[Jaredc7]

Hello everyone! Noob here, in the middle of a challenging rebuild...

I've been in and out of many of the threads on here learning a ton from the stickys on SSA's and monoshock conversion. Right now, I'm up to my eye balls in suspension geometry. One one hand, its great having the flexibility to optimize the geometry, but on the other, the so called "black art" of motorcycle suspension dynamics and tuning has been a tough one to tackle.

Since I am using the single swing arm off of the Honda NT650 Hawk, I am needing a shock that has a spring rate (and appropriate valving) for the direct-type mount, as there are no linkages at all. There are only a few that have a similar spring rate to the NT650 (1100 lb/in), and that is the VFR750/800 (1000 lb/in) and the Kawasaki EX650 (1150 lb/in). I have a shock top mount that I've designed that will adequatly distribute the loads transferred by the shock into the CM450 frame that wasn't meant to handle it. I'mn just struggling to find a shock that will work with the application without paying $600 for a Penske, YSS, Wilbers, etc.

I have all the spces on the VFR and Hawk shocks... Does anyone have information on the Kawasaki EX650??? I really need the eye-to-eye length, and the shock's stroke length!

Here is my other build thread...
http://www.hondatwins.net/forums/65...0c-conversion-single-swing-arm-monoshock.html

 

[Jaredc7]

Here are a few other pictures...

1 - Reaming out the 3/4" steel tube to 15mm inner diameter to accomodate the Hawk 650 swing arm pivot bolt.

2 - Cutting the end off of another countershaft to weld onto my countershaft. This is to line up the front sprocket and rear sprockets since the Hawk 650 swing arm pushed the rear sprocket out about 1/2"

3 - Clamping down the steel tube to weld in for the new shaft housing for the swing arm pivot.

4 - Welding in stiffeners on each side of the pivot housing to help transfer lateral, torsion, and shear loads. Got this one passed by a career structural steel engineer and motorcycle nerd like myself.

 

[Jaredc7]

A couple pictures of initial dry-fit of frame, swing arm, and rear wheel...

Let me know what you think! Really hoping to get the specs on the Kawasaki EX650 shock, I think that may be the shock I have to use for this rebuild... I need the eye-to-eye shock length, and the spring compression stroke. Haven't been able to find it in any websites or any sticky threads.