Fork Tube Diameter....

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:24 am

Stupid Question: What is is the fork tube diameter on the upper part of the SuperHawk (painted steel lower units)? Is it the same as the lower part (just under 1 3/8")? I'm planning on replacing the headlight mounting ears/removing the covers once I have new fork tubes made, and I just wanted to make sure before I purchased a particular set of ears to mount directly on the tubes. Many thanks!

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:57 pm

I have those forks Vince; mine are 38mm upper tubes, reducing to 33mm in the lower part.

edit: Sorry! Arse-over-elbow: 33mm uppers expanding to 38mm lowers for the internal spring.

davomoto · Post by **davomoto** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Vince, the smaller upper part is 32mm, expanding to 35mm at the lower triple clamp. For the clip-ons and headlight mounts on my Cafe' bike, I used 32mm items I found on evilbay. Deez got a new set of tubes made by Frank, and they are beautiful!

davomoto

CliffC · Post by **CliffC** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:59 pm

Vince, you may want to loosen up the forks and check what you have with an outside caliper. The reason I say that is I have a 61' CB and a 64' CP (can't get to right now to verify) and the upper forks are different sizes, in other words I used two different size sets of clip-ons. It's been along time but I believe the 61' was 36 or 38 and the 64' was 34 or 35 mm. Hope this helps, Cliff C

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 3:26 am

FWIW, and, possibly, to add more confusion, thus endorsing Cilff's suggestion: see pic.

I'll bet even Ed can't provide a definitive answer if components were changed as willy-nilly as it appears.

And I'm beginning to see the advantages of, at times, keeping schtumm! In view of the foregoing, added to my own inability to even think the right way up sometimes, I think I'll STFU!!

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:43 am

Thanks for the replies. I determined that I have the ones that Steve has (33mm/38mm). I'm sending one of them off today to have Frank's Forking make me a new set. Has anyone had any experience having them make SuperHawk fork tubes? I hope they are able to do all the tapering, grooving, etc...

Vince Lupo · Post by **Vince Lupo** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:00 pm

Well I got the fork tubes back today and they look great. However, they are 3/8" shorter than the one I sent them as a sample. Any idea why that would be? When lined up from the bottom, all of the grooves and holes match, though they did add two additional grooves, which is odd, but then they end up being 3/8" shorter up top. Am I going to have trouble with this? DId Honda change fork tube length during SuperHawk production? Were they reading specs that they had rather than looking at what I sent them? I called Frank's today to find out but no one was picking up their phones, so at this point I don't know what their rationale was.

I just hope I don't have to send these back and start all over again!