Bustin

RobertLever I thought I saw one on the Snohomish river road on Sunday.

Probably me, Robert. I live in Lowell, and rode my yellow Superhawk out to Snohomish (and back) on Sunday , via the river road.

The Cenex Co-Op out there sells ethanol-free gas, and it's a nice ride.

Just registered here tonight.... greetings all ! My name's Ben and I picked up a '99 SH late last year, in Pearl Shining Yellow. I've wanted a SH since they were new, but like most folks, I can't buy one of EVERY bike I ever wanted ( I try, yes, I try) .... but I do occasionally snag the ones that are too good to let slip away. I don't have anything to brag about really, but let's just say I spend way too much on license tabs each year, and leave it at that !

This is a bike from Wisconsin that had seen some minor neglect, but cleaned up pretty good. It has the manual APE CCT conversions, and some burly sounding Erion Racing pipes. Twenty-something K miles and runs solid, jetting seems 'bout right. The kinked up , stretched out old chain was about to fall off the worn-out sprockets when I took delivery, and the front tire needed replacement, so that was the first order of business. I also did the basic tune-up stuff (spark plugs, air filter, oil change, cable lube, hydraulics flushed, valve clearances, etc. etc.) . I added some frame sliders, rear spools, and upgraded the headlamp to a PIAA Superwhite bulb. I added a rear tire hugger , B.T. lead , and Formotion clock. I also installed the OEM chin fairing , which had been removed but was included in the sale, minus some missing fasteners.

Some clean-up work was in order for the obligatory fender eliminator and LED turn signal mods that the previous owner(s) had done ,mostly involving a more secure license plate / rear signal mount with better license plate lights, so that the first cop with sportbike hate doesn't have an easy excuse to light me up just to see if I have a valid endorsement. I also installed some K&S in-line resistors to get the LED signals flashing at a normal rate. The fronts are flush-mounts, probably Gregg's Customs or maybe K&S. I'd have left'em stock but probably won't mess with them now.

It had a fresh Michelin Pilot Power rear (the original, single-compound P.P., not the newer 2CT or 3CT versions) , so I went with that on the front. I understand that we don't discuss tires and oil here (lol) , but let's just say I wanted a matching pair of tires, and went with an oil that this bike was designed to run (Honda HP4 , 10W-40) .

I bought this bike from a U.S.N. enlisted man from Wisconsin who is stationed here in my hometown of Everett, Washington . Nice kid. I didn't get much backstory on the bike , but it was still tagged for Wisconsin and had been parked for awhile at the navy base here in Everett. His enlistment is about up and the Superhawk was way low on his priority list , and sounded like it was actually an encumbrance. Allow me to help with that !

I'm not going to make you all hate me by bragging about the great deal I got on the bike, but will only say that I gave the owner his full asking price and not a penny less , and we were both very happy .

Since it's a '99, I'd eventually like to raise the clip-ons up a little bit , probably just to the SP2 height. A Scott's steering damper and steel hydraulic lines are on the wish-list, as is a Sargeant or Corbin seat ,which I understand might be a tough find at this stage of the game. I also want to do some type of speedo-healer, since I dropped a tooth in the front on the recommendation of a trusted friend with the same bike who found the stock gearing a little bit tall.

I've browsed around a bit here but if anyone wants to offer specific suggestions for the clip-ons, seat, speedo-healer,and brake line mods, I'm all ears. I've heard rumors that the stock clip-ons can be modded and raised up, I really only want a slight bump.

Also , I swear this thing runs better on 87 octane fuel, rather than 89 or 92... the stated compression ratio (and fuel recommendation) in the owner's manual just says to run something that is at least 86 and doesn't knock, so I run ethanol-free 87 , after I noticed some slight surging at around 3K RPMs on the 92 stuff.....any thoughts on this ? I'm not pinching pennies, but long ago learned that premium isn't always better, at least in Honda 4 strokes. In fact, I own a couple of older air-cooled inline four CB's that tend to run like absolute sh*t on premium , but are well behaved on the 87 stuff, so I didn't hesitate to experiment on this Superchicken, even if my VTX1300C v-twin will barely start on anything under 92. The only firm rule I have about fuel is NO ethanol ...I refuse to subject any my engines to it, no exceptions ,unless I'm on fumes and on tour.

