Hawk Talk

[iparks81]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

If you look closely at the picture you will notice that the grease came out evenly around the top and bottom. The shafts takes up most of the void and didn't take that much grease. Filling this void means that no water or moisture will get in there.

After looking at the pic again, your absolutely right, the grease did come out very uniformly, and you have a good point about filling the void with grease rather than leaving it open for potential water ingress. it still is a large area, and quite a bit of grease (in my humble opinion). Perhaps since I think we have different size frames at the head-stock that Im seeing a much larger area than what the Hawk frames have.

[enforcer89]

Only question I have is how did you drill and tap without getting metal inside ?

[JeremyC]

Originally Posted by enforcer89

Only question I have is how did you drill and tap without getting metal inside ?

Easy. Dip your drill bit in grease.. it catches the cuttings.

[JeremyC]

While we're on the subject of grease zerks, who's done their swingarm? I almost did mine, but it looks like there's a spacer between the bushings, and the excess grease will probably eat the rubber around the steel sleeve.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by JeremyC

While we're on the subject of grease zerks, who's done their swingarm? I almost did mine, but it looks like there's a spacer between the bushings, and the excess grease will probably eat the rubber around the steel sleeve.

I have. You put it in the center

[JeremyC]

Do you drill through the spacer? I'm assuming you do.

[JeremyC]

Am I correct in assuming that you drill through the swingarm AND the spacer as well?

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by iparks81

Please note:
this is not a confirmed size for HAWK motorcycles, I have a Serpento branded bike. I know they are all very similar but other similar Chinese bikes use different sizes, unless someone has a hawk and wants to measure the OD of the stem and ID of the Frame. I did a search online and then found same on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/32005-26-26x...4AAOSwZJBX~5sA

I would love to see somebody measure a set of Hawk bearings.

Using the part number you referenced and a bit of searching

Honda Bikes that use the same size bearing -
CR125 & 250, NX250 & 650, SLR650, XLR600, 650, & 700V, XR400, 600, 650, and XRV750 - aka the Africa Twin. (many others as well, even much newer bikes)

Part number SSH902/902R Cross reference to All Balls Racing gives part number 22-1021.

http://www.allballsracing.com/22-1021.html

Yes, I have no life... And I deal with a lot of bearings in my line of work lol.

At the very least, if you need bearings in the future, you can probably get them a little more easily by simply going to a place that sells Honda parts.

If all else fails, once my Hawk arrives I am going to pull my triple tree to ensure the factory bearings are well greased and I will measure them then and either confirm they are the same, or do my thing and find a size that works. The downside to this is that I have at least 2-3 more weeks until my bike arrives.

As a side note, I will probably do the same thing with the wheel bearings. I'm weird that way.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by iparks81

Steering bearings are a normal wear Item, they are in almost every Brands Maintenance schedules, granted, with proper lubrication they should make it to the millage that they are typically due to replace (normally around 20-30k miles) the number 1 killer of steering bearings is letting your bike sit, and the bearing races rust and pit in whatever position the bike was left. Many riders dont make it to the scheduled maintenance interval due to the fact they like to wash their bikes every other day, or live in wet humid environments.
As far as our bikes go, they have put a thrust bearing where a taper bearing should be put, there's just to much side loading with the geometry of the frame and head-stock, and yes, its to save time and money in manufacturing. I've swapped over to taper bearings and time will tell if they are any better than OEM, as far as putting grease zerk in the head-stock, that's a ton of grease to fill the dead space!. that's like a pound of grease up there, and there's no way to be sure that its going through the cage of the bearing to be effective. I'm not knockin it tho, its better than nothing at all!

If all of this is true, then manufacturers have certainly cheapened up steering head bearings. I have been riding bikes (all well used) since 1952, and have never replaced steering head bearings. Cup and cone steering head bearings have been used since before 1900. Those bearings were designed to take both thrust as well as side loading, and have for 120 years. A tapered roller bearing is better, but really the advantage is ease of maintenance.....ARH

[Megadan]

Cup and cone ball bearing setups are super reliable IF they are maintained properly. My golgwing has the original uncaged ball bearings from 1975, and as long as they are cleaned and greased regularly, they will last over 100k miles no problem.

[JeremyC]

I put a grease zerk in the head and a pop rivet in the lower hole. It holds a LOT of grease when you first fill it, but a few pumps every now and then will eliminate the hassle of tearing it apart just for grease. I may still pull it apart every few years.

[pistolclass]

Originally Posted by JeremyC

I put a grease zerk in the head and a pop rivet in the lower hole. It holds a LOT of grease when you first fill it, but a few pumps every now and then will eliminate the hassle of tearing it apart just for grease. I may still pull it apart every few years.

if you get a chance can you snap a pic of it so I can see how it was done? Thank you!

[JeremyC]

I can, if I remember LOL! If you look at the right side of the steering head, you'll see 2 already drilled holes that are about 1/8"dia (turn the handlebars to the left). I just put a pop rivet in the bottom hole, then drilled the top hole out to 3/16 and drove a press in grease zerk in there. Someone else posted a pic the other day of the same thing, but can't remember which thread it was in. It only took 10 minutes, and 7 of those were searching the junk for a zerk and getting the drillbit chucked up. The trick to not getting cuttings in the bearings is to dip your drill bit in grease. That captures the cuttings.

Edit: The picture you want to see is on this very page, post#681.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by JeremyC

I can, if I remember LOL! If you look at the right side of the steering head, you'll see 2 already drilled holes that are about 1/8"dia (turn the handlebars to the left). I just put a pop rivet in the bottom hole, then drilled the top hole out to 3/16 and drove a press in grease zerk in there. Someone else posted a pic the other day of the same thing, but can't remember which thread it was in. It only took 10 minutes, and 7 of those were searching the junk for a zerk and getting the drillbit chucked up. The trick to not getting cuttings in the bearings is to dip your drill bit in grease. That captures the cuttings.

Yes, I posted a picture. Post #681 of this thread

[pistolclass]

I am totally doing that this weekend. thank you gentlemen.