JUST STOP IT RIGHT NOW! DECEMBER 2025 ISSUE
Dear Mr. Know-It-All,
I’m in the process of upgrading my older bike to a newer fork. We’re ditching the OEM triple clamp and going with an aftermarket triple clamp to put it all together. I noticed that the steering stop on the frame doesn’t quite line up right with the new triple clamp I have, but how important is that? Do steering stops really matter that much?
Frank Tapper
via [email protected]
Frank Tapper (or should we call you “Tank Slapper”?), you ask a valid question, and at one point we were actually asking ourselves the same question. Maybe it takes a solid tank-slap in the face to realize that, yes, steering stops matter! Upgrading your ride with a new front end is a big step, and while welding a new steering stop to your frame is no small task, take pride in your ride and do it right. If you are doing this on a late-model Kawasaki KX125 or KX250 two-stroke, Trick Engineering makes a DIY bolt-on version that requires no welding. We are in the process of doing KX and YZ steel-frame builds right now that require frame-stop modifications.
We are working with Billy White from Luxon MX on our YZ build, and he offered some insight on the importance of steering stops: “You need a solid contact area for where the triple clamp hits the frame stop,” says White. “If you only have a small sliver of contact, you could actually damage the clamp or the steering stop in a big crash.”
Billy took it a step further by tapping into his inner Rain Man to figure out some math for us: “There can be an enormous force on that area. Depending on how the bike hits the ground, causing the forks to hit the steering stop, the force applied at the stop can be about 9 or 10 times the force at the end of the handlebars. So, think about knifing the front end into the ground and the weight of the bike causing the forks to hit the steering stops. It could be 1000 pounds of force. So, think you’d have 9000 to 10,000 pounds of force on your steering stop. That’s significant.”
There you have it, Tank Slapper. You certainly don’t want five tons of force slamming into your radiators or damaging your shiny new fork tubes. Take the time to do this build right and make sure your steering stop has a nice contact area on the triple clamp.
If you don’t mind displaying your ignorance for the world to see, who are we to deny the opportunity? Send evidence of your failures to
[email protected] or Mr. Know-It-All Dirt Bike P.O. Box 957 Valencia, CA 91380-9057
