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How to find out if a front end is going to fit - Honda CX500, GL500, CX650, GL650

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Wondering whether a certain front end will mate up to your Honda CX500, GL500, CX650 or GL650's frame? Find out the process for figuring out compatibility here.

Note that we are only going to talk about whether the front end will physically mate to the frame here - if you want some information about the handling consequences or tank interference you will want the fork swap considerations page.

Most of the process involves looking at the steering stem and the frame neck to figure out sizing. The steering stem will have three dimensions that we care about - the upper and lower diameters where the bearings seat are the first two and the third is the overall length of the stem. The positioning of the threads on the stem will also have an impact. As far as the frame goes we need to know the dimensions of the neck where the bearing races will seat.

Generally speaking you will be wanting to use the upper and lower triple trees from the new front end along with the forks. The stock CX500 triple trees only have 33mm holes in them (35mm for GL500s and some late CX500Cs in the USA, 37mm for GL650/CX650E/Turbos, 39mm for CX650C) so you won't be able to fit a larger fork through them.

First up we can figure out whether bearings are available for the stem/frame combo. If there aren't bearings available there are other options; you can sleeve the stem up to match a bearing size in some instances or else you may be able to press out the stem from a CX triple tree and press it into your desired front end's triple tree. If there's an off the shelf bearing kit, though, that's more straightforward. Head over to All Balls Racing:

Click on the "Find Fork Conversion Kits" on the left hand side:

Pop in the details of your bike - note that this is a USA site so the CX650E etc. is not listed - the frame ID for the bearing races (not stem lengths!) are the same so from the perspective of bearings it doesn't matter which CX/GL you pick except for the Turbos which are different;

...and you will receive some results showing a list of front ends:

But, as you will read above the list, there is a catch. This does not take into account stem length. There's a further catch - the front ends are not necessarily upgrades from your existing front end, they're simply lists of what front ends have steering stems that have dimensions that match bearings that fit your frame. Whether the stem height means they line up as they should is another matter.

No luck on the All Balls site? You could always try a local bearing shop to see whether they have a different selection. The OD of the upper race for a CX500/CX650/GL500/GL650 non-Turbo model is 48.5mm and the OD of the lower race is 50mm. The Turbos are 47mm/55mm.

Found bearings? Great. Now take a look at the height of the steering stem and compare it to the CX. We have a list of steering stem lengths on this page. The threads on the stem are a little harder to quantify; we will try and get a photo of a stock CX stem and put it up here so you have something to compare a photo of your desired steering stem to. If the threads are not in a useful location you may not be able to put the various nuts on.

At this point, let's presume you have found a compatible bearing set and that the steering stem length/thread location is OK for your application. Great! Now head over to the CX500 fork swap database and the fork swap considerations page to find out whether other people have used the same front end and some other considerations/issues to examine.