I've polished up several bits on my old sporty including forks. I first used 3M paint striper then rubbed off the clear coat with steel wool. I used the same method on the forks but also used wet and dry on them because they were fairly oxydised.
Then to finish off I bought a aluminium polishing kit with two grade compounds and several grades of polishing wheels.
I spotted some 2000 wet/dry recently. Didn't know it existed after 1200, real fine stuff to use before the polishing finish.
Lacquer removal is easy on most bikes from Honda’s to Harleys Take a piece of old towel lay it on the metal and keep it wet with acrylic lacquer thinners for a few minutes and the coating will wrinkle up and turn to sludge wipe it off with a clean rag with thinners on it. Do not get it near paint or plastic and do it outside without smoking, use gloves. This will not stain the alloy
I have done a few of these and never used stripper or the like. I took the forks off the bike, and then polished on a bench polisher with a stitched rag and buffing wheel.
Below is a bit of a look at a set of forks of a Yammi cruiser.
I would reccomend that chroming over alloy is not a good option as it wont last long, de-laquering and polishing only option.
http://www.hdforums.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=71&forumid=15&postid=472358&view=topic
Have a read of this thread. I stripped the forks and describe the do's and donts of what stripper you should use.
Regards