serious problems. Cheating a bit I imagine you could just set the tubes high in the triple clamps and install longer shocks in the rear.

Rick

I have installed a set of '85 XR100 forks & triple clamps and front fender on the front end of my son's '78 XR75. I bolted them right on, no modifications neccessary. I used the stock '78 XR front wheel, brake panel not a perfect fit because of the angle of the brake cable location. It still works fine, just not a show quality alignment. The XR100 brake panel would not fit the XR75 hub. I had to make a spacer for the front wheel to use the XR75 wheel with the XR100 forks. If you need the extra height, you could just bolt on the XR100 wheel. I also installed a longer '81 XR100 swingarm along with some NOS Boge-Mulholland shocks I found on ebay. Again, this was a bolt on replacement, as the XR75 rear wheel fit perfectly on the XR100 swingarm. The shocks are obviously way better than the stockers, and fit on the xr100 arm perfectly. If anyone wants photos of my XR75, shoot me an e-mail. It's almost complete, I've had a heck of a time finding a good stator plate (one that works! I have 2 junk ones in a box). Finally got that squared away, and couldn't find a wiring harness. Not available from Honda any longer. I have made my own, using the drawing from the Honda Shop Manual.

For the adult riders of the xr75, I found that the rear shocks off a kawasaki 350 bighorn bolt right on. I'm currently running a set on my 77 xr75. I had to space out the exhaust to keep it from rubbing.