Hi Everyone!

Just purchased an '03 S'Hawk last week. It already has race tech springs and compression and rebound gold valves. Front end feels good and at the same time not too confidence inspiring. The rear shock is still stock. Turn in seems to be a little slow and I was wondering if if I should raise the forks through the triple clamps to quicken steering? Any advice would help......

Thanks<
Mark

 

I have and 03 as well and it felt very slow turning after my VFR and SV. Research indicated there were two schools of thought, one for, one against.

I did it and the quickened steering feels great. Stable through 140 MPH sweepers to. I just measured and there is exactly 1/2 inch to the top of the triple clamp.

My neighbor has an 03 SV1000S and when he rode my 05 SV (gone now) he could not believe how much less effort was required to turn it. Mine came from the dealer, brand new, with the forks about 1/2 inch showing and his was flush. He dropped them and loved the feel.

I would not change back. Dropping the forks makes it slightly harder to bring the front end up if you are into those things, but the bike will still power wheelie in 1st with a tug on the bars or after hitting a hump in the road.

New tires really make a difference. The stock Dunlops are miserable. They make a fun bike feel lousy. I have Pirelli Diablo Corsas on the bike right now and they transformed the bike. I have had these tires on several bikes now and they are fantastic. Nuetral, light, sticky, everything you could want in a tire. And for a track day capable tire they last pretty well.

KEB

 

Most prefer to raise the rear to keep front end clearance.
You can make up a single spacer like the one here on Gregs web site ... or you can go down to your hardware store and pick up some large steel washers .. The ones I used were 1.25" OD and 1/2" ID .. slice open a slot and use 2,3 or 4 for spacers... The ones I used were about 1.5mm thick and I ended up using 2 washers ... you can fine tune the rear lift as you see fit.

 

Or buy yourself a good shock with ride height adjustability.

 

rear shock in general along with this is going to do more. a done up front end with a stock rear just won't cut it. I was so impressed by the vast improvement it made once I did mine

 

I don't think anything other than vast modifications (front end swap) will make the Hawk "confidence inspiring". Its not a race bike.

 

No, but with good suspension you can ride the **** out of it and make really good time...not that I recommend riding fast on the street.....

I have the Fox TC ride height adjusted to max and also have fork tubes raised 10mm. 15mm and I touched down the front header at the track. Not a great experience. Went back to 10mm and all is good.

 

not true. i have gixxer 1000 brakes, racetech springs, and fox tc. It acts like it's on rails in the twisties. I don't think I'll feel the need to do a front end swap until I get into tracking and reach advanced grouping

 

how high in the rear did that go then? we tried raising mine more but it was already on the bike so we couldn't spin it anymore without it hitting the brackets so we left it (from where we measured it was like 15mm raised). I was concerned too that doing it more was going to warrant a damper in the front

 

Shee-it, it's been so long since I even touched the shock I can't remember. Fox recommends a maximum that you extend the clevis, most likely due to # of threads and strength related stuff. I went the max. I think that's like 10mm, which equates to about 30mm in the rear when considering the 3:1 for the linkage.

 

hmm.... still is stable and doesn't require a damper?

 

Only had one tank slapper the entire time I owned her, and that was with stock suspension, full throttle 2nd gear over railroad tracks.

 

I raised the forks by @ 8 mm (forks are modded with Race Tech springs and a modded/drilled cartridge as per advice rom Revolution Racing) and shimmed the rear shock by 4.7 mm (thickest one I could fit without the lower shock mount hitting the pipe). The shock is a RaceTech modded OEM unit BTW. That, and the slightly shorter wheelbase from teh 15/43 gearing I run makes the bike a lot more flickable. I ran it this way last year with no problems (although I did have a couple of minor headshakes while hitting bumps mid-corner). I have since installed a fork brace adn a steering damper and it's all good

cheers
Mikstr

 

Damn man my short little legs have a hard enough time reaching the ground the way it is. My gsxr forks are already about 1/2 inch shorter anyway so I only raised the shock a minimal amount.

 

I've got the Fox and played with its height from stock to 14mm?ish. The front end is Racetech'd, sag is properly set, etc etc

VTR's in my area are very common and I ride my buddy's all the time. If you really wanna feel what "riding on rails" is like, hop on a GIXER. Don't get me wrong, I love the VTR and think its the best all around street bike BUT it handles ambiguously when pushed hard (ie: I can ride circles around myself on a true sport bike). That said, your not supposed to be pushing the VTR so hard on the street that it reveals its weaknesses so...... :P

 

Or at least a VTR with GIXER forks.

 

It really makes a big difference eh?

 

In a word, YES.