RE: [ST] DIY Fork Maintenance

[Paul English <tallpaul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Jeremy Witt wrote:

> I've been inside Hawk forks twice now, which are nearly identical (same
> diameter, same damper rod setup) Showa and from what I've seen, heard
> and read, bushings rarely need service in the first 75-100k miles.  

As best I can tell the Hawk GT & Superhawk both have 41mm forks and the 
Sprint ST has 43mm.

This resurrected for me the "what about a fork swap" thread. In googling 
for the information above, it turns out the the VTEC VFR and the F4/F4i 
both have 43mm cartridge forks. The VFR is only adjustable for preload, 
but the F4/F4i are fully adjustable. Neat! Unfortunately even at a glance, 
the caliper brackets are significantly different so it would have to be a 
wheel + full fork swap OR with a great deal of luck an internals-only 
swap.

The wheel + fork swap would be close to or as expensive as the RT 
treatment, although arguably better since you'd get more adjustability and 
*real* cartridges (I really can't imagine that "emulators" are as good as 
the real thing). 

The internals swap is much more appealing but so far I haven't been able 
to find the lengths of the fork or any fork components on the web for 
either the F4 or ST. Even if they were the right length, would they be 
threaded the same, etc? They're both Showa so I would guess it is a pretty 
good bet. Maybe I'll start carrying a measuring tape when I go on group 
rides and if someone has an F4, measure the on-the-bike length of their 
forks for a first order approximation. Does anyone have a better 
suggestion?

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