'89 Hawk GT

I figured I should start a build thread on here since I plan to actually make some changes to this thing after 3 1/2 years. I'll start with some history first though.

I picked it up in Seatlle in July of '08 with 8,300 miles on it, bone stock.


It was my main mode of transportation for the next year, over with I put 10K on it, including a trip down Hwy 101 to Northern California and a non-stop 14 hr solo trip home on I-5.




In November of '09 I replaced the clutch and recovered the seat. I added some foam, but have never been very happy with it.





In Oct. of 2010 (now living here in stupidland) I met up with a guy from the Hawk forum and went for a ride down the coast on Hwy 1.






After that, I decided I'd finally paint it after thinking about it forever.

There were a couple small dings in the tank from when the PO dropped at low speeds.

I chose Ford Sonic Blue for paint, of course.



I was pretty pleased, but the paint never cured very hard and got beat up on the few rides since then.

Looks like I don't have any pictures of them specifically, but I made some jump plates out of 1/4" aluminum to move the rearsets up 1.5" and back 1.5". I also got rid of the ugly license plate mount and just bolted it to the inner fender up close to the seat cowl. I'll get LED bolts for it later. And I picked up lower clips-on since the stock ones have about 3-4" rise and a sportier riding position is more comfortable for me. I made up a relay harness for the headlight too since the stock harness severely limits light output.

I scored a free new tire from a guy I work with, today I mounted it. It's a 180/55/17, the old one I had is 150/70/17 and it's had a plug in it for 3 years. If I let it sit, it would go flat.


Old tire





It rubbed a little bit on the chain guard so I took it off. I may trim it and put it back on later, we'll see.



Yesterday I bought a tank off of a NTV Revere, which is the Hawk's ugly European cousin. Hawks are known for having a rather limited range due to the 2.9 gallon tank, but the Revere has a 5 gallon tank and requires minimum modifications to fit.


I'm really not a fan on the yellow paint on this one, it makes the tank look lumpy I think. They look good with darker colors though.


Overall my plans include:
-Repainting (Sonic Blue again, likely with some gray)
-Redoing the seat since I'll need to trim it some to fit the tank
-SS brake lines probably
-Rebuild the forks
-New rear shock (hopefully)
-Different turn signals since the one I have are cheap Chinese crap
-New headlight (hopefully)
-Bar end mirror (maybe)
-Jet kit and exhaust (maybe)
-General cleaning

I like the yellow one! I need to get a bike. Been thinking about it for 2 years now but my truck always seem to come first.

I meant to note that the yellow bike is a Hawk with a Revere tank on it to show what I'll be working with.

If you're looking to get a bike, Hawks are great way to get into it. It's a 650cc V-twin, so there isn't so much power you'll get yourself into trouble easily, but since it's a V-twin it's got tons of low end torque. Even though they're 20+ years old, stock Hawks can still whoop new CBRs and GSXRs through the corners. On the straights, that's another story though...

Pretty cool. Idk much about hawks, but 647 v twin looks like... what kind of mileage/power those thing have?

50 MPG is a good estimate, I never really bothered to calculate it out because it's good enough that I DGAF.

They only make 40 HP or so, but about twice that in torque so they're a blast around town and in the twisties.

That's not bad at all. My '86 yamaha gets around 45 city/ 60hwy mpg. Its amazing how a motorcycle with 40hp, will beat most cars with 300hp. I can't imagine wanting some of these sport bikes with 200hp+.

Yeah, it's easy to get in trouble with newer bikes.

My tank shipped today, scheduled to be here Monday. Maybe I'll get lucky it'll come before then so I can play with it this weekend.

I like the yellow one too! I had a suzi GS700 in college and rode from Baton Rouge to Seattle a few times .Mid size bikes are great.

Wow, now that's a ride! 3 winters ago I was riding the Portland-Seattle roundtrip every weekend, that got old fast. Now I'm driving SF to Seattle every few months.. That's worse. But come November, I'll be back for good.

I got the tank today!

Here are a few pictures of how the stock tank mounts.





And the new tank







Now my first step will be to relocate the front mount so that I can get rid of the gap above the frame. That should help drop the rear also. The petcock is in the stock location, but I was able to rotate it 90*. I'm pretty sure I'll need to move it though, which I'd like to avoid.

Then I'll have to bring the rear mount back, probably with a piece of flat bar bolted to the stock location. Then I'll need to cut into the seat.

Progress will probably be slow since I've been working 6-7 days a week recently.

At first I tried to keep the front mount in the stock location and just bend it, but that didn't work.

So I cut it off, and moved it.


Then the back of the tank was hitting this mount so I cut and welded it so it sits an inch lower.


This is how the tank sits now, which is about where I want it to sit on the frame.


The seat will need to be trimmed, but it's less than I thought originally. There's a Corbin Gunfighter seat for sale locally that I'll probably pickup since it's a good upgrade over stock and should be recovered anyway. I've been debating since I didn't want it if I had to cut a lot out of it, but I think it'll work well.


I think I'll be able to leave the petcock alone too. Most people say it needs to be moved since it ends up behind your leg which is a PITA when flipping to reserve, but that's where the petcock ended up with the stock tank since my legs are so long. This is right behind my knee and much easier to get to.


It sits hard against the frame but it should work.

I finished the mounts for the tank and cleaned them up some, so it's basically ready for paint prep. I'm going to pick up the Corbin seat this weekend and work on mounting it and fitting it around the tank next. I'll also need to do some rearranging of the cables up front so I rotate the clip-ons forward more since they hit the bigger tank. I dinged my old tank on both sides and I'm still pretty bummed about that.


I also decided I'm going to get some frame sliders for the front.

Don't scrap any of your old parts! These are fantastic bikes and are getting harder and harder to find. We'll be collecting them for big bucks someday.

Last weekend I picked up the Corbin Gunfighter, and immediately cut it up. Kinda.


Compared to the stock seat



I used my GF's hairdryer to loosen the adhesive so I could peel back the vinyl and cut off these parts.


That was really all it took to fit, but I didn't like that gap between the seat and the tank so I stuck some foam from the old seat in there just to fill it.

Then I took the seam ripper to the old seat and pulled all the individual pieces apart, traced them onto new vinyl and began sewing.


I had this at first, but the GF suggested using blue up front and I liked that idea since the tank will be blue and it should tie together better, so I took that off and redid the front.


I glued the vinyl on and riveted it on the underside and this is what I currently have.



I stripped the tank to bare metal last night and primed it today. I found a couple tiny spots that will need a little filler, but very minor. I'm gonna order the paint next and work on sanding the rest of the bodywork.

The frame sliders should get here Wednesday, so those will go on next.

Everything still needs a second coat, but here's a sneak peek to bring this thread back from the dead.