sorny

I just picked up an 05 last night. I had a 99 CBR F4 (600) and loved the style and ride but always wanted that low end torque and thump of a big twin sport bike. I've had 6-7 street bikes and they were mostly 4 cylinders or parallel twins.. never had a vtwin. I got to ride it back 120 miles since yesterday and I'm just completely impressed. The most comfortable, fastest, gutsiest, funnest to ride bike I've ever had, hands down. It's completely stock except that the PO had gutted the factory mufflers. Sounds surprisingly good except for that damn popping under deceleration. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't even consider changing them with anything. Gonna keep it as it is for now and see how it goes.

Only thing wrong with it is a cracked windscreen and the fuel gauge is crazy acting. When full it only shows about 1/2 a tank and it will go from half to empty to 1/4 to half in 5 min. I don't know if there's some kind of connector I should clean or what but I'm downloading the service manual now from this site to read up. BTW, even though the manual says 97-03 is it ok for my 05? Were that any major changes through out the Superhawk years?

Thanks guys and I hope to be a contributing member here.

sorny

Dunno why the image got shrunk so much when I posted it.. here it is as an attachment.

Jack Flash

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see you love the bike. We all do.

You're fine with the manual. Your application of the manual is from '01
and up. '01 is the year they made a few changes to the motorcycle.

A few things you may want to look into right away. Verifiy if you have OEM or manual CCT's. This bike has a history of issues with OEM ones. You may want to look into manuals if they have not been done. Some folks prefer to remain with OEM's and change them periodically, others, manuals right off.
Many threads in here on the subject. R/R are also a problem, you may wish to look into that. Other then this, keep it clean, well lubed and she'll be good as gold for a long time.

sorny

Thanks for the tips. The CCT thing scares the hell out of me. My bike isn't 100% showroom new but it's the nicest bike I've had in a while and I don't want to see it blow up. I've replaced a CCT in an older Yamaha before but it was very easy where I just unbolted the old and bolted up a new, didn't even have to take off the valve cover... did have to set the timing before I started though. Anyways, I'm reading about the CCT now. I was kind of hoping in 2005 they had fixed the problem with the CCTs and I wouldn't have to worry about it, but no such luck I guess.

Jack Flash

It's not necessarily of a fault part as much as the engine design. VTwins
do not work the same way as an I4, so, much more work for the CCT. By default, causing them to fail occasionally, and this, without warning, causing sever damage. I ran my '98 with 90 000km, no problem with OEM cct's on it. Some fail after 30 000km.
Don't stop running the bike because you're affraid they'll fail, just tend to it soon. If you're mecanically inclined, can be easily done with a little patience
and save you much $$$$

saige

welcome to the forum,i have always like the blue.
whats your location,maybe someone in your area might be on this forum and can help you with some things here and there.

sorny

Ok, thanks. I'm no master mechanic but I've done some work on bikes before like rebuilding carbs and master cylinders, and checking valve clearance. So I should be able to hand this. I hate not having a garage though... have to work out in my gravel driveway and it sucks for doing major things.


Good idea, I should put my location because I wouldn't mind to meet up with guys for rides. I'm about an hour north of Knoxville, TN. I was just reading a thread from a guy about how there was a nice VTR at the Honda/Knoxville dealership and he said he was 35 miles away.

brothermike

Welcome, I do love the blue SH's. No doubt these are the most fun bikes to ride on the road.

sorny

While riding home I was having such a fun time riding I literally screamed WOOOOOOOOO I LOVE THIS BIKE!!! Luckily no one heard me but man, I wish I had gotten a V twin sportbike before. I don't know if I could go back to I4s. The torque is just amazing and the sound is just a scary roar and I LOVE dual cans on the exhaust. It suits my style of riding perfectly.

Wolverine

We've heard that a lot from new VTR owners. I of course agree 1000%! And I too like the blue ones. Wish I could find another Hawker that wanted to trade plastics and tank for a while.

