Lilskip

Well let me start off with I have been post stalking this site long before I got my Superhawk. I am know as the Honda Junkie and Anti Harley guy among my Friends. I enjoy riding the less main stream older models of Honda Sportbikes that others tend to overlook because its not the latest and greatest CBR600rr or CBR1000rr. The Superhawk came into my cross hairs about 10 years ago when I got to ride a buddies when I was visiting him. Ever since then I have been looking for one that wasn't ragged out and didn't have a million miles on it. 3yrs ago I can across a post on craigslist for a 2003 VTR1000 Superhawk for 3200 with 3000 miles on it about 4hrs away from me. Everything look good in the pictures and the Guy said it was solid. So I left work early and drove up to get it. So my love affair with the Superhawk began. It was the first bike I had ridden that I loved everything about it and didn't change a thing. For the Next year I put 20000 miles on it and had to do nothing to it except change the oil and tires.

In the Fall of 2013 I was on a group ride in Atlanta and went through a Barbed wire fence to avoid a noob rider that freaked our and slammed on his brakes in a turn. Which banged me and the bike up pretty good. During the rebuild I took the opportunity to to Powdercoat the frame, Replace and Repaint the Fairings, upgrade to Braided Brake Lines, and Install Double Core Radiators. Still never doing anything to the Engine at all, I mean why should I it ran great.

A couple weeks ago Now that the Bike is at 56000 miles I figured its time to finally replace the the Original Spark Plugs, not because anything was wrong, mainly just because. And So started the Rabbit hole haha. Like I said before I have staked this site for years reading all of the awesome knowledge that is here.
So I figured if I'm changing the Plugs, might as well put the Stick Coil Mod on it.
Then it was well if I am going to wait on the Stick Coils to come in, Might as well do the Adjustable TPS Mod.
Then it was since I have the Carbs off for the TPS, Might as well clean and retune the Carbs.
Then it was well since I was cleaning the Carbs, Might as well do the the Carb Slide Mod and Jet it.
Then since I have the Tank off and Air-box off for this other stuff, Might as well Delete the Pair System off.

So in summery my little "Lets Change the Spark Plugs" resulted in all of this.
Iridium Plugs installed
1 Stick Mod done with CBR600rr Stick coils
2 Adjustable TPS Mod done. Dialed in at the perfect 500 ohms
3 Front Slide Mode done lift hole filled with Epoxy
4 Carbs re-jetted and Tuned. 185/190 main jets, 48 pilots, 2 1/2 turns
5 Pair System Delete.

I would like to say thank everyone here on the site. Because without your knowledge and experiences it wouldn't have went so smooth and I wouldn't have gotten it right on the first Try. I just returned from a 1000 mile trip and My superhawk is more responsive, has a Smoother Power Range and more of a torque monster than ever. And the Superhawk is still my Favorite Bike out of the 3 bikes I have in the Garage.

RoadManiac

dont take this the wrong way..... but I dont understand why did you adjust the jets if it ran good before ?? i see you have some aftermarket pipes on it........ i wouldnt make it that rich if its not neccasary,
your going from stock to bigger idles and main jets etc etc.
thats not how you tune a engine one step at a time not change everything and hope it runs good but reading the rest of your post its running well so all the power to you
and welcome to the forum

thedeatons

Roadmaniac: ?????


OP: Welcome. Nice Erions. Have you swapped Manual CCTs in yet? What color did you powdercoat the frame?


James

Wolverine

What he said!! ^^

Holy **** skip! Member since 2012 and this is your first post!?! Welcome to the posting aspect of the forum, lol!

Can you give us an idea as to how much your miles per tank has changed since the carb work?

sjscicluna

What they said^^


WELCOME MATE...... Noice Bike BRO!

Badboy01

Glad you are on the forum Lilskip, and congratulations on your excellent work. LOL, since all of us have experienced wanting to make one simple change, and end up taking the whole bike apart!

Lilskip

After I cleaned the carbs, i put them all back together with the stock jets 175/178M, 45P. The synced up fine but was lean through out the throttle range. Then i put the 48 pilots in and resynced again, and it was better on the lower throttle range, but was still lean on the upper throttle range and popped real bad on throttle let off. So i went to 180/185M, 48P which wouldn't sync up no matter how much i messed with it. So thats when i went to the 185/190M, 48P which synced up beautifuly and was great through out the whole throttle range... I didnt track the mileage on this last trip like i normally do but i did notice it was alittle worse than before. I am doing a 700 mile trip tomorrow so i will make sure to log the mileage and let you guys know.

Lilskip

The Frame is powdercoated a White Vein. I did it just to be different. Here are som pics before and during the rebuild after the Wreck.

Lilskip

The thing I thought was awesome was I took the exhaust off and sat the motor on a wood block and disassembled and reassembled the bike with out having to put it on stands haha. She has been a Awesome bike and has ruined me for all inline 4 cyl. I haven't put the Manual CCTs in yet but I did check the ones in it and the seem alright. I got some Manual CCts on order, just waiting for them to come in.
I have 3 bikes total.
2003 VTR1000f Superhawk 56k Miles
1997 CBR1100xx Blackbird 43k Miles
1994 CBR600f2 Huricane 22k Miles <currently rebuilding
The Superhawk is my long haul bike I ride it all over my goal it to get it to 100k, Its so much enjoyable to ride than my others. I use my Blackbird and Huricane for riding around town and loaning to my buddies when there Yamaha and Suzuki's are broken down.

RoadManiac

what did i do ??? oh yeah i might have been a bit rude but its just the same mistake i made just copied what other members had and change everything at the same time.... and hoping it will run well but thats just not how it works

matt365

Roadmaniac, it was just a bit of a run on sentence. Your point, although valid, came across a little confusing.


It does read slightly harsh.


But yes, I would have done all the other mods, then re-jetted if necessary. Making multiple changes at once makes it very tough to track down setup issues.


Change one thing and the bike doesn't run right. Change 10 things, and who knows which mod was the root of the problem.

RoadManiac

it was late and i might have been under the influence of a certain very dutch substance even i am now like wtf lesson to be learned from this is obvious

Lilskip

Ok so I'm back from my trip. I only logged my Interstate travel Mileage. Everything on the attach screenshot of my fuel log is Traveling roughly about 500 miles of Interstate cruising at a constant 85-90 MPH set with my throttle lock. I didn't bother logging the other 200 miles at the location because it varied all because of riding around town and horse play.

As you can see i was getting about 29 mpg which is a huge drop from the stock setup. before I was getting roughly 120 miles per tank now its down to 95 to 100 miles per tank.

Although it is running like a beast and pulls alot harder than it did before I am going to tinker with it some more to try and find a happy balance to try and get some of my gas mileage back. The Power difference if amazing but I ride alot of long distance and having to stop for gas every 90 miles isnt completely worth it.

so suggestions will be welcome.
Current setup for this fuel log is
185/190 mains 48 pilots 2 1/2 turns on the Screw and 3 shims on the needles.

RoadManiac

Told you so......

just kidding same exact thing happened to me when i first got the hawk..

my advice is : OEM main jet size, 1 shim under the needles maybe a thinner shim on the rear carb (thats my set up btw), keep the idle jets at 48, best thing is if you got the thumb fuel mixture screw get your *** on a dyno and tweak the mixture screws, with the lambda probe you will be able to get it as efficent as possible