captainchaos

finally a little progress...but always some room for buffoon work-personally I like the second idea better. VERY comfy and stable in the turns. American Chopper eat your heart out.

superhawk22

Choppers suck! Looks like you're getting close.

Hawkrider

Other than the Ford mat, everything looks like it's coming along well.

captainchaos

Hey no fair-that's my brother's and the Taurus was free so it doesn't count!

MisterMohawk

And the last Ford Tortise just rolled off the line recently. So you own a piece of history!

SlowHAWK

Chaos...

Looks good so far... what did you do about measurements to insure you have the "same" dimensions as the original setup? Just curious where and what you measured.

I'm about 80% there on collecting parts for my swap as well... just need the bearings, axle/spacers, and clipons... I also picked up a 929 lower triple to see if that does anything differently than the RC triple... Got it for 30 bucks shipped, so it was worth it for the look.

J.

BTW... Stop this Ford bashing.... I've only owned Mustangs, so I'm getting a bit sensitive here!!! Hahahaha.

captainchaos

Ok, ok, while I actually hated my Taurus when I first got it (I was driving a '72 Vette) I actually love that car now. That fender cover is off my brother's Mustang Cobra which we both just absolutely LOVED. I think that you can have fun with anything...

captainchaos

SlowHAWK-I did take a few height measurements like floor & axle to triple and clip ons to have something to compare. I don't have them in front of me and won't say I'm a rocket scientist but wanted it to be as close as possible. I would like to take the bike to Computrack in Ft Lauderdale when I'm all done because they ARE rocket scientists there and "fix" custom stuff like this all the time and make it perform right and make sure it's safe and "correct". Like I said I'm not done yet but feel free to PM me or email me, if I can be of help in any way-sorry I'm in kind of a rush. Yeah I wanted to try a cbr lower triple too because where the RC curves downward from the stem the cbr triple is flat-wanted to see if the fit was better/worse.

killer5280

I'm in the middle of my 954 front end swap. The forks fit great. The bottom triple barely misses the fairing. I mean barely.
The biggest problem with this swap is handlebars. I'm making spacers for tubular handlebar mounts which will bolt into the top triple. Because the fairing and tank area are so tight, the new bars will be in almost exactly the same position as the stock bars, which is OK with me. They'll just be a triple clamp mounted tubular handlebar as opposed to clipons. We'll see how it goes.

SlowHAWK

I thinking I might be in a good place with the 929/954 lower and the RC fork length, allowing for the clipons over the triple. Might even keep an eye out for a 929/954 upper triple.. giving me a whole lot of adjustment of where I'd like to bolt the clipons up top.... figure I can just make a small aluminum spacer if needed.

Killer.... did you have to grind any of the stops away on the lower triple (954), and were you able to use the stock bearings? Ron Ayers has the VTR and 929 lower bearing listed as the same part number... so just curious there.

J.

superhawk22

I have the 929/954 triples and did not grind the stops, the key lock doesn't work anymore but other than that everything works well. The forks stop right before hitting the radiator hoses because of the different offset in the triples. As far as the bearings, my 954 triple came with tappered bearings for the 954 and the races fit like a glove so I'll assume they're the same. However I would replce them while you're in there anyway since the cost is low and my stock ones had flat spots.

SlowHAWK

Cool.... I was hoping I wouldn't have to modify the 929 triple... and I agree, on swaping the bearings anyway.... As for the key lock.... I garage it, so who cares !!!!

J.

superhawk22

Same here, just bring a lock of some kind if you go somewhere you don't feel safe or have full coverage like I do.

killer5280

I replaced the bearings and races. As mentioned by others, the 954 has tapered bearings where the VTR has ball bearings. I didn't check to see if the VTR races would work, but the 954 races are definitely deeper than the stock VTR races. They went right in no problem, though.
The only thing I ground was the front of the stops where they hit the VTR's fairing mounting bracket at the very front of the steering head. The steering stops aren't a problem because with the new setup the forks hit the top radiator hose before the stops come into play. I'm going to use adhesive backed wheel weights on the stops to fill the gap. Does that make sense? I'll take pictures and post them later. The bike is in my Dad's garage right now, but I'll get over there later today and snap some pics.
The combination of RC forks and 954/929 triples is something I considered, but only after I had all the 954 parts in my possession. The longer RC forks are definitely a plus, but the prices I saw for RC parts were way higher than for 954 parts, plus that would have meant using a wheel off the RC, too. I would prefer to have clipons rather than a tubular bar, but that adds even more to the cost and I'm pretty sure that TL1000 Helibars mounted under the triples are still lower than the stock VTR bars and I don't want lower bars.

SlowHAWK

Yeah I know what you mean about the RC prices..... that's why I have a 929 lower triple, plenty more out there.... I did pretty well on the other parts, I'm south of 500 so far, all I need is the RC axle, an upper triple, and a set of clipons.... hoping to keep all the parts under 600-650....

