A few questions on the hawk

[Rejekt]

Hello I just recently purchased a hawk 250, I had a couple questions thay I could not find via search.
1. I was wondering if I'd be able to sand and spraypaint the forks without issue, I would love the look of them black. Also was wondering if I could make them a little stiffer.
2. I am 5'6'' and swinging my leg over the damn seat makes me feel like a little kid lol, is there anything I can do to the seat, ie. Shave it down in the back end by the hump? Also if I used the shorter shock, how much of a difference would it be off road?
3. I would like to upgrade the bars, what's a good reccomendation
4. Lastly I am curious If there is a difference between the aftermarket exhaust most put on vs an actual yoshi brand pipe, I've never been one for the cheaper version of something, although I did buy a hawk and not a Honda 😂.

Thanks in advance for the help. I love the forum and appreciate all the info I've found!

[emptypockets]

Change out the industrial waste oil in the forks and replace. I used automatic transmission fluid in mine and it made a huge improvement. You can use fork oil, but I had a spare bottle of ATF in my garage so I used it.

I don't know about painting. I doubt you'll be able to modify the seat to reduce height. I bought the hawk specifically because it was so tall, but I'm 6'4".

[pcspecialist]

http://www.cscmotorcycles.com/TT250-...sc-300ttkt.htm

[Megadan]

1. You paint the lowers any color you want. Sanding and painting the inner forks that go inside of the lowers would be a bad idea.

To make them stiffer - as mentioned change the fluid in the forks out. Drain them as much as you can. Add 210ml of Fork Oil to each fork, most of us run 15wt, but you can run whatever weight of oil gives you the best dampening. Heavier = firmer, lighter - the opposite. Just be careful with going beyond 20wt, especially if you do any actual heavy off roading. The fork seals may not like you for it. You can also change the fork oil level to adjust the air gap, which affects the overall spring rate a bit. I have 230ml in my forks as an example. Start with 210 though, you will likely be more than satisfied.

To adjust rider sag if you happen to be a sasquatch like me, making new preload spacers for the fork springs helps.

2. You can easily shave a couple of inches of foam off the seat, or purchase the Seat Concepts seat for the TT250 - which sits 2 inches lower. I can't really speak on the difference it makes though, because I can flat foot my Hawk and nearly stand myself up out of the seat lol.

3. Hard to answer. Do you want lower bars, bars with more back sweep or straighter, bars with more rise or less rise? There are so many options out there, and everybody prefers something a bit different. I have fat bars with riser adapters and love them. Just a tiny bit wider and straighter than the stock bars, but sit a little lower than the stock bars even with the riser adapters. I love them.

4. If you are talking about the generic ebay CRF230 exhaust. vs. any major aftermarket exhaust. The differences are going to be consistency and finish quality. No two ebay exhausts are really the same, and they all have fitment issues to some degree. I only know of two guys that bolted one up where it didn't touch the air box, clutch case cover, or frame. Usually not by much, but most of them need a bend tweaked a little bit, or a small ding with a hammer here or there.

As far as fitment of the big brand aftermarket pipes. I have only seen a couple examples fitted, but they all seemed to fit without much issue. More importantly, if you need a USFS certified spark arrestor, they are the only option.

[timcosby]

2. im 5-9 and can swing a leg over but its really up there! i usually leave the kickstand down and mount like you would a horse by putting left foot on peg a standing on it then trow a leg over! cheating but its easier.

[pete]

If you want to make the forks stiffer put a preload spacer in or if there already is one
make a longer one... changeing oil thickness will not make the forks stiffer all it will
do is lengthen the time it takes the fork to compress to the ride hight govened by
the springs...

i will add I am assuming by stiffer you want them to ride higher ? not
increass the damping...

ATF.... is a oil use for lubeication... so it has a high surface film strength
which makes it able to trap & hold air bubbles... where as fork oil has a low film
strength that makes it harder for it to trap air and when it dose it can release
it quicker... it is also desgned not to froth up...
but that all said the hawk forks are not traveling 300mm / 1' in less than a second
so that would be it's saving grace as a fork oil in the hawk...

If you do go the fork oil route & want them complyant to small sharp bumps don't
go over 10 weight... anything higher the forks will be very harsh & the front can start skipping
on small bumps while cornering... the suspension has as bigger bearing on traction as what
the tyres do...

the only place I have use ATF on a motorbike is in the gearbox to stop clutch slip
on a couple of road bikes I was raceing...worked very well for that before 2T gearbox
oil were made...





..

[emptypockets]

I used ATF because so many people on this site recommend it--and it seems to work fine. If you need high performance and are worried about surface tension of fork oil, the Hawk is not a good choice anyway for a dirt bike. The oil that came in my hawk looked like used machine oil, had lots of metal flakes and bits. One side had 60 ml and the other had 110ml. Anything is better than that.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by emptypockets

I used ATF because so many people on this site recommend it--and it seems to work fine. If you need high performance and are worried about surface tension of fork oil, the Hawk is not a good choice anyway for a dirt bike. The oil that came in my hawk looked like used machine oil, had lots of metal flakes and bits. One side had 60 ml and the other had 110ml. Anything is better than that.

ATF works so well in Hawk forks, it is almost as if it was desingned for that purpose. The oil that comes with the forks from the factory in China is mainly an anti-rust oil. Anything is apt to be better. ATF is also an anti-frothing oil, or it wouldn't work satisfactorily in torque converters. That said, I'm sure there are better oils out there for specific purposes, like forks that travel one foot per second, for example....ARH

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by pete

If you want to make the forks stiffer put a preload spacer in or if there already is one
make a longer one...

If you do go the fork oil route & want them complyant to small sharp bumps don't
go over 10 weight... anything higher the forks will be very harsh & the front can start skipping
on small bumps while cornering... the suspension has as bigger bearing on traction as what
the tyres do...


.

Just my 2 cents on a Hawk (mine) with both longer pre-load spacers and 15wt fork oil.

The only point at which the forks will get stiffer in terms of ride is when you run enough preload to start engaging the higher spring rates sooner. The Hawk has 2 stage progressively wound springs. Otherwise, preload will have a minimal effect on travel stiffness until that point.

If the Hawk had a straight linear spring rate, the ride would never get stiffer from preload, because it would always take X kg of weight to move the fork 1mm, even if you had twice the amount of preload as another bike with the same spring. It will act stiffer up to the point the springs are pre-loaded for, thus changing how much weight it takes to start making the spring travel.

I added 20mm of preload to my Hawk for a total of 35mm, which has worked out well for my larger size/weight in regards to rider sag.

As far as the fork oil weight. I have found the 15wt to be perfectly compliant over sharp bumps.

A more important factor with the fork oil is the air gap, and this can have a huge effect on the feel of the forks and how stiff they are. Simply adding 20ml of oil to each fork to change them from 210ml to 230ml changed the compressed air gap from 155mm to 105mm. This made a big difference on ride stiffness. I wouldn't freely suggest doing this in large amounts though as that air gap also acts as a spring and can greatly change how stiff the forks behave. It works fine for me with my size/weight and main use of the bike on-road, but it would be pretty harsh on rougher surfaces.