RaceTech .85 kg/mm springs
RaceTech gold valve cartridge emulators, set 2 turns in from loose.
I started with 3 turns, but it was too harsh, or imballanced, or
something.
here is what an emulator does and why you want them.
12.5 weight oil, (I mixed a 10 and a 15 of two different brands and
it seems to work fine)
20 mm preload. I used 1" PVC pipe to make the spacer because it's cheap.
the instructions that came with the springs said to start with 20mm
preload, and it turns out that gives me the right amount of static
sag, so I'm going to leave it there.
update
It appears that mixing 10 and 15 weight oil to get a 12.5 didn't work at all. It could be that the 10 and 15 were from different manufacturers, and each has their own additives that screw up the other's oil viscosity.
When I replaced the fork oil with a straight 15 weight oil it made a huge difference! Holy cow! The "12.5" I had in before never worked nearly as well as the 10 weight (I believe) in the other hawk.
Here's the mail I sent to some people after I made the change:
Last night when I left the Lefton's party it was probably 15 degrees out, and there was frost on the bike seat. Just for fun, I did the fork-compression test (grab the front brake and push down on the bars and watch the front end bounce) and it was clear that the cold had thickened the fork oil quite a lot, as it felt very different from what it usually does. Stiff, and when the forks came back up there was *no* overbounce, they came up and stopped, didn't go at all above the normal resting point. "this should be fun" I thought, thinking that I'd be thrown all over the road each time I hit any bump at all. I was *so* wrong! It turns out that my fork oil was shot, really shot, so it just didn't damp properly anymore. The bike behaved wonderfully. I can't remember it *ever* being that good. So, this "morning" I pulled the forks, replaced the bad dust seal, and replaced the fork oil with new 15 weight oil. It took me about an hour I think, maybe a little more. The old oil was a mix of 10 and 15 weight, trying to be a 12.5 weight. The two oils were of different brands, and there might have been some incompatibility between the two that made the mix not work right, as it didn't feel as good when I first did it as it does now by a bunch. Anyway, even in my warm basement it was clear that the damping was much better than before, much closer to the 15 degree oil of the night before, and close to the blackhawk's GMD-Computrack'ed forks. I was on the right track. I then took it for a ride. Wow! Holy crap! what a difference! there was no harshness from bumps like I expected, it was just smooth. I noticed two major differences. The first was that when I hit the brakes the bike just stopped. There wasn't any weird bobble, or really perceptible front end dive, and the whole bike felt more controlable and stable. Very nice. The other and much more significant difference was that when I got to a corner and leaned the bike over it just turned. There wasn't a delay, or dive, or weird front end motion, or anything. When I got out of the turn, or did a quick left right turn (think turn 12 at loudon) the bike just fucking did it. None of that feeling of being thrown back and forth or up off the bike. It's like the bike was trying really hard to do exactly what I wanted it to do. I actually had to raise the rebound damping on the rear shock by one click because I was noticing the back end again. (this one has a 6 position knob, not a 20-somethign position, so one click is much more significant than on the Fox shock) Damn. What a great bike! If you're curious, I'm using PJ-1 15 weight fork oil filled to 7.75" from the top, cartridge emulators with the preload set 2 turns in from loose, Racetech .85kg/mm springs, and 20mm of preload.
Progressive adjustable shock, set on full hard for compression, and "3"
for rebound. I started with full soft for both, and then full hard for
both, but that was too much, the rear wheel felt like it was having
trouble with traction, so I reduced rebound damping half way. It feels
much better now.
the shock is not length adjustable, only preload adjustable. I've got
it set at what would be "4" or "5" on the stock hawk shock, and that gives
me a ride I like and a static sag that is appropriate. I've only scraped
parts in corners twice, and that was when I hit a bump, so I'm ok with
the preload, I have enough ground clearance to erase the Michelin man
on the sides of my tires. Here's a picture
of it before it went on the bike.
I don't know if this is the best way to set it up, and I don't know
if the shock is in really good shape, or really worn out. I got it from
a guy on the net who said, "It's exactly the way it came off the hawk."
That could mean anything. The local GMD computune couldn't get it apart
to rebuild it without damaging it, which also means nothing. Someday
I'll send it back to Progressive and have them take responsability for it.
Nothing except for stainless braided front brake line and a VFR adjustable
lever. I replaced the stock (original) FF pads with EBC HH ones, and
it stops really really well now. I expect the difference is a combination
of several things I did at once, rebuiding the caliper, rebuilding the
master cylinder, and throwning away the old pads. new stock FF pads might have
made a difference of similar magnitude. This is all to say "HH pads might
not fix a similar problem."
I did find that the lever feel was improved by the stainless lines,
and that I really like the adjustable lever. I like having the lever close
to the bar so I can get all my fingers around it. I get better control
when I can curl my fingers around the lever, it takes a lot less effort,
and I don't have to stretch my hand off the bar to reach the lever. I
used to like to use two fingers, but that was as much because the lever
was far away and I didn't like moving my hand off the bar at all.
I installed a Twobrothers Racing exhaust system in December 2001, and I'm embarrassed to say I really like the sound. At the same time I switched to 4" UNI pod filters and a Factory brand stage 3 jet kit.
I've got it tuned so it's pretty good, but there's sort of a flat spot in the mid-range that I'd like to tune out. The flat spot might be a function of the non-stepped headers, my impression is that the race headers sacrifice mid range to get lots of top-end. I'd believe that based on the butt-dyno testing I've done on my hawk. here are the carb settings I've used, and some history. Before I had the TBR and the pods I was using a stock airbox and filter with a stage 1 jet kit. It helped a lot, made the bike a whole lot smoother and easier to ride.
No mods at all. I'm still on the original chain after 15k miles.
Front: Michelin Pilot Sport 110/70-17
Rear: Michelin Pilot Sport 160/60-17
They're wicked sticky, but they get a flat part down the middle
too fast for me, I use my bike to commute too. I think next time I'll get
the Michelin Mcadam 100X's instead, I liked them on the Ducati I used
to ride.
