Hawk Geometry

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

Had the first trackday this weekend. Learned alot and concentrated most on trying to sort out my body positioning. At 6'-2" I'm a little cramped. Stock pegs, f2 bars. Great setup for commuting but I was having trouble getting my chest into the tank because the bars were too high. I was trying to get my chinstrap over my wrist but my forearms would point down and my elbows were getting in the way of my knee.



Now I have a track addiction, but I think changing the hawk's geometry will be a little more economical for me than a used sv650, plus I really like my hawk

Any of you experienced knee draggers have any advice?????

[MrDude_1]

heh, looking at your pics, i would really put some lower clipons on.. lol

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

Thats kindof what I'm asking, can I just drop the f2 bars down below the triple?

[MrDude_1]

Thats kindof what I'm asking, can I just drop the f2 bars down below the triple?

ive read on here that you can... and i dont see why you cant.... but i havent done it.

my clipons all go below the top one....

[sockmonkey]

You're talking right under the upper triple clamp right? I don't see why not. There's some issue with cables being too long and binding a bit when you do that though.

Yeah, you're tall, and I thought *I* felt cramped on the hawk all tucked in. (I'm 5'6") My knees are friggin' killing me by the afternoon.

You do the same thing I do with your knees, you keep the inside one tucked up against the bike. I don't know if it would give you more room to let it drop. With the lean angle you're getting to, you might want to get your tuckus off the seat a little more, although I've been told by several people, "move your head, and your ass will follow". You're already keeping your head really low which is good. That's a great place to start from.

Ahem, also, I realize my own form is nowhere near perfect. I can analyze someone else's body position all day long but I realize I've got a ways to go myself.

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

The photographer had a trailer setup with computer terminals so you could view your pics immediately after the session. This was a SUPER valuable tool for me to analize what I was doing and what to do different.
I was trying to keep the middle of my butt on the edge of the seat and get into the tank, rotating my pelvis around the tank instead of just sliding off to the side. When I was on the bike it felt like I was really getting off, then when I looked at the pics I was just staying in line with the bike. As for the getting the knee out thing I was trying too, especially exiting the carousel (dragging peg feelers, then when I removed the feelers I was dragging the pegs!) But first time out and all I wasn't prepared for the load your knees get from aggressive riding. I think I'll be found on highway onramps trying to work on form between now and VIR

I think I could get my knee to stick out a bit more with some rear sets, but I'm worried that this will cause even more pressure on my knees if I can't get the seat any higher. Ride height is already pretty high on the fox twin clicker so I'm thinking about adding foam to the seat. Maybe?

I'm definately having trouble concentrating at work though, I just want to ride

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

Next step is to get a clamp for the front wheel or something, strap it down and start hanging off trying to build up muscle memory.

[MrDude_1]

btw, i sent you a PM a little while ago... i dont think you've read it yet.

[Doc]

Raise the seat, lower the bars. It sounds like you are on the right track with body position.
(It is stuff I am working on too)

My Knees kill me as well AND my feet go numb. I am gonna try to add some seat height and see if that helps.

[joel]

It seems counterintuitive,but higher,more rear-set pegs make lower bars much more comfortable as they rotate the lower half of your body.Your hips and knees will thank you.It means a little more weight on the wrists but I find that much easier to deal with than having my lower half in kinks- it's actually kinder on the spine too.
You can certainly put your bars under the triples without doing any harm- might want to hit Hord up for shorter cables to make things a little easier.FWIW,my GSXR front end on the Ghettohawk is 4" shorter than the F3 fronts on the other Hawks and I rock the bars under the triple where they belong.It's quite the compact riding position- I'm 6'2 as well and with as much ride height added as I can in back and a seat that's 3" higher than stock it's a little different to a stock Hawk but it works quite well to get the thing around corners..er,kinda...at least as much as I can make anything go around a corner

[jaysun0ne]

im 6'5" and i have run my f2 bars under the top triple for years. my elbow is still in the way.



i got stock rear sets with the hiperform brakets that moves them up one and back one. and untill the seat hight changes thats the most i can go. legs just wont fold anymore.

[LeftRightLeftThrottle]

Joel,

What seat are you using? I can't change the subframe yet so I'm looking at the cheap fix of adding some foam when I get the stock seat recovered.