longer travel suspension
 

Has anybody swapped out their front end for something like a CR? Is there anyway to massively increase the travel in the rear? Would a longer swingarm be required?

I have a superhawk streetfighter right now and a KTM 620. I mostly ride in the city. Don't know if I want to go the motard route with the 620. Or, try a motard out of the hawk. I haven't seen anybody do a reverse motard. ie take a street bike and give it some more dirt like characteristics.

I love the power and torque of the hawk. But, the potholes are brutal. No way to do any knee dragging around the city.

I'm pretty sure I want to go the route of a CR front end with a motard tire.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Andrew

You might as well graft the VTR motor into a motocross chassis because you'd have to hack the VTR frame to pieces to make it geometrically correct.

G'day Andrew,

I am no expert on this stuff mate, but my initial thoughts are that your geometry would be changed radically, and may make the bike completely unrideable.

Before you start buying any parts for the conversion, I would do some research into the effects this would have on the steering, due to changed rake & trail etc.

Interesting project though!

A custom frame with CR500 parts might be feasible. Slap on some 17" rims, a big front rotor, and a front caliper reallocator and you have a supermoto. It would be tough to make street legal though.

Edit:
On second thought where are you going to mount everything? Radiator, exhaust, battery? I don't know...

Buy a Veradero. It's easier. :)

I'm actually encouraged by the Varadero. I will check out the schematics on how the forks and rear shock differ from the superhawk.

Quick specs I've found so far:
(bike,rake,trail)
superhawk,24.9,3.8 in
cr450f,27.0,4.3 in
varadero,27.3,4.3 in
bmw 1200GS,26.6,4.5 in