To make it official, welcome to the forum. There's a wealth of info here and many people willing to help w/ just about anything you can't find answers to. Be safe and gear up before each ride!

jerryh

Hey! Yeah I live out past Lenior City. I have a chain press you're welcome to use. Installed Kreigers a month or so ago maybe I can help with that. Bought my Blue VTR couple months ago. Have done handle bar mod (excellent) and shift linkage mod (nice!) Pair Removal and a few other things. We could meet at Norris Dam, talk it over. Maybe ride down 116 from Lake City to Oliver Springs. Fun V Twin, kind of like riding a thumper dirt bike!

jmathern

Consider removing the PAIR for reducing if not eliminating the popping on deceleration. You can find the post here: https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...val-how-20918/

Welcome!! :-)

~Jon

sorny

That's awesome, I was hoping there was some East TN guys around. My wife's Uncle was telling me about taking Norris Freeway to the damn and coming out at Lake City but I haven't tried it yet. My 2nd job had slacked off but I swear the day I get the bike I have been getting like 6+ calls a day and am lucky to be riding to work and back. But anyways, it'll slow back down in a few days. It's definitely a fun bike and it's so nice to be able to grab a handful of throttle in any gear and it just take off.

lol When I read your post I was like oh god no, I don't want to remove the pair, I LOVE the dual muffler look! I clicked anyways (thankfully) and realized what you were talking about. Definitely going to have to do that. Backfiring/popping under deceleration is about the only thing I can nit pick about the bike. Does this completely cure it or just help a bit? I mean any is better than nothing so I'm still wanting to do it. And this may sound REALLLLLLLY lazy but I read another post about the PAIR system that just mentions taking the tank/seat off, removing the PAIR valves, flipping the reeds, and then putting everything back... no yanking stuff out and plugging stuff off. That sounds like I"m being lazy and I kinda am but I also have the worst luck finding block off plugs and stuff like that. I don't mind is the extra stuff is still there, I just want to stop the popping the easiest/fastest way possible and if I just remove the valves, flip it, then hook the hoses back up then that's easy. But if I have to start blocking some stuff off anyways I might as well go all out and remove it all like your link showed.

I was looking at the "easy" directions here:

1. Remove the seat and tank (and PLEASE mark the vacuum/vent/fuel lines to the tank so you can remember which way to reinstall them!!!)
2. Remove the rubber hoses going to each PAIR valve.
3. Remove the two bolts holding each PAIR valve in place.
4. Remove the PAIR valves.
5. You will see a small screw holding the reed stopper and reed in place. Remove the screw, flip the reed stopper to hold the reed shut, and replace the screw..
6. Put everything back together (3.6 ft-lb on the PAIR valve bolts)

Tweety

Disabling the PAIR system works just fine like that... It's just that having all that stuff in there makes it a PITA to do other work on the bike, maintainance and mods both, so I find it a better idea to just yank it all out and plug the remains up, but it's all up to you...

Without the PAIR, most of the popping goes away, not all... If you want it all to go away, and get a better balance between fuel mileage and usable power, you end up having to play with setting up the carbs, for exactly your bike and riding conditions and style, not Honda's best guess plus environoment regulations... It's not a half hour job, as it will mean taking apart the carbs ten plus times to get it spot on, but not really hard either...

sorny

I was okay with living with the popping as bad as it was so even if it clears it up 50% I'll be happy. The debaffled exhaust actually sounds pretty good IMO.. good enough so that if I can stop most of the popping I wouldn't even be shopping for a $500+ slip on system.

I was looking at the picture tutorial and can easily see the rear reed valve because he's pointing at it in one pic, but where's the front one? It is just closer to the tree or do you actually go from the bottom of the bike to get to it?

7moore7

If you're proactively lazy, remove the PAIR... it'll make future jobs less tedious.

Caffeine

I was under the impression that the pre 2001 R/R's were bad but the new Finned ver (post 2000) was good?

Jack Flash

You may be right. I honestly never had any issues with this, and this on
my '98 or my '05. I need to look into this.

jerryh

Hey, Are your rims the heinous silver color? That color is impossible to keep clean and looks like hell. Ugly!! You need black rims with blue reflective tape, like I have. Since you're new and I feel bad for you, we should trade.

Tweety

No, they are exactly the same apart from a couple of ounces of scrap metal as thermal mass in the fins, which makes the time it takes them to reach overheating temperature around .1 second longer... Or about that difference anyway...

Just as useless, just as prone to failure... So, no Caffeine, they aren't at all better...

The only real difference is that if you get a new OEM one, it's in fact new... So in theory it should have a 4-5 year lifespan before it blows up, if all the other parts are spot on... Which is highly unlikely, so say 3-4 years more likely on the average bike with a bit of corroded wiring and such...

brothermike

I like the popping on deceleration, lets people around me know I am there.

sorny

lol, you're the guy I was thinking of that was in East TN. You mentioned the SH that Honda of Knoxville had for sale. I saw that bike on their site and almost went to look at it. Low miles and super clean.

