midijunky

Hello, first post here and hopefully more to come. Nice to meet you all.

My roommate is selling me his 2000 model Superhawk for $2000. He bought it from a co-worker with a shifting issue. Basically the way he describes it, if you're riding at a normal pace it performs normally, but if you get into a bit more spirited riding then shifting becomes difficult and/or impossible. Other than this issue, the bike is great.

My main question is, how difficult would repairing this issue be? I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but mostly in automotive stuff. I assume I could get ahold of a service manual from the Honda dealer. Also, if anyone might know of a ballpark figure for a worst case scenario parts cost off of the top of their head I would appreciate it greatly. Thank you in advance.

Hawkrider

You're talking about spitting the cases for tranny repair. That's pretty big work and requires a lot of experience and/or knowledge. That said, there is a lot of that on this forum so if you decide to tackle it you should be okay if you take your time. Think about a good low mileage motor off ebay or somewhere as an option though. Internal engine parts can be costly and have a wait involved. $400 for a good motor is probably not a bad choice either.

midijunky

Yeah, looking at the service manual it looks to be pretty involved. The most I've done on a bike is rebuild a harley engine/trans, but the shovelhead engines are so basic it doesn't even really count. Not a bad idea about trying to pick up a good used engine though, I'll definitely have to consider that while I'm babying her in the meantime. Apparently the guy who owned her before couldn't quite grasp the concept of 2nd gear wheelies, so he'd bang it into 2nd midway up. I've got a pretty extensive dirt background and I just can't believe someone would do that.

Hawkrider

That guy is what we on SHF commonly refer to as

shayne

I would consider doing some of the usual mods before you look at internals. Of course I don't know how bad the problem is, but in standard form the VTR doesn't shift well. I was really unimpressed with the standard shifting.

Have a look in the Knowledge Base for a couple of good shifter mods (one of them is mine), and maybe try them first and see how you go.

midijunky

upon owning and riding the bike for a while, i've discovered that it's only shifting from 1st to 2nd that it has difficulty with if you're riding hard. From 2nd on up it's beautiful.

jbaxx

My superhawk is my 4th Honda - (XX, 954, Interceptor). No significant differences in any of transmissions IMO. They all shift pretty nicely with Honda HP-4 oil. Sometimes you can miss a shift because you inadvertently maintain a little pressure on the shift lever between shifts, which doesn't allow the transmission to shift into the next gear. This usually happens on hard accel because the rider tenses up a little. I've done it myself, that's how I know. A simple shift lever adjustment can fix this problem.

igeorgei

Switching oil brands sometimes make a difference. Try Honda HP4 or Mobil 1, or Motul. I have used all three and the shifting is nice. Different oils affect the feel of different gear boxes. I didn't believe it until I put some crappy oil(on sale) in my bike. I will never ever be cheap when it comes to my bike ever again.



Good luck

midijunky

did the shifter spline mod and the heim joint mod, along with an oil change and she seems to be shifting a lot better. I still get this weird sound when trying to shift at high rpm from 1st to 2nd gear, guess I'll just have to short shift it. Supposing something is wrong in the tranny, I suppose I'll find out when it breaks, but after doing a lot of google-fu and searching this forum it seems that this is the nature of the beast? The loud "cat strangled in an alley" type noise.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the bike. I paid $2000 for it. So after a new set of skins, windscreen, powdercoated wheels and a paint job I'm still well under $2500 invested. Thanks for helping a newbie out, I appreciate all of the info on this forum.

shayne

Can't say that I shift at high RPM between 1st and 2nd, so you may be right. Wouldn't hurt to have a mechanic look at it in case you have a bent shift fork or something as you suggest.

jbaxx

Loud "cat stangled in alley" noise is NOT normal.

midijunky

if/when it breaks, i'll just have to rebuild it stronger. let the **** scream imho.