GT500 and GT550 Front Forks Question

[Frank]

I find myself with enough parts to build another T500 (I was second owner of a '73 that I sold a couple of years ago) so I'm starting to get parts lined up for this winter. I'm thinking of making it a bit more "sporting" which would include a disc brake front end. I've read that the GT500 is a bolt-on. What about GT550? I have GT550 front wheel and brakes that I would like to use. Would they fit in the GT500 forks (with custom spacers?) or is the whole thing a bolt-on?

Thanks for any thoughts, comments, etc.

[jabcb]

My T500 cafe build had a GT500 front end when I bought the bike. That mod just needed the correct steering head bearings.

I would expect the GT550 front end to also work. Don’t know how the spacing for upper & lower triple tree compares.
The fork tube assemblies might be longer. Measure the T500 & GT550 assemblies fully extended to see if it’s an issue.

The GT550 forks have better damping than the GT500 forks. The disk brake is the same. It’s a reasonable choice.