Hawk 250 forks

[kirbo7106]

Hey Rail32,
Have you looked into cartridge emulators from racetech.com? They offer Dirt Emulators and they are listed by size. I haven't taken my forks apart yet, so I'm not sure if they have something for our Hawks. In the meantime, I'm going to go with your "new oil and double nickel shim kit"! The "Double Nickel Shim kit"! Am I the first to "coin" that phrase? Sorry, it's Friday and I have worked the last 19 days straight!

Have a Great Weekend and see you on the trails,
Dan-O

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by kirbo7106

Hey Rail32,
Have you looked into cartridge emulators from racetech.com? They offer Dirt Emulators and they are listed by size. I haven't taken my forks apart yet, so I'm not sure if they have something for our Hawks. In the meantime, I'm going to go with your "new oil and double nickel shim kit"! The "Double Nickel Shim kit"! Am I the first to "coin" that phrase? Sorry, it's Friday and I have worked the last 19 days straight!

Have a Great Weekend and see you on the trails,
Dan-O

Did you get the alarm installed?

[kirbo7106]

Hey JerryHawk250,
The alarm is tomorrow's project! I worked the last 19 days straight, so I didn't have any time to work on the Hawk.

[Rail32]

Originally Posted by kirbo7106

Hey Rail32,
Have you looked into cartridge emulators from racetech.com? They offer Dirt Emulators and they are listed by size. I haven't taken my forks apart yet, so I'm not sure if they have something for our Hawks. In the meantime, I'm going to go with your "new oil and double nickel shim kit"! The "Double Nickel Shim kit"! Am I the first to "coin" that phrase? Sorry, it's Friday and I have worked the last 19 days straight!

Have a Great Weekend and see you on the trails,
Dan-O

I may go with the triple nickel
Yes I checked woth race tech , th y have nothing that small of dia . It will frighten ya to see how samll the spring is if you are familiar with bikes at all. Progessive dude I need to talk to on vacation till late next week .
The phrase is all yours , feel free to " cash " in with it .

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Rail32

I may go with the triple nickel
Yes I checked woth race tech , th y have nothing that small of dia . It will frighten ya to see how samll the spring is if you are familiar with bikes at all. Progessive dude I need to talk to on vacation till late next week .
The phrase is all yours , feel free to " cash " in with it .

How are they feeling now?

[Rail32]

Originally Posted by Merlin

How are they feeling now?

They honestly feel pretty sweet. But all I can do is barely get a little air with front end over ditch at my house . We have rough 3" snow on ground and ground under it is pretty soft . I would say I made them %30 better for my weight than orginal. Wanna try 1 more nickel aka shim and see if it gets better or too stiff . My concern is not soaking up little bumps fast enough with too much shims. But for a light 250 cc bike at this point it's very rideable for a 5'8"195 lb 51 year old dude that thinks he's 20 something . Well till I get off it and make those old man sounds my father started making 20 years ago.
I am not sure what that means , so I do not think about that too much .

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Rail32

They honestly feel pretty sweet. But all I can do is barely get a little air with front end over ditch at my house . We have rough 3" snow on ground and ground under it is pretty soft . I would say I made them %30 better for my weight than orginal. Wanna try 1 more nickel aka shim and see if it gets better or too stiff . My concern is not soaking up little bumps fast enough with too much shims. But for a light 250 cc bike at this point it's very rideable for a 5'8"195 lb 51 year old dude that thinks he's 20 something . Well till I get off it and make those old man sounds my father started making 20 years ago.
I am not sure what that means , so I do not think about that too much .

Thanks for the reply. If you try the 3 nickel mod post back how you like it.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by Rail32

I took my little China girl out today after work and 10 wt fork oil and 2 nickels for shims works suprisingly well. I also made a call into Progessive and I got a dudes voice mail . We'll see if he gets back to me . The problem I see is the small dia of the springs . Most 31 mm forks use a larger dia spring .
Back in my younger cobbling days I have bought hardware store springs and stacked them up to get what I wanted . Sounds crazy , but with enough pateints of trail and error it works . Next step is measuring rear shock eye to eye . That should be an easy find for replacement . BTW I never leave anything alone . It's just my nature

If you intend to ride the bike real hard, you'd better watch the spoke tension real close. The spokes that come with these bikes are borderline good enough for off road use. If you are really going to pound this bike, perhaps you should look into better spokes.....ARH

[Rail32]

Originally Posted by Ariel Red Hunter

If you intend to ride the bike real hard, you'd better watch the spoke tension real close. The spokes that come with these bikes are borderline good enough for off road use. If you are really going to pound this bike, perhaps you should look into better spokes.....ARH

Thanks for tip , I will watch .

[joeboyk]

tonight i changed my fork oil 210 in one 200 in the other and grey like said before.No spacers gonna see how she feels.Took her for a quick ride but really need to re jet the carb since i put a K&N filter in.

[pete]

Originally Posted by Rail32

2 nickels is .120 shim and seems way better already .

We don't have nickels over here.... So I was forced to bolt a whole YZF250
front end in to my bike... O well thems the brakes.. I will just have to make do...

[ben2go]

That there be overkill on a china bike.

[emptyschmitz]

I like the idea of progressive springs...if we know the diameter of the springs and what the maximum diameter the forks can accept, maybe we can find a set that would work?

[ben2go]

Use the motorcycle fork size chart to find a similar weight bike with the same size fork tubes. Then search for upgraded springs for that bike. They should work with the China bikes. It may require running spacers. I have used PVC pipe for decades with absolutely no issues. Just use fender washers between the spring and PVC spacers. RaceTech used to publish their spring specs on their website. I have used mostly RaceTech for the past 15 years unless someone requested, or brought me, something different to install.

https://kiwavmotors.com/en/faq/about...ube-size-chart

I have used Progressive a couple times. I have a GS500 with them. They are OK but weight matched Racetech springs are way better. It's even better with their emulators and Torco fork fluid. I recommend Torco fork fluid due to their temperature spread. From just below freezing to well over 100*F, Torco fork fluid retains its viscosity and doesn't get thick or thin out with temp change.I use 5 or 7 in sport bikes and 10 in everything else. If 10 feels to soft, the fluid level can be raised about 10mm to help stiffen the fork up.

https://www.amazon.com/Torco-T830010...2b649743313e05

[hertz9753]

Originally Posted by pete

We don't have nickels over here.... So I was forced to bolt a whole YZF250
front end in to my bike... O well thems the brakes.. I will just have to make do...

That front tire reminds of the Dunlop 756 that I have on my Kawasaki KX125.