Suspension set up for a 205 lb. rider?
 

Anyone around my weight (205 elbows) want to offer up some suspension set up starting points, or does anyone want to guess what would be a good one? I read the post about how to tune your suspension, but I have no one who can help me watch how much the bike rises and whatnot when trying to set sag...

Thanks!

Go make some friends!











J/K! :mrgreen:

Without changing any internals or components I'd say for the forks full hard on preload, 1/2 turn out on rebound. For the shock maybe 2nd from softest. Rebound about 3/4 turns out. It's been so long since I had stock stuff on my bike it's really hard to guess. Have you checked the member locator on frappr maps (sticky in General). Maybe there's a member that lives near you.

I just looked. There are about 25 members in FL, about 3 or 4 within an hour of the Tampa area. Go to member list on this forum, do a search, and find a few guys. Set up a wrench 'n ride or something via PM.

Way to boost someones' ego!:mad:

If you must know, I DO have friends, and my very bestist one rides a Supe... unfortunately, I moved about a year ago and I live about a four hour ride north of him, so there!:p

I have only had my Supe about a month, and the prev. owner weighed about a buck 75... BIG difference on the scales. And yep, everything is stock. I figured on the two clicks for the rear, but that was all I had for a baseline.

Maybe I need to make friends AS WELL as stop drinking so much Mtn. Dew and eating french fries!

As another large rider, 260#, the stock springs were way too soft for me and after reading the threads about the suspension I purchased the Race Tech 1.0 springs and gold valves which made a tremendous difference in the way the bike rode. This was coupled with new HEL s/s brake lines and EBC HH brake pads.

Check out the Race Tech website, http://www.racetech.com/evalving/Spr...pringType=Fork, and it will calculate the correct spring rate for your weight. If you a mechanically inclined, changing the springs/valves and shock fluid is a relatively straight forward process. The only problem I ran into was one of the bolts at the bottom of the shock holding the dampening rod in place needed an air wrench to remove it; otherwise, metric sockets, allen wrenches and adjustable wrench did the job.

Good Luck!

Thanks Reaper, at least you didn't make me feel like an introverted kook!;)

But yeah, I've done fork spring swaps before, not on a modern bike, but I would imagine with the manual it is pretty straight forward, and I do have air tools also...

The more I think about it, I will probably put money into my suspenche before I put it into much of anything else. Makes alot of sense to me. But anything will be an improvement since the last owner has these settings on the front. Can anyone tell me whats wrong in this picture?

Yo, dude! Do you not know what "J/K" means? It means JUST KIDDING! Chill. Besides, as the FNG you should expect a little razzing. It's part of the initiation! :lol:

Yup, be glad I didn't get a hold of you before he did...LOL...Hawkrider is a softy compared to me...I am frickin ruthless...In fact, why don't you putter your ass back to the cave you crawled out of and take your one friend with you, maybe he will stroke your ego and tell you some polite bedtime stories or something..

J/K.....And that was being nice,...ha

But seriously, if you wanna make friends on here, just as what oil someone is in too, folks come out of the woodworks to put there .02 worth in on those threads, you will have more friends than you can squash by falling off your Hawk...next I would recommend a tire thread, folllowed by ocatane, and CCT's.....Hell, you will be the most popular memeber on this board before the week is up...LMAO!!!

oh yeah, welcome...good stuff and good people here...just watch out for the creapy guy named nuhawk...that guy is one slice shy of a full loaf!!

Well, I figured by using the "emoticons" and adding a little self-loathing with the part about too much pizza and soda you would be able to read my sarcastic tone which I was basing around the sarcasm you used in your post but I guess it didn't come through, so then I tried to get sarcastic again in my follow up post to Reaper... Do you actually think I would say "Bestist" friend like a kindy-gartener? What's that you say? You STILL can't read the sarcasm? You guys are freakin' RETARDED! :evillaugh:

J/K... My skin is WAYYY thicker than that, fellas! And my ego is practically nil.

Actually, the "post" I was talking about searching for in my initial post was the article on Hawkriders's site. Super-informative site, by the way, but I still have no body local to help...

Anyhoo, glad to see yall are such a friendly bunch! And thanks for the help... Sorry if I committed a "forum-faux-pa" by askin' bout suspenche settings. I figured it was asking a question specific to me (w/ regards to my girth and all) so it wouldn't be another "Hey what tires/oil/exhaust pipes you guys running?" question...

Did anyone catch the settings shown in my photo by the way? Am I correct in thinking both sides should be symmetrical as opposed to... well, opposed? Take a close look at both sets of adjustment knobs and tell me if I am nuts.

Your nuts...oops sorry, didn't look at the pic!! LOL...Hey, Like I would know...better leave that one up to someone with half a brain...LOL

WAHHHH!!! Mommy, they called me names and said nobody likes me!!! WAAAHHHHH!!!:x

Hey S-Marto,
I hit 230 on the scale and I have my hawk on the third detent down from top(stiff), and my forks are turned down to the second ring from being fully stiff. It feels good to me on twisty's and just on the stiff side for daily riding. If you did one increment less than me on both front and rear, that would probably get you in the ballpark. Don't sweat the friends thing... I don't have any either!

Blam

Wow! A clear, concise post that is pertinent to my question... THANKS loserbaby! Maybe it's because your a portly bloke of a noob like me!

Trust me dude, I am way more portly than you..LMAO...I am around 255 on those scales that we hate so much...LOL...I have not looked to see how my hawk is set up...I know the PO was a big guy and tall, so how ever he set her up, she seems to be fine for me...

Bunch of light weights!
 

Try being 275# and getting the suspension set up.:p:p The PO was only 150# at the most and had only ridden the bike for 1500 miles before deciding to get rid of it. Oh, and he was very vertically challenged as well, used a milk crate to get on in his garage and parked by curb's when he would stop. It's still not perfect, but it handles very well for now.

LOL guys, thanks... I just lost about 15lbs, down from 220. I figure what cheaper way to shave weight off the bike than shaving it off the rider?

I tried a combination of Gregs' and Losers' suggestions, well see how it works out...

And all is well in my photo up there that I was so worried about... I downloaded a manual and I see whats going on.

Thanks again!

Darn I can barely have enough front spring stiffness for proper sag and I'm as thick as a wire, I'm 155 wet weight (stomach full and awaiting a crap). Maybe my springs are messed up, I was thinking that maybe the Japaneses were so light that I'm a heavyweight for them but I was thinking : "what if a sumo wrestler bought one of these ?" The only suspension left would be the tire and the frame bending. I think it's the main flaw of the hawk aside from the nail seat.

Edit : And no, I'm not sitting on the handles, wacha thinkin:roll:

I rode to work today, and boy have things done changed! No wallowing, no front end dive on braking, corners apexed like Nicky on an RC51... Well, okay, maybe if Nicky was a portly bloke, but HEY! I can dream, no?