New Member Intro
 

HELLOOOOO!!!

Hey guys! I'm so glad I found this place. I'm 44 years old and have been riding 5 years or so on a DR650. I recently had a 98 SuperHawk fall into my lap for.... well nothing. It runs well and is mechanically sound but has some serious sun damage on the plastics and seat. One of the mirrors is busted as well as the turn signals. It was never down at speed but did fall over in the guys yard cracking the already sun rotted plastic. I figured it will be a fun project bike unless I find something truly horrible on it, in which case I can always part it out. I'll be poking around the site for info, pictures and tips and I'm sure I'll have some questions along the way.

If anyone can point me in the direction of some reputable aftermarket plastics that would be a big help. A few google searches keeps turning up DHgate. Seems they are abs and probably made in china.

Thanks for being here!!

Mike

A quick word of caution about the Chinese plastics while not an expert on the after market fairings I know there’s been some confusion with people buying plastics they thought were for a Superhawk but turned out to be for an RC 51.

Thanks for the heads up Xeris. I have quite a bit of research to do before pulling the trigger on anything. I hope to learn a lot here.

M

Welcome to the forum, this is probably one of the best and most informed forums I have even been on, and I been on quite a few to say the list.
You can find tons of great info' just look through the pages and get yourself familiar with it, this bike is a beast with the high torque that is still higher than many modern bikes and could be extremely reliable, once you set it up correctly.
We had members that past the 100k miles and still running well on the same engine.
If you have difficulty finding on the site search bar, you can always google a subject with the forum name and it will lead you directly to the posts.

Good luck and ride safe brother

Mike welcome.... your picking up of a used bike and its condition/ needs sounds a lot like a story i read from a new fellow on one of the VTR FB pages I follow.
Same same?

In any case welcome to the nut house.

Erik

Welcome to our cult.
I mean forum.
This is a great bike. Sounds like you got a good deal which will leave plenty of fixup money. Stick with it. Tons of info on here & smart guys to help.
If I were in your spot I'd go with Chinese fairings even if fitting is fiddly. I would actually get the RC51 on purpose since I really like that look.
This bike is HYPER sensitive to worn tires even it they look fine. It kills the handling. Just a quirk. My CBRs could ride tires to bald but this is a moody one.

I am probably the same fella. Brought it home in my mini van! haha

Thanks for the warm welcome guys!
I finally got the bike home..... via my minivan. In case you were wondering a VTR does in fact fit in the back of a 2015 Dodge Grand Caravan once you take the front fairing off and tip the gauge cluster out of the way. I charged the battery for a couple hours and drained most of the fuel contaminated oil from the sump. I added a few quarts of 10-40, a half a gallon of fresh gas in the tank and the bike fired right up. No smoke from the exhaust, no ticks, knocks or scary noises. The bike appears to be completely stock with 40,000 miles on the clock. The bike is far from being driven though. I need all new plastics, a seat and all the oil cups (clutch and brake) are dry rotted. The fuel valve is leaking as well. I am making a punch list for the bike, so far it seems like 20 bucks here, 40 bucks there... lots of little things. The fairings, seat and tires seem to be the only items with big price tags. That said, I have seen seats on sleezebay for as low as 50 bucks. The only upgrade I see in the very near future is manual timing chain tensioners? I'm not sure those are a must, but from what I read it's an inexpensive good idea. Anyway, once I compile some pictures and more info I'll start a build thread so everyone can follow my mishaps and errors haha

So its an early model with the plastic cups... still available from the OEM, or you can spend big on quality aftermarket. Skip the ebay specials or be ready for seeps and leaks
Again, OEM parts kit is best, reasonable $ for what you get. COVER SET, PETCOCK 16953-ML0-034
Fairings are getting harder to find used in good shape..expect to have cracks and road rash repair and paint done. Some colors are still available new, Red is not one of them......bastards.
Seats .... used ebay, used from a part out, used from a member that upgraded, or upgrade so a Sergeant , Else Made, ect.
They are, not guessing, really not. Brand new Autos, riding the bike daily, never letting it sit for more then a few weeks, changing them as a regular service item, the OEM Autos can be made to work. But too many cycles and the spring fractures,,how many is too many? It aint a lollypop so no one really knows. Store the bike too long and the oil drains away off the front ACCT spring, some corrosion sets in and the spring fractures..how long is too long? Damned if we know
A quality manual CCT installed correctly will not fail.

The charging system is a weak point as well... the RR is a known failure point, early model RR or the later fined one..Both old school diode based and they will fail, its just when and if it takes out battery, wiring melted, cluster damaged. The fix is well known as well... a Genuine Shindengen MOSFET RR installed with high quality wiring...ya I sell a kit, use it or dont, but put one together yourself if you have the supplies, training and experience, or buy a quality kit.

After that ride it, see what you like/ dont like and there is plenty of help here to assist in your spending money to make it better fit you. Breaks, Suspension, light weight flywheel, gearing and more.