its locked in place by the two bolts and the pressure they apply, if itbdoes mobe Illl tack weld it in place, just bave to grind that off to take it apart then, so I really didnt want to weld it..

yeah im 54 and have been riding since i was 9. sold my last motocross bike about 5 years ago, bought the hawk to force me yo be more mellow on the trail. I also like the exhaust note, can't stand a screaming 2 stroke these days, its like an ice pick in your ear.

motorcycles gave me my start in mechanic's. These days there isnt much Ill leave alone.

wouldn't like to see it fold up on yer...

I'm 57... still ride enduros.... old dirt riders don't give up we just get slower..
but I now ride the clubmans class & the odd B grade ..
use to have national A grade ranking.." seems a life time ago now"
got my first bike for my 7th birthday.... now been riding for 50 years...
I'm a tool maker...

This is what I'm playing around with at the moment...
http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=16036




...

thats a great project! ill be following the progress. its been 3 or 4 years since ive done a big project.

Pete, yes the plates rest on the swing arm, so the only movement possible is upward. all the bike weight rests on the swing arm.

if airborne the weight of the arm and wheel would be applied to that clamping point, I think it will hold it but I will keep a close eye on it.

how dose it handle now seems like the back is higher than the front

not at all. actually its 1 inch lower than stock. I couldnt touch both feet at a red light. now I can easily. the bike is a bunch better and I can go over the curb in front of my house without even feeling it. so the ride is much softer.

I havent had it to my local dirt track to see if it bottoms on a jump. It seems like it wont, I only weight 163 so this wont work so well for a big guy.

my first impression of the hawk was its got too small of front forks. but really its more that its too high in the rear, and only compressed about half an inch when I sat on it..

now its softer and compresses about 3 inches when I sit down.

I used to get my motocross suspensions dialed in for my weight range. That is the feel I Wanted to achive with the hawk and its close.

so if your light like me this is a good mod, and totally removeable.

Jimwildman,tried your set up and ended up with a 3/4 rise,I'm not joking.

how is it with your weight on it?

I took it off road yesterday and 8m thinking its a bit soft.

I cut away a bit of the old mount so that it can get more angle, as well as to shape the part to,allow more angle before touching the swing arm.
so my mount is 3/4" forward but 1/2 imch lower.

again the amount of change in leverage is a bit extreme.

i might make a change at the top of the mount to try a bit less leverage.

tonight in an effort to reduce the effect of leverage i did basically the same thing at the top of the shock, the part required alot more shaping and I plan to weld this one, bolt is good for testing but alot of weight goes against the tank mount, so welding it to the old mount will solve that.

im almost flatfooted siting on the bike now. and its about half as soft. so better.
its probly as good as its gonna get with this shock.

even after welding this my old top mount will still be usable, there will just be a second placement for it.

I'm looking forward to pics of that, Jim.

here is the chain side, as you can see i got greedy and went for too much drop, result is I had to heat the top frame rail and dent it with a ball peen, to make room for removing the bolt.

im glad i did tho as the seat is 32" high and so is my insem.

seat height

other side

seems i was holding the ipad upside down for some pics. embassasing.:doh:

here is a side view of the bike all reassembled.

i had to remove the plastics, seat, tank, air box, and move several wire looms out of the way to do this.

another decent shot of my bike. sideways this time! :crazy: