New Superhawk owner and new to forum
 

Hey all-

Just joined my Superhawk-owning brethren about a month ago. Purchased a 1998 Superhawk in mid-December and been on 5 rides. So far, love the bike and the exhaust note of a big twin. Should be a kick ass Spring riding season.

Been out of motorcycling for a while but rode a 1999 Honda VFR 800 for about 3 years, and a 1989 Honda Hawk NT650 for about 4 years before that. Looking forward to being part of this forum!

Cheers-

RAP

Welcome to the fray. Replace your rectifier with a mosfet unit from a donor bike and buy the Kreiger manual cam chain tensioners. Those are really the only two achilles heels of this bike and once remedied you should have a worry-free machine for the most part. Oh and pics or it didn't happen.

Picture of new bike - 98 SHawk
 

Here's a pic of my new mount....currently straight up stock, other than a K&H air filter...considering a Sargeant seat, Jardine pipes this summer

Welcome and clean ride you got there! Sargent seat is a great product and well worth it!

You might want to go back to the stock air filter. ;)

Bad experience with a K&N?

Were the jet needles changed? Typically, when U go to a K&N U also need to adjust carb jets. Maybe PO did so. But K&N's are fine, IMO. I've had one since new on my '02 & never a problem. For me somewhat of a PITA to maintain (I usually clean mine twice a year, depending on mileage) but way cheaper than replacing stock air filters.

While some what true. (I used APE CCTs) Depending on ur weight suspension would be the 1st mod I would make. VTRs are set for someone about 170lbs.

Exhaust can wait, U change the suspension to a Ohlins/Peneske rear & Racetech springs up front & it'll be a night /day difference.

And if U see a '01 blue Kawi Connie riding around dat be my bro, blast em & tell em the Rhino sent ya :)

Front forks are more like 130lbs.

And the K&N is notoriously hard to tune for this bike, especially for street use (tuning for a large carbeurated v-twin is anything but "typical"). Some claim to have it working well, some may actually have it working well, but most evidence weighs heavily in favor of a stock filter. The threads and discussions suggest this, all things considered.

It's usually a good baseline for people to start with the stock filter, especially if they don't have the experience or desire to mess with hours of fiddling with jets.

I have to strongly disagree with you. On all the VTRs I have tried to get to work with a K&N you always end up with a hole in the power band.

While you might pick up a couple HP on the top end you tend to loose around 5hp in the mids somewhere in my experience.

I tried for almost 2 years to get the bike to run correctly with one and finally gave mine away after talking with the Moriwaki techs who told me to go back to stock with the filter.

So while some have said they work fine, this has not what I have seen.

I have to disagree on a couple of things here also.

First thing I recommend on a new to you VTR is replace the CCTs. Both auto & manual units work fine IMHO (though there are a few things you need to do with thew auto units again IMHO but I'm getting close to 100k miles on mine with auto units though I have changed them out a couple of times)

The reason for swapping them is you don't know how they have been treated or how long they have sat around without move or being supplied with oil.

Then go on to the suspension. The best bang for the buck is to contact list member Jamie Daugherty Motorsports - Motorcycle Suspension Performance and Modification to get on of his shocks. Though the Ohlins and\or Penske units are nice if you have the $$ for them

I guess it's time to point out that all of these changes and mods are thoroughly discussed in various threads in the knowledge base and anyone new to the forum would do well to read some of them to get the info and background before they do anything or spend any money, especially since it's winter and you've got the time!

+1! Lots of info, in reality enough info is on here for people to investigate and make their own decisions.

CCT's are a must replace though. Anyone who says otherwise wants you to part out your bike minus the motor.

Thanks for all the info....now back to your regularly scheduled programming
 

Joining this forum has already proved to be tremendously helpful. Didn't mean to hijack the thread (was originally just a new member introduction) but the useful and speedy replies speaks well of the passion of Superhawk owners. Happy to be here and be among the few and the proud!!

I do have some questions about regulator/rectifiers and CCT's as all my research did identify those two areas of concern during my pre-purchase investigation, which actually consisted of a substantial amount of info from this forum. I'll read up and post in the appropriate thread.

I'll be around and active. Thanks again for the welcome!

Welcome to "the funnest bike to ride at (almost) legal speeds" club! I hope you have a blast on your Hawk.

Since you live in Denver, you are blessed with the best Super Hawk mechanic, short of Roger Ditchfield in the UK, there is. Bart at Faster Motorsports rides and works on Super Hawks and know them inside and out. He is the only mechanic I let touch my Hawk, if I can't do it myself.

People from all over the world are on this forum and will gladly give you lots of great advice, but I've found after owning my Super Hawk for about 5 or 6 years, good advice at sea level isn't worth a darn here. ;) Just Sayin.

Best of luck.

Nice! Thanks for the referral. I am looking for a good SH mechanic here. Thx!

Um, well after all that....

Welcome to the forum. A proper greeting on an intro thread. See, it can be done! :shock: