Picked up a 2000 superhawk!
 

Hey guys!
Just bought my 2000 superhawk from a member on here appletonhawk! Pretty sweet ride and one heck of an upgrade for me. My daily before the superhawk was an 82 yamaha 400 that i restored and I'm currently wrapped up in two project 600r ninjas. Glad to see such a great community here, I was pretty active one the maxim forum and this feels just as friendly and helpful. The superhawk will be put to good use getting me back and forth between milwaukee and green bay. Only thing I plan on doing now/early in the season is installing manual CCTs after seeing so much about it here and talking to the PO about it a bit. Looking forward to using this forum to get up to speed with the superhawk!

Welcome to the forum. You bought your machine with some nice mods and it's already the right color. Congrats.

Love the seat with yellow piping.

Hey nice bike! HAHA! He got a bike set to go with almost every good mod you could ask for already done! I might be a little bias. LOL

Good thing you are used to the slower speeds from the 400. You got the speed-limited yellow color.

Still a fun bike FWIW. ;)

Welcome to the forum.

Which seat is that? Corbin or Sargeant?

Sarg

Big thanks to Crux ;), helped me out all afternoon installing MCCT's, PAIR blockoffs, and doing a quick sync . Huge help, great to have such helpful, knowledgeable people in the superhawk community!

That's an afternoon well spent, that you'll never regret. Once you get the R/R replaced (unless it was already done for you), it should be pretty much bomb-proof. Congrats!

Already done so I'm good to go!:)

No problem man. Was glad to help.

Once you clean and adjust your carbs, you'll be able to pull wheelies in 1st gear anytime you want.

Hey, I forgot to check, but what gearing do you have?

Gearing is stock, Crux.

The superhawk and I just finished the first big roadtrip from Milwaukee, WI to Omaha, NE and back this weekend. Roughly 1100 miles round trip. Everything went great, nothing broke or failed, and I got roughly 40 mpg even with the speedo pretty well buried all the way across Iowa. Only complaint...my ass is killing me! I cant imagine how bad it would've been if I didnt have the Sargent! Good time with the bike, still very satisfied with the purchase :D

Just finished a carb cleaning, hawk jet/shim modifications, and fresh fluids. Next bit for the superhawk is frame sliders. I know quite a few have purchased the T-rex sliders and had good luck, I just see a few complaints on the length. But the length is necessary so whatever. I'm looking into these now though, has anyone had any experience with these sliders?

Honda Superhawk VTR1000 Frame Sliders Set

thanks fellas

Also, got a pretty dumb suspension question regarding the rear. I have never modified the rear suspension on any of my other rides, nor the hawk. I see an awful lot on here regarding shimming the rear suspension to lift up the butt and get a sharper turn-in. I cannot find a thread on here regarding how to go about shimming the rear though, everyone just reports how much they're shimmed. Could someone show a quick pick of where these shims are going and what the general process entails? I'm finding some very vague descriptions off the forum for other bikes but nothing with a good visual and nothing for the hawk specifically. I'll never figure it out if I dont ask eh? Thanks fellas

It's not a stupid question. I just wish my answer were better. Basically, you remove the gas tank and seat. You'll see that the upper rear shock mount is in a bracket which is held by one nut to the frame.
One way to do it is to loosen the nut and have a friend support the bike on the side stand with the rear wheel off the ground while you slip a shim or slotted washer into the gap between the bracket and the frame.
See https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...d-i-make-7765/, read a few threads, check the British VTR site, look at the shop manual and google it. There might have been a comprehensive write-up on Greg Nemish's old site but I can't find it. I hope this helps.

Thanks comedo, i can at least visualize the process now. I'll have to get it all off again and have a go at it next time I have a few buddies in the shop with me. I've seen many members here reporting shims anywhere from 2mm to 6mm so I'll probably start at 4 or 5. Thanks for the help once again ;) gotta love this community

Anyone have a quick pic of that upper mount with the shims in?

Jamie Daugherty, who knows a great deal about VTR suspension, had this to say today:

It becomes really cloudy when talking in general about changes. Here are some points to consider:

- A stock VTR will be helped by raising the rear 20mm (that's about a 6mm shim at the shock).
- A VTR with properly setup suspension is best with a 3mm shim (approximately +10mm ride height)
- It is not advisable to lower the front by moving the forks in the triples in either case.

The last point goes against what you will commonly find stated. That is because people go by feel and not actual data. Dropping the front cases instability which makes the rider's brain think they are pushing really hard. Raising the front back up allows you to push harder and generates better handling performance.

But what about turn in? I'm sure someone is already loading up their ammo on that one. Again, this is a much misunderstood concept. With the correct springs and valving you will get good turn in performance. In fact better than lowering the geometry.

If you want your bike to handle well address the source of the problem. It is amazing how often people miss that! Adjusting geometry to fix poor damper performance is not very successful.

if anyone wants, I'm going to try and do a limited run of 1/4" (6.350mm) spacers. Any insight as to what type of steel would be best to use would be greatly appreciated. pm me if you want one.