Lowering the front
09-30-2010, 07:20 PM
#4
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09-30-2010, 08:23 PM
#6
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I have short legs but im 5'9 with a long torso. The rear has been dropped 2 1/2" with a kit off ebay that replaces the dog bone with an adjustable one. The steering is slow right now and i have a stabilizer that compounds the that problem. I was inspecting my bike today and found that the shock is making contact with the swing arm. I am assuming this happens when me and my girlfriend are riding together.
09-30-2010, 09:11 PM
#7
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You are asking for trouble jacking around with the geometry like that.
With that being said, lowering your bike only enhances the chances of a low side especially when two up going through a corner. The reason it is so slow is because you have lowered the rear and the shock hitting the swing arm is not a good thing to say the least. Have you considered picking up a F4 shock and having it reworked to match the load you are putting on it?
Dropping the front will make it turn in faster however at the price of losing critical ground clearance the the Hawk already has precious little of. Have you seen the photos of people's mid pipes with scrapes on them? They didn't get those by falling over.
If you do a lot of two up type stuff and you find that you need to be closer to the ground I might suggest reworking the seat a bit. You could probably pick up a worn out one pretty cheap and have the padding trimmed out a bit to lower your third contact point allowing you to raise the bike back up to a safe level.
Don't mean to be critical but as I said in the first line of this post.....
With that being said, lowering your bike only enhances the chances of a low side especially when two up going through a corner. The reason it is so slow is because you have lowered the rear and the shock hitting the swing arm is not a good thing to say the least. Have you considered picking up a F4 shock and having it reworked to match the load you are putting on it?
Dropping the front will make it turn in faster however at the price of losing critical ground clearance the the Hawk already has precious little of. Have you seen the photos of people's mid pipes with scrapes on them? They didn't get those by falling over.
If you do a lot of two up type stuff and you find that you need to be closer to the ground I might suggest reworking the seat a bit. You could probably pick up a worn out one pretty cheap and have the padding trimmed out a bit to lower your third contact point allowing you to raise the bike back up to a safe level.
Don't mean to be critical but as I said in the first line of this post.....
09-30-2010, 09:42 PM
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The rear kit I installed has 5k miles on it already. The kit also allows me to go +2.5/-2.5 from stock. Its fully adjustable. What I had in mind was -1.5 front and -1.0 rear. I was thinking later in the year I would rework the rear frame and make a custom seat. I used to be an upholsterer for 6 years until I closed my business due to the economy. I like the F4 idea but I need more information so I can chase down the parts.
10-01-2010, 10:28 AM
#10
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+1 on RWhisen's posts.
On the old T3 Triumphs you could turn the eccentric chain adjusters so they were at the bottom of their lobe and bring it a lot nearer to the group. I dropped the rear this way, then lowered the front the same distance. I could flat foot the bike! Woo hoo! But it NEVER felt right that way and I ground stuff pretty easily.
Your bike will become twitchier depending on how much you lower the forks, and (I believe) a bit harsher.
I would trim the seat before changing the geometry. You have that skill. Maybe check w/ others who have done a subframe conversion to see if that got them anything? No joke, but buy good boots, too, and you'll gain some height. My Sidis make me seven feet tall and improve my looks, too!
Good luck!
On the old T3 Triumphs you could turn the eccentric chain adjusters so they were at the bottom of their lobe and bring it a lot nearer to the group. I dropped the rear this way, then lowered the front the same distance. I could flat foot the bike! Woo hoo! But it NEVER felt right that way and I ground stuff pretty easily.
Your bike will become twitchier depending on how much you lower the forks, and (I believe) a bit harsher.
I would trim the seat before changing the geometry. You have that skill. Maybe check w/ others who have done a subframe conversion to see if that got them anything? No joke, but buy good boots, too, and you'll gain some height. My Sidis make me seven feet tall and improve my looks, too!
Good luck!
10-01-2010, 11:17 AM
#11
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Well I really don't want to become too involved with this thread. Not that I don't want to help but I do have a problem with someone altering the chassis geometry to such an extent without having a good grasp on the consequences involved with making these changes.
About all I can suggest is that you do a bit of research into what rake and trail are and what the results of changing them has on the handling of a bike. Also another term to learn is chain force which also changes how the bike behaves.
So good luck on your project but do yourself a favor and do a bit of research before you just start changing things *****-nilly or you just might end up in the ditch.
About all I can suggest is that you do a bit of research into what rake and trail are and what the results of changing them has on the handling of a bike. Also another term to learn is chain force which also changes how the bike behaves.
So good luck on your project but do yourself a favor and do a bit of research before you just start changing things *****-nilly or you just might end up in the ditch.
10-01-2010, 12:50 PM
#12
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+1 on RWhisen's posts.
No joke, but buy good boots, too, and you'll gain some height. My Sidis make me seven feet tall and improve my looks, too!
Good luck!
No joke, but buy good boots, too, and you'll gain some height. My Sidis make me seven feet tall and improve my looks, too!
Good luck!
10-01-2010, 01:46 PM
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I lower the front 3/4 and returned 1" to the rear and the bike handles 150% better. I not one to lay it in the corners due to I like to keep my lower flairing!! I will look into those boots soon...
10-01-2010, 10:08 PM
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The bike is back to becoming a wheelie monster again... Two weeks ago I raced a new vette and killed it before I got out of 2nd.. Today this happened... 3 different times on the way to school the Super hawk got the best of me. I used to be able to hammer down on it with little to no worries about the front rising.. not anymore ..I am thinking I use to transfer all the weight to the rear before the bike bottomed out. This allowed me to run full out thru all my gears as long as I didn't slip the clutch. I havn't lost any straight line runs with that setup including running against R1's and gsxr.
10-02-2010, 12:25 AM
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If it handles 150% better by putting 1" out of 2.5" back into the rear, imagine how much better it would handle if it were even closer to stock height! How have you not been dragging the bottom of your bike off? I didn't read the entire thread but 2.5" is a LOT to lower a superhawk!
10-02-2010, 12:04 PM
#18
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The bike is back to becoming a wheelie monster again... Two weeks ago I raced a new vette and killed it before I got out of 2nd.. Today this happened... 3 different times on the way to school the Super hawk got the best of me. I used to be able to hammer down on it with little to no worries about the front rising.. not anymore ..I am thinking I use to transfer all the weight to the rear before the bike bottomed out. This allowed me to run full out thru all my gears as long as I didn't slip the clutch. I havn't lost any straight line runs with that setup including running against R1's and gsxr.
....... WOW .....
10-07-2010, 04:06 PM
#22
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I ride two up and still haven't touched bottom.. If I lower the seat or narrow it I will raise the bike my goal is to have it back to stock height in the spring with sliders installed. The attention the bike gets is nerving. Just the other day I walked up on someone laying on the ground looking under my bike. When I ask wtf he said he has one and didn't understand how I lowered it. Told me it has a aggressive stance. I have gotten mixed reviews.
10-07-2010, 10:34 PM
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10-07-2010, 11:02 PM
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Not to be negative but this whole thread stinks. You guys are just goading him on with the responses. What these guys are trying to say is that lowering the whole bike is dumb. Lowering half the bike is even dumber, and why did you even buy a sportbike in the first place? Did your ex-girlfriend dump you for a sportbike guy? Just buy a cruiser like you really wanted to.
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