But anyways, nice try on the rims lol. I like the bright blue and silver combo and the guy who had the bike before me had repainted the frame and engine with a nice silver paint so it's all bright and silver as well. But hey we should go riding some time if you're close to Knoxville (I'm an hour North in Oneida but go to Knoxville often)... just don't steal my rims


I don't mind it because the bike sounds so mean but it kinda irks me a little bit. If I had to buy a $500 pair of slipons to fix it then I'd live with it but if the PAIR mod is so easy I'll try it. I like exhaust to be smooth and mellow and the popping is starting to get to me. To fix it I just grab some throttle and that clears it right up though

Jack Flash

Thanks Tweety. I knew I could count on you to clarify.

Tebs

Welcome ! This is a great place with great people to learn from. Have fun and enjoy!

sorny

Thanks!


BTW guys I did the PAIR removal earlier, and it cured 80%+ of my popping. SOOOO much better! But I was finishing up as it was getting dark at like 9:00 so I only got to take a 3-5 minute ride. The only part that kind of scared me is that when pulling in the clutch at a stop sign the bike stalled. But I didn't get it any time at all to warm up and was only in the 160's. I'm still getting used to a bike that has a temp gauge so I don't know if that was cool enough to cause the low idle/stall. I didn't have the choke pulled so I'm hoping that's is and I didn't screw something up. By the time I go home it was mid 170's and it didn't stall as I pulled in the driveway. I know when I rode the bike home the other day it was 90 degrees outside and the bike temp was getting up to 218* in traffic and I was about to have a panic attack thinking it was overheating on me. Until I read on the forum that 218 isn't considered dangerously hot on these bikes.

jerryh

Manual switch mod for the fan helps with this issue. I mounted mine just to the right of the hi/low beam switch. takes the worry out of completely relying on the fan to kick on early enough

sorny

Does the switch go completely manual or just override it so it comes on EARLIER than normal? I was really surprised how late it waited to kick on and thought 200+ would be like severe overheating like "shut it off or crack a head" type overheating. I almost got off the bike and called the seller all pissed off asking if he knew that the fans weren't working. Then it finally kicked in. I was thinking it didn't have any coolant or something.

7moore7

I personally wouldn't recommend this method. He seems to have rigged it to turn on when the key is switched to on.

The stock fan switch is set to keep the coolant at or below 100*C (or 212*F). Which is not emergency, just regulation remember. Honda wouldn't make the fan start working right on the cusp of the danger zone, but keep the bike safely below it.

When you consider that the fan switch is in a different location than the gauge/ecu temp sender as well as gauge cluster error, 218*F is nothing at all to worry about. The warning is upwards of 240*F and I think engine shutdown is somewhere around 270*F (don't quote me on that though). these are performance high rpm motors. They get pretty warm. My buddies air-cooled ducati sees 250*F pretty regularly.

If you're really worried, there is a Nissan fan switch that threads into the superhawk that turns on at 85*C. I'm using this but I have a heavily modified cooling system. If I had a stock cooling system I'd keep the switch, flush the system and add water wetter or similar.

sorny

Yeah I think I'll leave it alone knowing that the warning is 240 and the shutdown is 270. I mean it was 94 degrees sitting in traffic for a while and it never touched 220, maybe just like 218 or so. But I was sitting there thinking "oh god is 200 too hot oh god my new bike is gonna die oh god" I never would've guessed that 240 wasn't just the warning zone. I don't know if I ever had a bike that had a temp gauge at all let alone a digital one so I never knew they got this hot and that it was ok. So if it's ok for the bike it's ok for me and I don't want to rig up some switch. I don't even want to mess with the Nissan fan switch if what I'm seeing is normal. If I start seeing 240's all the time I might start worrying about it and giving the Nissan switch some thought.

Thanks for the info I was seriously pissed at the previous owner when I was sitting in traffic and it hit 200's. I was thinking it was just going to keep going until it boiled over.

7moore7

That's part of the problem with gauges and especially digital ones. If they were to just put a "overheating" light and an automatic shut down, people would get way less stressed about it. My VLX/Shadow was like your other bikes. It's harder to diagnose and fine tune that way, but there's something to be said for "out of site/ out of mind". Didn't even think about temperature on that bike.

I'm not sure that those were the exact temp ranges, but I've had my bike up to 235*F before (long story). 218 is getting up there, but for a hot day sitting in traffic it's not out of the norm!