I think I put my neck out of place. It is also hard to see anything with the tiny pictures.

The high speed wobble is diminished/gone. could it be the geometry was off due to being soo jacked up in the rear?

From what I know a small change in the rake and trail of a bike can reflect bjg changes in the stability.

Dropping the rear a few inches would have a small effect on the rake and trail.

I allways blamed the tires for the wobble.

Rake effects trail, so raising the rear lowers trail and makes the bike easy to turn, but less stabil at high speed straight line. lowering the rear increares rake and trail and increases the sraight line stability, wile incresing the effort required to turn in on a corner.

Im going riding at Limestone NY Tommorow so i will get a chance to test it in a big way.

does anyone know the spring weight on the hawks rear shock?

I've found a dimensionally vorrect shock, with adjustable dampening and preload with a spring weight of 1200. got me wondering what the stock shocks spring is rated at.

my bike performed well this weekend, but I did find myself wanting to add dampening.

I wonder if anyone is surprised at the 1200 lb spring rate. I am, but only a little bit. The shock and spring work at a tremendous mechanical disadvantage on the Hawk. I wish Adam could get the factory to offer an adjustable damping shock as an option, or as a after sale part for those who want one.

Amen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/11-KLX-110-D...FXLEIb&vxp=mtr

ordered one of these to replace the stock shock on the hawk. from what i was able to research its a good fit. ill report back after i get it and install it.

Great you found it and bought it. Lot of people want better damping in the rear shock, so tell us how it goes.

Got the shock installed on the original mounts and its sitting about the same height it was with the old shock and my loweried mounts.

its shorter by 40 mm. so lowers the bike a couple inches compared to stock.

Ill snap some pics in the Morning.

it has adjustable preload and rebound. as well as a shrader valve for charging.

it can be disasembled so rebuildable perhaps.

so this means the hawks shock was 320mm and must be very close to a 1200 spring.

I left the preload at the setting it came with, maybey half way, and set the rebound to 5 of 10 for an initial setting. the preload may be a touch loose but Ill have to ride it to tell.

the original shock was unable to cope with the increased leverage being applied. Riding at Limestone Saturday I fear has mixed the gas with the oil ruining the dampening.

the new shock required shimming to center it in the mounts. the shims I already had made for the replacement mount on the bottom worked fine, and i made 2 half as thick for the top mount. bolts were a match at 10mm thick.

Personally, I think the softest possible (means supports your weight) spring setting combined with very stiff damping works best off road, and even better on road. Am waiting with bated breath for your report on your experience with this unit.

in fact you should run the damping as soft as you can that works for the terrain yer riding...
to much damping dosn't let the shock re-exstend between close bumbs...
is the same as having the spring pre-load set to high as the shock not being able
to fully exstend between bumbs is pre-loading the spring for the next bumb...

prob not to much of a issue on a hawk but it also makes it hard to hop the rear
wheel for going over logs and the like...

set the sags....

here is a suspension spring rate calc....
http://www.pontiacracing.net/js_coil_spring_rate.htm



....

Could well be that you are right. Luckily, this shock comes with spring pre-load adjuster as well as variable damping, so he will be able to find out for himself. And then hopefully tell us his results. My way works well for me, but I'm pretty heavy.

pictures hopefully do a decent job of showing the height.

sitting on the bike i can touch both feet comfortably.. it fits me well.

so if this is 280mm from bolt to bolt, you coukd order any shock between 280 and th eoriginal length, to lower it a bit if you wanted. a 1200 spring and any other features you want, the bolts are 10mm at the shank.

a shot from the other side. I will tune the shock off road, tommorow.

wound up with the rebound set to 2. preload i havent changed, im happy with the setting it came with.

we will have to wait to see how durable it is. but it has taken a pounding at Limestone and still feels the same.

seat height is 32 inches with this 280mm shock.