dirt899

Hey Everyone,

I'm stumped. I'm a new hawk owner but long time rider. My 04 with 18,000 miles developed a low speed/RPM noise and studder felt through the pegs. It showed up while taking off from a stop. Once I get rolling it seemed to go away. I pulled the rear wheel and checked the bearings, brake and alignment. All OK. With the rear wheel off the ground and the engine off every thing spins free. I've done the same checks in neutral and in gear with the clutch pulled in, I detect no difference and all seems fine. I've also pulled and cleaned out the counter shaft sprocket cover it was full of road crap but it didn't help the problem. When I run the bike on the stand in the low gears I can get the wheel to studder and it looks like it's binding on something. This is at low rpm and smooths out with a little more rpm.

I've ordered CCT's from APE and I'm not going to ride until I install them but I'm not sure it's causing the problem. My ridding time is important and I hate to waste it waiting for and installing the wrong parts. I can't hear any cam chain noise but I worried from all the info post about the CCT's weakness.

Any thought or trouble shooting tips are greatly appreciated.

Hotbrakes

Sounds like you're bogging the engine on takeoff. Maybe not since you aren't just learning to ride so I don't want to insult your abilities. But sport twins have light flywheels and are more prone to jumping violently or stalling when being lugged down low. Try increasing your idle a bit. Can't tell you off hand what it is supposed to be though. Ever sync your carbs? That may cause some disagreements between them causing the pistons to hesitate til the vacuum increases. An overtightened chain would also increase the resistance but would be pretty evident while spinning the wheel on a stand. Hope this helps.

dirt899

Thank you for the reply. I've ridden the bike a couple thousand miles with no troubles. The problem started very quckly so I didn't think it was carb related.

Circuit_Burner

Check the chain for links binding up.
Lubing a fried chain wont free it up,check for visible kinks when rolling slowly.
They make all kinds of racket when its time for replacement.
Superhawks strech out chains quickly too, so they need frequent checks on the chain tension.
A wheel bearing thats stuck or ground out is pretty easy to detect if you lift and roll each wheel freely. A rear wheel bearing can pop and grind at takeoff, and run smoothly at speed.

dirt899

You may be onto it with the chain. The wheel bearings are fine I took the wheel off and checked them 1st thing. I reinstaled the wheel with no brake or chain and it spins free and smooth. The more I think about it I have been feeling a vibration developing in the left foot peg under hard acceleration. The little sticker at the chain adjuster is past the replace mark also. I've only had the bike 2,000 miles and don't realy know it's history so I'll order chain and sprocketd today. I'm going to install the manual cct's, new spark plugs, and an airfilter while it's apart. I'll post the results after the weekend. Thanks

gboezio

I second the seized chain links, it will only happens when you sit on the bike since the chain gets shorter when the swing arm compress.

Thumper

+1 on chain, use some WD40 to loosen the stuck links

bundleofgrundle

i had the same thing happening on mine. I changed my oil and threw new spark plugs in and my rattle went away. I was pretty certain that i was getting a bit of spark knock at low revs and sure enough when i pulled the pair that was in there, they were pretty nasty.

god knows there's a million different rattles and knocks out there but mine came down to plugs.