I posted this a few weeks ago with no response. I now have new info to add. Still confused!

When swapping a power parts top yoke from a 2005 bike to a 2008 I found the PP part fits both bikes no proplem, however the stock 08 part wouldn't fit the 2005. I've now bought a 2005 stock top yoke which fits the earlier bike just fine.

So the question is, how is this possible? as the offsets are obviously different then the pp part shouldn't fit my 08 bike!

I've never messed with the top triple clamp.

What makes the 08 not fit, the offset?

I think most of the members that did anything with the top clamp have left, most of then swapped to a nichols: viewtopic.php?t=13105

Yeah the offsets are different between the early model and the facelifted 08. What I'm not getting is how the PP top yoke can fit both bikes while the stock unit is different between the models

Weird!

I have 2008 SDR top and bottom clamps on my '07 990 but I swapped over purely because they were black and came up on eBay super cheap!

Nichols clamps were developed in the US for the SD race boys and it has a steeper steering geometry (rake) which makes the bike turn in quicker. Not necessarily better for road riding but looked trick.

Smaller 16 tooth front sprocket was fitted by later model 990 owners because KTM changed to a 17tooth on the '07+ model and it wasn't as good a gearing as previously. You get better acceleration and it also helped with some of the bad fuelling, jerky throttle issues some had because it raised the revs a bit in certain conditions.