you mean the honda dealer sells tapered bearings et al specifically for the superhawk or are they a crossover? if so what matches?

thanks, Nathan

 

They sell the All ***** bearings. Ordered them and had them in a couple of days. All ***** number 22-1020 for a 2001 Superhawk. Tucker Rocky cross reference is 41-6245.

Here's the site:
http://www.goallballs.com/Bearings_seals.asp?page=STK

Go to "Vehicle Lookup." My Honda dealer handles Tucker Rocky so I think they came through there.

 

thanks Jim, I think tucker rocky has a link on thumper talk(xr forum)cause I remember the name and ordering from them last year.

apersheate your help, thanks, Nathan

 

Fozzy, see inserted text in your message....

 

Thanks for that. I haven't touched the rebound yet, my test ride was to get a feel for the compression only. They specified US1 oil, which as far as I could find out is about 3.5-5wt. I used Motul 5wt.

Actually I think I have found my mistake. My printout from the site has "standard stiffness" which I would take to mean the stock springs, but those springs are long gone. A softer spring would require more damping. The LSC feels alright, it was when I turned the wick up a bit out over the goat tracks we call roads, that the HSC seems too harsh compared to what I wanted.

I think I need to go out and set everything properly before I can make a proper assessment (and buy some reading glasses)

Thanks for your reply

 

Wow, that's light oil! I just looked it up and it's about half the weight of what I use. RaceTech must've changed up some of their specifications since I installed mine 8 (!) years ago. I used the US2 10wt (correcting my previous post - I just looked at the printed pages). My setup was based off their internet setup program. I think I was directed to drill a hole with a #59 or #60 bit which is ~1.03mm. I'm not sure why they would use lighter oil AND a larger bleed, unless it's based on riding style. I'm pretty aggressive and do track days. How about you?

Are you sure you're feeling the forks and not the shock on the bumps? The non-compliance of the shock will affect the feel of the forks, so when the back kicks up the forks actually react to that by compressing slightly. Overall you may feel an imbalance in the bike.

If your roads are as bad as you say I would go for the C34 stack and see how that works for you.

I don't know if you're willing to pay for suspension services, but I know a guy in AU that does really good work. His name is Jim Gunn if you want to look him up - not sure of his company name.

 

No track days unfortunately. And definitely the front end, not the shock. I think the main problem is that my expectations were a little high. I am fairly hard to please when it comes to suspension (apart from the Jardines and some bling, the suspension is the only thing I have altered on the bike). Another mistake is that I nominated myself as "intermediate" when I should have said advanced, as I do push fairly hard (can keep up with Ducati 1098's through the twisties, but they blow me away on the straights). I have read too many posts etc from people who rave about the difference gold valves make, but I think that I am using the experience of others as a yardstick which is silly really. To make an objective comparison, I should have ridden another storm which had been set up already. The GV are definitely better, but not to the extent I was expecting.

It will all work out in the end, with some carefull tweaking. As with all improvements, the shortcomings of other areas start to make themselves more pronounced. (might just have to send the shock away to get revalved also)

One thing I will say for certain. The best and easiest mod to storm forks is a fork brace. The benefit is very noticable. Even if you never do anything else to the bike, this should be the first thing you do.

Thanks for all your help. If you ever make it over to Oz, I will buy the beers and take you for a run up the Oxley Highway (best road in Oz, pity its 500 miles away)

 

bear,

internet ravs are difficult too sort out but from what i've gathered: the people that are 'really' impressed have had their forks reworked from stock ( meaning the POS progressive fork springs ).

once you have the proper springs the valving is more subtle. when you start to push it hard it becomes just as important but it's a lot different feel & reaction than when you feel the forks dive to the bottom just stopping at a light.

tim

 

Yep, I think you are right and other folks had the whole thing done in one go, whilst mine was springs THEN valves 8 months later. I am going to leave it for a few weeks so I get used to it, but I have realised, I haven't actually pushed the bike through some nice twisties yet (the nearest decent corners are at least 100 miles away from home)

This is a short vid to show where I should go to make a comparison. Please excuse the poor lines. I didn't know the road so was a bit paranoid about 4WDs and police (and the surface is super smooth compared to most roads in Oz) so the damping won't get a proper workout,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJhr0xJP_I0

 

US1 is supposed to be 5wt, that's what RaceTech uses these days. When you selected "standard stiffness" that did not mean stock springs, it means that you prefer a medium amount of stiffness from the front end. In other words, you don't prefer stiff or soft, just in the middle. That should be just right for your 0.95kg/mm springs.

As Greg mentions, the fluid could be your problem. Excessive dive under braking? You get the most fork compression during braking which actually helps stopping power. As long as you aren't bottoming I'd say you are ok. If you start to bottom I'd add a little more fluid. What did the RaceTech sheet say for oil level? I usually run 120mm.

One common misconception is that the RaceTech setup should be 'firm'. In fact, it's much more compliant than the stock valves so your ride is actually more plush. People will sometimes call me up thinking that the setup was done incorrectly when in fact it's not, just because they had a different perception of what it was going to be like. I'd ride it around some more and see how you like it. I'll bet you can rail through corners way faster than before. Another perception to watch out for: it will fell slower because it takes a lot less effort. Be mindful of your cornering speeds and ability to hold a line.