Anyway , thought I'd introduce myself .....cheers, regards, and all that

Ben
1999 VTR1000F Superhawk
Everett, Wa.

xeris

Welcome.

Enjoyed your co-rant on evil man of nothing's rant thread.

Did you check the cam chain tension while in doing valve lash check? I ask because I think that a lot of MCCT conversions are set too tight (IMO). The install instructions that come with the MCCTs don't come with experienced feel and hearing. The stock tensioners don't put that much pressure on the chain. You really don't want to tug on the cam any harder that Mr Honda intended.
There was a change in clip-on angle starting in '01. A nice improvment over the older bars. I did this swap and was very surprised that a small angle change could make such a large difference in overall feel. This is a bit of info that is not easy to find using a search.
Some say that their SH run better on higher octane fuel. I find that 87 works best for my bike and evelation at which I use the bike.

What rear hugger did you choose?

CruxGNZ

Welcome! Seems you have most everything sorted. However, I didn't see mention of the R/R (Regulator/Rectifier). Did the previous owner swap the crappy stock R/R for a later model Mosfet type unit? If not, you should. It's not if it fails, it's when. And when it fails, it sometimes takes out other stuff with it. Look in our Knowledge Base for information.

Bustin

Nice to meet you Xeris,

I was kinda stumped on the hugger and frame sliders locally. As I'm sure you have noted, a lot of the accessories that used to be available for the Superhawk are dwindling, at least from the mainline distributors that most U.S. shops rely on....Tucker-Rocky, Parts Unlimited, etc. I ended up sourcing a hugger from the UK .... not sure of the brand, but it fit up nicely and had passable finish. I bought some no-cut frame sliders from T-Rex Racing, which fitted up easily, but look about adequate to handle a tip-over in the driveway and not much else. I know what real , high quality Delrin feels like, and this ain't it. I'm open to suggestion on an upgrade because I'd like to take this thing to the track and wring it out a little sometime, with adequate sliders in place. I have had good luck with Vortex in the past but couldn't find any for sale currently here in the U.S.A.

Regarding the manual CCTs ,I put a baseline marks on them , backed them off to slack,then brought each gradually back in until it's sweet spot . I totally agree with you that many folks tend to reef the manual CCTs down an unhealthy level, which is kinda understandable from a psychological standpoint, but mechanically very unsound. Mine ended up really close to the original baseline marks, so that was reassuring.

Thanks for confirming what I already suspected....that Honda got it right the second time , on those clip-ons. Just a slight bump up . Anybody got a set of late-model clip-ons that aren't seeing use and would like to send to a good home ?

Also, it looks as if discussing octane here is about as risky as debating engine oil, or tires , lol.

Can we all at least agree that pure gas is better than the watered-down ethanol contaminated crap that most U.S. stations offer now, and leave it at that ?

Bustin

Thank you, Crux... I was totally unaware of this issue.

I've generally had great luck with factory Honda electrical components over the years, but I am going to take your advice, and look into this.

I read some interesting posts on the subject but didn't really see a clear consensus on the best MOSFET upgrade. Your thoughts ?

captainchaos

Welcome aboard Ben. Looks like your superhawk found a great home! If you do a little homework you'll find several different part#'s for the Mosfet R/R's. Then it's just a matter of finding the right one on say ebay if you want to get a good deal on a used one. Eastern Beaver sells a nice kit (also sells complete units with new R/R's) to get it wired up right. Check out the page here:

R/R Connectors

And be sure to check out Tweety's post as well as he's forgotten more about most of this stuff than the rest of us know.

https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...why-how-25117/

jdobeckj

as is mine.. Yellow 00 in Mill Creek, been back in WA since early 13....