New owner
 

After a more than a year trying to figure out what my next ride was going to be, I finally pulled the trigger on a 00' Superhawk with 12800 mile on the clock. The bike has TBR slip-ons and a K&N filter.

On the ride home, it seems like it took a long time to warm up, it ran sluggish without the choke out a little bit. (it was only little over 40 degrees, a cold day). Is this normal or do i need to get it tuned?
I will post pics as weather permits. I can't wait to tweak her into my own.

Well, the first thing to do is to throw the K&N in the trash and replace with stock filter. Once you have done that you can go into cleaning the carbs unless it was taken extremely good care of then we could sort out if it has been rejetted or not. Nothing (almost) more fun to ride than a well tuned VTR and welcome to the club! Post some pics.

sounds good. I will start pricing a stock filter. Can't wait for warmer weather.

Welcome to the fun! Look into the R/R and CCT's as they have a reputation with this bike. Other than that, there are tons of advice and tuning tips around the forum...

I've had a K&N in my VTR for the past 30K miles... no issues. Many have had trouble jetting a VTR with a K&N filter, but that's no reason to toss it right out of the gate. Ride it first.

+1

Also don't "throw out" anything. Get a real Honda filter (not the aftermarket on ebay). you could pick up a BMC - the steet, not the race also( I use the BMC). Every VTR is a bit different, so try all three and then sell what ever is left over on the forum. Any of those filter including the used K&N you have will sell quickly here - the new ones at 80% of what you paid.

We will need many more details to help, but on the surface it sounds as if you may need some jetting adjustments (most do). Good luck on the new bike and welcome to the forum.

thanks for the advice. I heard yellow is the fastest color:p

congrats and welcome to the site.

12k miles is pretty low for an 11 year old bike, it's obviously sat at some point in its life and may have some gummed up carbs. Like RWhisen said, it's probably due for a thorough carb cleanin'.

Only if you can find a yellow '98 or '99....... I could go on but then you reallllly wouldn't like me...... ;)

dont listen to what anybody says,yellow is fast,hold on :)

Welcome to the show.



PS.....my dog had a yellow crap the other day.......FYI.:shock:

YELLOW does mean slow as well in most states.









Mine is RED and it means stop........BLAH BLAH BLAH, I beat you to it, so your retort does not count.:evillaugh:

Welcome. Hope you're not a new rider, as the yellow bike may too fast..............

I should be ok. I'm used to having the fastest color. I had white and blue 86 gixxer and a silver 2004 Bandit 1200. Those were easily the fastest color, not even close. So the transition to Yellow should be easy.

Nice to see a fellow of the church of Elway too!

You guys with your colors are pretty funny.....

Just to stir things up a bit, there is one year SH that does have the least amount of power output, which can be shown by the dyno numbers.

It also happens to be the year they started making yellow SH's. Is it a coincidence?? I guess that would be up to you to decide........ ;)

Hell ya! Gotta love those 7s:cool:

i think we couldve done without that tid bid of info,but its ok,mines a 98,yellow was the choice :) lol

Ok, after owning the Hawk for about two weeks, i have plates and insurance..yippee! "I want to be in compliance, officer". I took her for her first spin besides the ride home from the purchase. The idle was too low, so adjusted up to 1200 +/- 100 rpm. Wow those TBR slips are loud at 8000rpms, love that sound! Still trying to figure out the power/speed in comparison to my previous 04' Bandit 1200. Need more saddle time for that though, but the Suzuki was smooth and easy to ride for sure. I think this bike has more character though. Gonna take her to work this afternoon. Life is so much better when you have a motorcycle in your life.:cool:

+1 I hear you there, bro. I got my '98 Red Hawk a couple months ago and today was my first ride. First thing I was thinking as I was letting the throttle go was how much I missed that feeling!

Welcome. Have fun...

The power band is surprisingly similar to a Bandit. So ride it about the same way and you should do fine. ;)

Welcome to the obsession.