 

I'd be paranoid too with everyone riding/driving on the wrong side of the road!

 

I have found my error. It was that my test ride procedure was totally over the top. I picked the bumpiest road and deliberately targetted the bumps. Not even the plushest BMW suspension would have dealt with the punishment I was inflicting on the front end

Had my first proper ride yesterday and the front end feels fantastic. So solid and stable, its spooky.

I did think of one thing that I have to recheck. When screwing the fork cap onto the damping tube on the first fork I screwed it all the way on, then tightened the lock nut. On the second fork I am sure I didn't screw it on all the way , so in my mind this would would put the rebound adjuster rods at different heights, thus making it impossible to set rebound on each fork to exactly the same setting.

 

If you have your forks appart you'll notice the white neoprine sliders.
Put the whole fork together minus the oil...Fully extend the fork and see how much "flex" you get. To much flex means those sliders might be shot. or.......shim'm up with strips of aluminum foil until they slid in snug- NOT tight- during reassembly. Recheck for flex. You may be surprised at what a strip or 2 of foil will do for the front ends.

 

Shimming with foil, or better, stainless stell shim stock which also adds spring effect will not correct worn bushings. There is some slop that can be taken out with new bushings but Greg does not necessarily shim (I have in the past). Some "play" is required to allow for sticktion to unbind. A fork brace is a must to "sync" the slop in the assembly for regular forks.

 

I'm not really following you on the white neoprene thing, what part(s) are you talking about?

As for the foil, I'm assuming you are talking about shimming the bushings. This is not a very good idea. If your bushings are worn to the point that you have play in the assembly, I'd replace the bushings. There is only a small layer of Teflon material on the bushings, this is the entire amount of bearing material. The backing is made of copper and is NOT a bushing material. A worn bushing will have all, or most, of the Teflon worn off. If you shim it out you will quickly be down to just the copper backing and damage will occur to your sliders and stanchions.

Bushings are not cheap, but I'd rather spend $40 on all four bushings than hundreds on a new stanchion tube.

 

greg posted a posted a procedure for putting the top cap on. I'll try to locate it for you. basically, just losen up your caps, losen your lock nuts beneath the caps and run them down to end of threads, set the screw adjustment on top til the groove is level with top surface of cap, screw your caps onto the damping rod until it stops, back it off two turns, bring lock nut up and tighten easily, and screw caps on.

thanks, Nathan


I found it: Here's the procedure for setting the rebound rod correctly:

Okay, this can be done with the forks on the bike, but it's safer if you use a front and rear stand and take them to a workbench. Keep them upright so no oil drains out. The on-the-bike procedure is in smaller font.

- Back off the preload adjusters, noting the number of turns. This minimizes the spring preload inside the fork.

- Loosen the fork cap. It's 24mm and the fork cap is aluminum, so be careful not to bung it up. Sometimes a paper shop towel between the socket/wrench and the fork cap will prevent marring the finish. It's better to loosen them on the bike even if you're going to take the forks off. Also, you may need to loosen the upper triple clamp before you loosen the cap.

If you're doing this on the bike one fork assembled is enough to hold the bike up while you work on the other one. The front of the bike will drop quite a bit though when the first fork cap is unthreaded. Suggest you have a second person to ensure the bike does not fall over.

- Slide the male tube down enough to see the spacer, washers, and locknut.

On the bike, as the front of the bike drops it will expose the fork internals enough to loosen the locknut

- Loosen the locknut holding the fork cap to the damping rod. There are flats on the bottom of the fork cap to hold it steady. I believe both are 14mm.

- Unscrew the fork cap from the damping rod a few threads, not all the way off.

- Using a flat screwdriver, turn the rebound adjuster ONLY (not the fork cap) such that the bottom of the slot is even with the top of the preload adjuster AND the dot is aligned with the tick mark on the sticker. Now gently screw the fork cap onto the damping rod just enough so the rod end is seated in the valve. You should note some resistance. Ensure the dot and tick mark are still lined up.

- Now carefully tighten the locknut making sure to not turn the fork cap on the damping rod. Reinstall the fork cap. It doesn't need to be tight, just snug. A little oil on the o-ring would be good.

- Check the rebound adjuster to ensure you have at about 3 full turns from fully seated to fully backed off. This may differ since you have ground your rods. If you have limited adjustability loosen the locknut, back out the fork cap exactly 2 rotations and retighten the locknut. Check adjustable range again. Repeat if necessary.

- Reinstall fork on the bike.

- Tighten upper triple clamp

- Reset preload adjuster to previous setting.

FWIW, the service manual mentions nothing of this procedure.
__________________
Greg N.

 

Excellent!! Thank you very much Nathan (and Greg the original author). Amongst all my research, I had never seen it mentioned, so will give it a go tomorrow.

 

you're welcome


sometimes we don't know what we don't know,
and so, we just have to give it a go.

 

wolverine you dont need to remove the fairings for the oil change...I simply raise the bike in the air from front..and then I put a chair under the engine