Alternatives to 35mm Marzocchi forks?

[Scottish888]

Has anyone successfully fitted alternative front forks to the Ducati singles (1974 Marzocchi 35mm with twin drum wheel)

[blethermaskite]

I also have a 1974 widecase 350 with double drum front brake, which I have fitted with 35mm ceriani gp legs and sliders in the marzocchi tripple clamps, my problem with the standard forks was the rather disconcerting way the bike would sometimes shake its head at speed over a bumpy section of country road.......nothing I did would fully cure this problem.....then by extremely good fortune I managed to buy a little used set of ceriani gp forks at an autojumble, fitted the marzocchi springs to them (needed a little experimentation with preload spacers) and fitted them to the bike, almost identical dimensions even the standard steel mudguard bolted straight on!.......result?......transformed the bike, no head shakes, and overall a real and tangible improvement in all aspects of the bikes handling.
However this is a pretty expensive alternative.
Cheers,
George

[Jordan]

35mm/1.375inch is a common size for fork stanchions.
I fitted some from a Yamaha into the Marzocchi sliders of a SCR.
It worked out OK, though the top nuts were the obvious giveaway.
Eventually sold, many years later I saw this bike again and it still had the foreign legs.

[Scottish888]

Thanks folks,

I will have a look at some Japanese 35mm stanchions to see how much work would be involved to make them fit and work.
If not then I know I can get Marzocchi stanchions.

Regards

[aerojack7654]

I've got a 350 baby squid that I built up from parts a previous owner had assembled to build a race bike, and the forks that came with it were Triumph forks (I believe from a '72 T120). They had been nicely polished and looked beautiful but leaked and were terrible. I was going to replace with some Cerani replicas from Germany but very high $$, so I decided to open up the Triumph shocks and put a Racetech Gold valve kit in them and replaced the seals. Big transformation, they are now very nice.

Good luck with yours!

Jack