New member lurking no more
 

Hi all!

I've been lurking these forums for a few weeks... months... and finally decided to come into the light. This place has been a wealth of information and advice on parts, maintenance, etc. and I want to thank you all for sharing your experience with a relative motorcycle n00b.

My name's Becca and I'm from middle GA. I've been riding for a year and a half. The first year was spent on my 1991 CB250 named Robin.
Attachment 22588
Picture from me going camping on him. Tent and weekend worth of gear in that frame pack!

Then in October I upgraded to a 1998 Superhawk; I named him Taka-kun (Mr. Hawk). What a universe of difference between the bikes! What I didn't expect when I first started riding was how in-love I would be with them. I'd never named a vehicle before and suddenly I talk about these two like people. I'm beyond excited to work on them.

Hence why I started looking up how to fix all the issues with Taka, and what upgrades were worthwhile to make him better and us more visible. I never took Robin on the interstate (poor thing maxes around 65mph) but with daily highway riding on Taka I need all the safety I can get.

Yesterday I ordered all new lights for him, and some cosmetic improvements like an undertail and double bubble windscreen. He needs a lot of fiberglass reinforcement and body filler where the previous owner hit something and split the right side at the intake and later sawed a hole in the tail fairing for god-knows-what purpose. His tail blinkers are a crappy LED license plate frame that broke due to where he cut the black mounting plastic. He needs some love.

Anyway, as I embark on the journey of personalizing and improving the bike, I'll try and journal it here. I know I'll be trolling through threads as soon as something goes wrong.

Taka-kun upon trailering him up for the journey home:
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I've already put about a thousand miles on him even with the chin region kinda... hanging... due to the front crack (which you can't see in the picture above). I can't wait to get him all gussied up and thwomp it with confidence that he won't be losing parts anytime soon :)

Welcome to the HAWK family Becca! We all are truly in love with our rides, and it appears you feel the same way. You have a nice bike to work with!

What a great intro post! Going from drum brakes in the front to the VTR must be very nice :)

PM for "more than you ever wanted to know" about fixing ABS plastic and I can walk you through some things that have worked for me in the past (and don't involve custom fiberglass sheets and resin).

P.S. I always do fluid swaps (oil & filter, brake, coolant, clutch) when buying a new bike - may be overkill but doesn't hurt.

Welcome and nice bike

Oh I definitely will PM you. I've only done metal body work. Never plastic.

Fluid change is the first thing I did! He was low on oil when I bought him and all of his dot4 was cloudy and... Gunky. Ick. But after bleeding all the badness all the way out the lines, he's topped up with fresh everything.

Thanks for the welcome yall!

Welcome on board Becca, great chose on the bike, I'm sure you will have more and more fun on the SH, the more you learn about it the more you fall in love with this bike.

Hello Becca (and everyone!)

This is my first post too! I just bought a VTR last week and joined this forum last night.
Still thinking of a name but here she is

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Hope to chat with you guys soon, I'm going to be lurking around this place looking for performance tips.

-Terry

I love this forum. Welcome new owners! I recently joined myself and the only thing negative about our new Hawk is she's a lil thirsty. Otherwise great bike and great community.

It's the motorcycling equivalent of a Hemi V-8 with two 4 barrel carbuerators... ya wanna play, ya gotta pay.

Welcome Becca. I have to admit, I cringed at the picture with the strap pushing on your plastics!

Terry, start a separate thread, show more pics (where ya from etc.).