Fork spring selection?
 

I need new fork seals so I am thinking of mild(cheap) upgrades while we are in there.

What spring would I want for a 185# geared rider?
Oil weight?

I can rebuild engines but have never had forks apart, is it a king kong mega bitch or just a bit fiddly?:wheelie:

Could jumping cattleguards blow out the seals? Cuz that happens.

Racetech has a nifty fork spring calculator on their website, just have to input your wet weight of your bike and your riding weight and it'll tell you what will work best. If you're handy, fork seals shouldnt be a big issue, just have to be careful not to nick anything and keep everything nice and clean. A fork seal driver does help out alot too.

Thanks, I checked that out. It would seem the rear spring is not far off but the front springs are weak! .585kg stock and it tells me at 175# I am looking for .88kg. The sonic .90kg front springs are priced right, maybe thinking Racetech Gold valves too.

Of all the mods you can do, this is #1 on my list of most do, assuming you don't want to do a full front end swap. You will be amazed at the transformation. .
The VTR forks are real simple to work on. There are lots of how to on the net to make the job easy. As for fork oil and height, Race Tech will give you the specs. The front Race Tech is good enough for fast intermediate track use. #2 mod would be a rear shock. I'm sure everyone has their 1, 2 combination but that is mine.

Remember you're supposed to use the weight of the rider in full gear. I'm about your same size. I piled my gear on a postal scale - boots, gloves, leather jeans, leather jack and an HJC Helmet - 18lbs. When Hawkrider rebuilt my forks he used .95 Racetechs. Now that he's back from the office, maybe he will be building some front ends. He also used Gixxer valves instead of the Racetech Golds. Saved about a hundred bucks IIRC.

Get a Jamie rear shock to go with it. It recreates the motorcycle. My opinion of v-twins is that Ducati built a great chassis over an inferior engine. The Superhawk is just the opposite. It's the firebreathing monster that will crank until it blows. But handles like a tank. Reworking the suspension takes that all away. You can hunt them down and spit out nothing more than Duc feathers.

Dude, I'm in Lakeway, lets roll sometime.

I'm real close to pulling the trigger (:)) on a set of .90 springs. I'm 185ish geared. Sonics are $80 +sh and the cheapest I found RaceTech is $100. I've had forks apart for rebuilding (not the vtr's) and it's not difficult at all.

Yeah I'm thinking I will give it a whirl. If it works out then I save some good dough you betcha.
So a seal set and the springs and some 5wt or 7wt would get me started?

Last time I changed the fluid, I used 7.5wt Silkolene. Haven't touched seals yet. Don't forget to take some front height measurments before you start.

Hell yeah! Maybe pack up our favorite hand-warmers and head to Eagle Peak. Riding pals have been hard to find since Erik shipped out to Ghannyland. I ride all winter long. I'll pm my contact info.

The front end was #2 on my to do list right after I bought my Superhawk. The first was the front brakes. As things fell together I ended up doing a major rebuild of the bike during its first winter with me. Many kudos to members here that helped with the parts and the actual building that I wasn't comfortable with.

After it was all done it was like riding somebody else's motorcycle. It completely remade the bike into MY bike.