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When I first picked up the bike it had what
seems to be a common problem with the hawk. The forks would not
hold air. First I thought it was partly caused by the leaky oil
seals, so because they needed to be replaced anyway, I started
there. Well... I replaced them, reassembled everything, and still
they leaked. Next I thought it may be the valve in the valve
stem, so I replaced that. Better... but it still only held for
a few days. I double checked all my connections, everything was
snug, and the "O" rings all looked ok. The only thing
I could figure was that the air was still slowly escaping through
the threads at the upper connections. Time to hit the local hardware
store (Canadian Tire). I didn't want to use Lock-Tite, because
i thought it might make it difficult to dismantle the parts at
a later time, and because some of these connectors were quite
small... Tethlon Plumbers Tape was going to be difficult to use.
Then I noticed something new to me. Pipe Thread Compound. It
works like the tethlon tape, but is the consistancy of toothpast,
does not completely harden, and comes in a tube. Also they had
two types. One for water pipes, and the other for water and gas
pipes. So I decided to try the one for water and gas pipes. I
applied a small amount to the threads on each of the connections,
hose ends, etc. and reassembled them. The forks have now been
holding air for about three months and still counting. Give it
a shot. |
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