A New Beginning.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by ben2go

Speaker magnet on the bottom of the triple will help keep them on the race if everything is steel.

Wish I'd have thought of that back in the day. Keeping 19 in place, top and bottom during this episode in my life was a real sweat session...ARH

[Megadan]

Damping rods modified for the valves. This is the point of no return. YSS calls for 4 8mm holes minimum, so 2 more holes wojld have sufficed. I did 4 holes more in total to each, which is more than sufficient. As racetech told me, you can't have too many, but too few defeats the purpose of having the valves.

[Megadan]

Fork Valves are installed and a success! I made a separate thread for it just for more exposure for other owners to find it, which can be found here (assuming you haven't seen it already). http://www.chinariders.net/showthrea...554#post284554

[Megadan]

Got the last little bit of my front steering and suspension upgrades finished today and installed the fork brace I never got around to installing on my last Hawk (yay for laziness saving the day again.) Anyway, all credit goes to Wamey for this one. Thread: http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=19349

As you can see, fits like a charm.


There is plenty of clearance around the tire on all sides.





As you can see here, the wire holders for the speedo and brake line actually worked better behind the brace. There is a reason for this, and it has to do with the shape of the brace and the fork lowers. At the height I have these current holes drilled, they do press against the inside of the fork lowers (as you can see in the pictures above). There is a possible solution to this that I will detail in the next post below.

[Megadan]

On to the details.

To start, let me address the brace touching the lowers. As seen in my pictures, I drilled the mount holes 10mm up from the lower edge of the brace. However, the brace will clear the lowers without this fitment issue if you run less of an air gap above the tire and drill the holes higher. I will likely go back and re-visit this during the weekend if time permits. I mainly need to unbolt it and slide it down with the tire in place to see if there is enough room to do so, and if there is I will drill new holes and likely trim off the excess below.

All of that said, it does fit and work well, and I would have no problem running it like this.

If you are wanting to do this mod for yourself, I can save you a little time as far as the holes are concerned, although I would still recommend measuring your own just to make sure there is no variation... these are cheap bikes after all.

My holes were 1 23/32" or 43.6mm from center to center measured via calipers - widest and narrowest averaged. I found the centerline of the brace and measured out 22mm from center on one side, marked it, then measured across to roughly 43.5 on the other side and marked it then drilled out to 1/4" holes to give myself a little bit of extra leeway with the holes. It worked out perfectly as you can see.

[slowroller]

Dang u working overtime. U think if u put your street tire on first it will give u more clearence maybe for brace.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by slowroller

Dang u working overtime. U think if u put your street tire on first it will give u more clearence maybe for brace.

I would rather set any clearances with a more aggressive tire, just in case I decide to go back to one later.

[Megadan]

Well, I was going to try and finish up the last parts of my Hawk today, but I got called in to work. On the plus side, overtime! On the downside, lost work time on the bike.

[Megadan]

Got all of the wiring and lighting stuff finished and got the front end finished. Still a few odds and ends to take care of, but the rest of it can easily be finished in a good solid day or two if I can get the time. I ended up having to use a different method for mounting the spot lights, but it worked out better IMHO. I am hoping to get the first start and ride in next weekend, as long as everything else I am waiting on shows up.

[Megadan]

A little better look at the spot lights.



Mounted here they JUST clear the tank plastics.




Just for reference in case anybody else wants to use the wiring harness and switch that I used, this is the color matching that has to be done to make it work.
Brown - black
Blue - Red
Black - Yellow.
Completely intuitive isn't it? lol
Also don't worry, I used proper weatherproof connectors and didn't leave it twisted together.

[JerryHawk250]

The Hawk is coming along real nice. I like the spot lights too.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

The Hawk is coming along real nice. I like the spot lights too.

It is getting there. I was hoping to be done by now, but I am still waiting on the MCO anyway. Just gives me time to really go through it all and make everything as good as I can get it.

The spot lights are a nice addition. Not the most powerful things ever, but bright enough to be good auxiliary lighting to the led headlight. For their size they work great, especially considering they are only 10w each.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Megadan

It is getting there. I was hoping to be done by now, but I am still waiting on the MCO anyway. Just gives me time to really go through it all and make everything as good as I can get it.

The spot lights are a nice addition. Not the most powerful things ever, but bright enough to be good auxiliary lighting to the led headlight. For their size they work great, especially considering they are only 10w each.

I don't do much riding at night but the LED headlight is a big improvement over stock. We do occasionally do night trail riding and auxiliary flood lights would come in handy. Mighty dark in the woods at night.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

I don't do much riding at night but the LED headlight is a big improvement over stock. We do occasionally do night trail riding and auxiliary flood lights would come in handy. Mighty dark in the woods at night.

The LED headlight bulbs are a nice improvement. I had the same style you are using on my last Hawk. The current one I have i actually like more. It was about 3 times the cost $35 vs $12, but the light pattern is much better and more focused. The LED positioning is more optically correct, and given the pattern I have seen on my garage door, it should have a little more distance to it.

The spot lights would be a welcome addition for some extra light on a trail in the dark. I got the spot light version after reading the reviews. The flood light version had quite a few people saying they don't throw enough light for good visiblity past about 50-100ft, but the spot lights do and still have a good light spread. I won't know for sure until I can try them obviously, but I am pretty sure I will like them. I do quite a bit of riding at night so lighting is very important to me. I will spend the extra money on good lights if I find them to be worth it, hence the Trucklite headlight and X-Arc signals on my Goldwing (want to talk about bright!). Obviously with this bike, spending $400 on lights isn't very practical, but I will defintely spend a bit more to get any improvement I can.

In other news, I got the foot pegs in. I am going to try and install them tonight when I get home from work.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Megadan

The LED headlight bulbs are a nice improvement. I had the same style you are using on my last Hawk. The current one I have i actually like more. It was about 3 times the cost $35 vs $12, but the light pattern is much better and more focused. The LED positioning is more optically correct, and given the pattern I have seen on my garage door, it should have a little more distance to it.

The spot lights would be a welcome addition for some extra light on a trail in the dark. I got the spot light version after reading the reviews. The flood light version had quite a few people saying they don't throw enough light for good visiblity past about 50-100ft, but the spot lights do and still have a good light spread. I won't know for sure until I can try them obviously, but I am pretty sure I will like them. I do quite a bit of riding at night so lighting is very important to me. I will spend the extra money on good lights if I find them to be worth it, hence the Trucklite headlight and X-Arc signals on my Goldwing (want to talk about bright!). Obviously with this bike, spending $400 on lights isn't very practical, but I will defintely spend a bit more to get any improvement I can.

In other news, I got the foot pegs in. I am going to try and install them tonight when I get home from work.

I agree the spot lights would be a better application for street use. The flood lights would be better for me on the trails at night giving me a wider field of view.

$400 lights would be a little overkill on the Hawk. lol

I'm curious to see how the foot pegs work out. That and the muffler are on my list of things I need to do.