97 fork upgrade?

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oochaDog
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2016 7:21 am
Location: TriCities, WA

97 fork upgrade?

Post by oochaDog »

Hello all, hope you are having a great winter.

I was going to preform Hot tip HT2 on my 97. https://hodaka-parts.com/sub-category.a ... 0&cID=1954. I found out that the inner tube is different than what is in the tip. See attachment.

What is your opinion to get better dampening for the 97? I'd rather not swap out the entire front end yet.
  • Do the hot tip anyway on the 97? I would just have to plug the larger hole.
  • Do the hot tip on a spare 95 inner tubes and use in 97?
  • The dampening on the forks is pretty good, leave them.
Any other fork tricks you may have, I'm all ears.

Thanks for your time.
Jay
Attachments
20250111_122952.jpg
dirty_rat
Posts: 763
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:39 am
Location: Spring Hill, FL

Re: 97 fork upgrade?

Post by dirty_rat »

That Hot Tip on the forks is only designed for the original forks on the Ace 100 model B+, the Super Rat model 93A and 93B, the Wombat model 94 and 94A, the Combat Wombat model 95 and the Dirt Squirt model 96. As you can see from your photos, the damper rods are completely different from the 95 to the 97. The upper fork tubes are also different in the placement of the lower snap ring and the damper holes in the tube. I have attached a couple of photos showing the differences.
The model 97 forks work aw well as, if not slightly better that the earlier forks with the "Hot Tip" modification. If you are sticking with the original 30mm forks, I would stay with the stock 97 forks, and just try different oil viscosity and amounts.

The top photo is of the fork used on the Ace 100B+ up through the Dirt Squirt model 96. (this is the fork the Hot Tip was designed for).

The second photo is of the fork used on the Super Combat model 97. (Just a note here, this is practically the same fork that was used on the Super Rat model 98, the Road Toad model 99, the later Dirt Squirt model 01 and the Road Toad model 02. The only difference was the later models used a full length spring where the Super Combat used a slightly shorter spring with a short spring spacer).

The third photo is of the damper rods. Note the difference in length and the Super Combats damper rod didn't have a rebound spring on it. This is one of the changes made when converting the earlier forks to the Hot Tip configuration.

The last photo is of the upper (inner) fork tubes. Disregard the tube on the left as it is from an earlier fork design. The center tube is from the Ace 100B+ through the Dirt Squirt model 96 forks. Note the snap ring is near the bottom of the tube and there is only one damper hole, placed below the snap ring. The tube on the right is the type used in the Super Combat. Note the snap ring is a couple inches above the snap ring and there are 3 damper holes above the snap ring (like the change done to the earlier tubes for the Hot Tip).

If you have any further questions email me at [email protected]
Attachments
Photo 6 Type 3 Fork.JPG
Photo 7 Type 4 Fork.JPG
Photo 11 Damper rod differences.JPG
Photo 12 Inner tube differences.jpg
dirty_rat
Posts: 763
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:39 am
Location: Spring Hill, FL

Re: 97 fork upgrade?

Post by dirty_rat »

The more I look at the photo of your fork damper rods, the one you have labeled as the 95 rod does not look like the right one. Could you take a photo of the disassembled fork and check the measurements of the tubes? Your bike might have a set of forks off another brand of bike.
oochaDog
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2016 7:21 am
Location: TriCities, WA

Re: 97 fork upgrade?

Post by oochaDog »

Thank you for the amazing thorough answer! I greatly appreciate it. I will put the forks back together with 30wt non-detergent oil and test out the dampening.

Sorry the the confusion on the 95 damper rods. I just pulled those out the an old 95 box and assumed they were from a 95. I'm not sure which which forks they are out of but once I find a set missing damper rods I'll post a photo.
dirty_rat
Posts: 763
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:39 am
Location: Spring Hill, FL

Re: 97 fork upgrade?

Post by dirty_rat »

For the Super Combat I think I was running 20wt fork oil, manual recommends 6 oz. of 20 wt. Some people use ATF, which is very similar to fork oil. ATF Type F is approx. 15 wt.
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