One thing I did notice poking/researching around.... the gold valve kit for the RC forks is listed as the same as the VTR... so looks like I can pop out the valves/shims I put in my current setup, and hopefully move them into the RC forks (if needed)... provided they both need that same small hole I had to drill as required by the Racetech directions. But what are the odds of that????

J.

killer5280

You're doing pretty well. I think I have about 650-700 in everything (forks, triples, wheel, rotors, fender, bearings, handlebars and mounts). Probably a little more than that, now that I think about it. Hopefully, once I get everything right, I can sell the stock VTR stuff and offset some of the cost of the new front end.

captainchaos

I went with rc51 everything. The all ***** tapered bearing set works like a champ. I cut away the stops because they also hit the superhawk gauge bracket and yes the lower triple hits the inside of the fairing and bumps the radiator hoses as well. Hopefully get some time this weekend to try and figure it out. Anybody see all those rc51 parts that just went on ebay? Braking wave rotors, Dan Kyle forks, Brembo radial master cylinder, and those front mount radiators (MAN I wanted to try those out but they went for almost $900!!!) I had to walk away-that was like 2k in used parts...

SlowHAWK

I saw the DK forks.... didn't even bother watching them as I figured they go for 1/2 my bikes value.... I have read good things about the Brembo MC.... but I'm happy with the RC calipers and RC Master Cyl I have already, I'm sure the bigger rotors will give me all I'll ever need.

J.

superhawk22

That's strange, mine didn't hit anything except the hoses and they hit right as the stops are hitting.

captainchaos

I know that the RC fork/triples look wider than the superhawk setup. What about the cbr setup? And is it possible to swap out my RC lower triple for a CBR triple-will it fit up with the rest of my RC front end? Maybe it will clear the fairings/radiators better (?)

captainchaos

Like I had said before I would love to try and get in touch with a guy I bought something from on ebay a couple years ago. He did a 929 front end swap and made spacers and moved the radiators a little so everything worked properly. He did a bunch of other small custom stuff too. I need to try and see if I can go back far enough in my paypal account-maybe I can find him. It's kind of a longshot but if I can I'm sure everyone would like to hear about his mods.

killer5280

Here's what I'm talking about. The front of the stops on the triple come into contact with the fairing/gauge bracket before the back of the stop contacts the stops on the steering head (on the opposite side). (Don't pay attention to the little spot I accidentally ground on the triple clamp.) It's not a big deal to me, but I ground a little off the front of the stops to get a little more steering lock and I'll put an adhesive weight on the back side to act as a proper stop if I think it's necessary.
I also included a pic showing how close the lower triple is to the fairing.

killer5280

Here's what you're looking for, captainchaos.
https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...ghlight=icebud

captainchaos

Allright, thanks! this makes me feel better because in that posting it doesn't seem so hard-looks like something I could do. The guy I spoke to was an aircraft engineer and everything he was doing seemed like rocket science.

SlowHAWK

Great find killer.... thanks!!! (And thank you Icebud as well for documenting it so well.

As for the difference between the RC and 929 triples.... I should have my RC lower sometime soon (week or so once the guy gets it off the bike and ships it) I'll let you know then if there is a difference in offset and distance between forks.

J.

captainchaos

yeah Im interested to see. I do already know that where the cbr lower triple is flat the rc triple curves down from the neck to the forks.

killer5280

Here are a few pics I took today of the progress on my front end swap. I'm nearly finished with the spacers. They just need a little fine tuning (filing and sanding) and then I'll probably paint them black so they match the bars and triple and so you can't see the flaws. The bars are the Bikemaster GP Touring bend. The specs for these bars on most websites are incorrect, so I took a chance just from looking at the pictures that they would work. They work perfectly for this application. They have identical pullback as the stock bars and the rise of about 2.5" makes the bar height about the same as the stock bars. With the placement of the spacers and bar mounts the bars are just a little further back than the stock bars, which is a good thing in my opinion. The clutch and brake master cylinders clear the fairing by about 1/16" and, because of the reduced steering lock of the new front end, nothing hits the tank. I'll probably end up cutting about 1.5" off each end of the handlebars to get the width I want.
Obviously I haven't ridden the bike yet, but everything looks promising.

captainchaos

Nice work! Did you do anything with the radiators? How's clearance there?

killer5280

I'm just going to live with the close proximity of the top hose and the forks. It doesn't really seem to be that bad with the reduced steering lock. I may change my mind once I've lived with it for awhile, but right now it seems OK.

killer5280

I finished with the front end swap and have about 50 miles on it. Other than the springs being too soft I'm very happy with this modification. Brakes are much stronger and it's more stable under hard braking. The reach to the bars is shorter but the angle is bothering my throttle hand. I'll try moving it around or switching to a bar with less pullback and see if that improves things.
I think this mod makes the Hawk sportier and more playful than before.
I'm not sure if I like the black fender, but I can't see it when I'm riding anyway.