Hey guys,
I want some adjustability in my fork, and I hear an easy way to do it is to just swap out the legs. For those who don't know the forks on a Honda Hawk GT are non-adjustable, while the legs on a cbr600 f3 have both rebound and compression damping. The legs are both 41mm, so the triple clamps will just swap out, but I am leary of the front wheel fitment. I have heard the tabs to mount the brake caliper have to be shaved approx. 1mm to properly line up with the stock hawk disc and rim, but I am not sure. Anyone have any experience with this swap, or front end swaps in general?
-Thanks

 

Nobody wants to take this one on huh? Maybe I should just get a some gold star cartridge emulators instead... Please somebody help me out if you know something!!!

 

Since both forks are 41mm, you could do either of these:

1. Combine the F3 upper tubes/internals with your Hawk lowers. This would be the simplest route if you don't want to swap front wheel and brake setups, but involves taking the forks apart, which can be intimidating at first.

2. Use the whole F3 front end, wheel, brakes and all. It's somewhat easier this way as you don't have to disassemble the forks, and you'll get the F3's better brakes too.

 

First off , Hawks rock ! The http://www.hawkgt.com mailing list is fantastic ( also look at the FAQ's for lots of info on them ) , it's a great bunch of people and there are many Bay Area Hawkers that get together to do wrenching sessions pretty frequently . If you'd like some of their email addresses , I could PM you .

Anyway , F3 forks will fit into your NT triples and you might as well do the whole frontend while you're at it . The 3.5" front rim allows you to run any of the new 120 tires ( even though there are great 110's available and I actually prefer the faster steering of the 110 ... ) and the dual rotors are nice . That said , a rebuild with Progressive springs , spacers and heavier oil will transform your bike on the cheap and the Race Tech gold valves work even better . A stainless line and EBC HH pads will also give you more than enough stoppie power . I have a mostly stocker and my former track ho 88 that only has stock frame , swingarm and cases .

 

Thanks for the reply Hawkrider - that's a bitchin hawk you have there!
I am still not sure if I want to swap the entire front end out or just the fork legs. I may just get the fork legs off of an F3 and swap the lowers from the Hawk because that would be much cheaper; I donno if this will actually work though. Do you think the Hawk lowers would fit on the F3 legs? I believe the 1994 F3 still has a cable driven speedo, so that would be the best pick for an entire front end swap, but it would be harder to find and more expensive. I don't race, so I prolly don't need the wider front tire and dual disks - but they would be nice to have anyway. If you know of anyone with personal experiance swapping Hawk front ends to F2 or F3 let me know - I would be interested in asking them some questions. My email is zaminick@hotmail.com
Thanks guys

 

The F3's speedo is driven off the gearbox . To be legal-ish , I have a Sigma bicycle speedo on mine . The F2's is driven off the front wheel like the Hawk however . I'm almost 100% certain uou can use F3 tubes with Hawk lowers , pretty sure bolt up and would be a good way to go about it I'll pass your email addy on to the guy that somewhat organizes wrenching sessions , you might even be able to take your bike over and do a group effort on it over beer and scummies .

 

Hey Hawkrider,
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I am going to go with the F3 uppers/Hawk lowers idea. I don't really want to mess about with fitment issues right now, and with a stainless line and ebc pads already on my front brake it is strong enough for me for now. I found a place that has a set of F3 legs they'd sell me for 165 including shipping - that seems pretty cheap to me, and I think this is going to be a great upgrade. One thing I was thinking about though: do you know if the F3 legs and the Hawk legs are the same length? Or would I have to position them differnetly in the triple clamps?
Thanks guys

 

I decided to go with the F3 uppers and the stock hawk lowers. I ordered the F3 legs a couple of days ago - I'll let everyone know how it turns out when I get them installed!