July/August HOTM Rescue Hawks --> Voting!

[riot]

Well life a has been busy, and I was frankly hoping for a few more entries - thanks for those who did enter!

Anyway, talk time is over, it's now time to vote!

Poll closes August 31st.

[riot]

Jetblack's basket case bros 400:

Story is I got it cheap on ebay.on a whim. Wanted something to compliment my NC30, but be more comfortable. Knew it was a basket case but fancied a project as I'm fairly experienced with a set of spanners these days. Started tearing it down and the more I strip it the more I like it. The more I like it the more I'm cleaning up every single component and really going through it in detail. It didn't come with a seat so I'm going to Fab something up.
I'd like to match it to my helmet so that is driving the overall aesthetic but it'll develop as I go along I'm sure.
I've taken stacks of pictures. Some are in my 'new members' thread.

He's got a build thread going:

https://www.hawkgtforum.com/forum/honda-hawk-gt-bros-discussions/mechanical-and-technical/member-build-threads/943930-project-basket-case

[riot]

Realred96:

After I saw the ad in the classifieds at HawkGT, I texted back and forth with the guy (who only joined the site to sell the Hawk} and made plans to go see the bike. It was about 150 miles away and I had low expectations. They got even lower when I actually saw the bike. I pretty much needed everything. I was already restoring a completely cratered VF500F so I DID NOT need another project like this. I ended up walking away. The guy texted me later that evening and asked if I would make an offer. I had no Idea what to offer so I said $750.00. He took it immediately so I left money on the table it seems. Well.....it did have brand new expensive tires and he said it did run so I drove back a few days later and picked it up. The PO was pretty honest about everything and that helped a lot. It had a bad title but that is not a problem here in Texas.

It was completely sun burned and puked fork oil all over the bed of my truck but it made it home!

IMG_0124.JPG

[riot]

Franklin650 with the interesting paint job!

First post, coming in with a late entry!

Bought this 1990 Hawk for $850 on July 17th,2021. I knew it had seen some good riding and a loving owner at some point when I noticed it had quite some goodies such as a 6 piston brake caliper, Penske rear shock, Tyge rearsets, and Full D&D carbon exhaust. I was a little nervous that of many of its 18,000 miles had put some strain on the engine, but picked up it up anyways.

When I bought it, it was not running, and had a list of problems and was sitting a number of years before I got it. Wishful thinking was just a carb clean and new battery and I would be on the road. I started by draining the old gas, replacing the leaky old fuel lines and dug into the carbs. once I removed that decaying UNI pod filters discovered some very large jets and aggressive needle placement decided to replace when with the same 165/162 main jet, and 45 pilot and got everything back together. Upon a fresh gas, was ready to try to start her up. I used a freshly charged donor battery that spun the starter like a dream, but nothing..

It sounded like it had good compression and knew the float bowls so checked the spark plugs and they were quite fouled, and didn't produce good spark. After replacing the plugs, boots and re-wiring from the coils verified spark was good (and hours of verifying everything else electrical. I checked compression which was a little low, so decided to adjust the valves which were a touch loose, and afterwards got compression to a much healthier number. Then came the moment of truth... sprayed in some starting fluid to be safe.. and immediately fired up, and sounded like a someone awoke a dragon ready to take on the world.

I took her for a quick spin and immediately have some low end power I missed since my SV650. Under heavy throttle or over 5k it would fall onto its face. Given its strong idle and low end pull felt it would be best to get a good carb whisperer, I was suggested using a Dyno to accurately read air fuel would be good, so I put here on the dyno, and within a minute was told to look into the main needle. After a quick check, one of the diaphragms must have not been seated because the next run nothing was holding her back! took a quick reading and was pulling 55.27 HP @ 8200 RPM and very flat torque curve maxing at 40ft/lbs at 4000 rpm.

After that moment (4 days ago), and $54 in parts so far decided to invest into her to make everything stellar. So far I have replaced:
Spark plugs and caps
Carb Jets, fuel lines
Battery
Quantum Fuel Pump
Motul 7100 Full Syn. and filter
RBF 660 brake flush
Liquid Performance street coolant W/ Water wetter
DIY chain guard/brake line holder
Horn
Grips
Throttle Pull cable
Saddle cover
K&N Pod filter
Sanded and painted subframe
sanded and painted tail section and frame (still drying)
Utah Vintage Motorcycle license plate

So far on order are the following parts:
Fork seals/oil
CB400 front fender
520 kit DID chain, superlite 15/44
Cush drive replacement
Speiger SS brake lines, brake lever
clutch cable, clutch lever, clutch switch
Turn signals, license plate light

Now finally some pictures. I was painting last night, and on a whim discovered the tank decals, and decided to go for a industrial murder scene type splatter with reverse tail section. still waiting to see once it dries and get it out for some pictures and some miles on it, but so far today is day 16 since owning the bike, am extremely happy so far. If the bike continues to run well, will get some Pirelli Superbike slicks for a track day, or race weekend.

Once I get the parts on order done, I am going to try to spend as much time riding, and little time wrenching until winter, where I will reevaluate the paint, and any other things I may want to get switched up.

Let me know what you think and sorry for the late entry!

[Franklin650]

Update: Got most the parts on. Still waiting on the fender and brake lines. Despite being a Rat-Hawk, have put a few hundred miles and feeling really good about the project overall. Have a micro leak coming from the neutral switch/oil pressure switch, but otherwise running like a dream. Going to keep running it hard, and if at the end of the season still feel confident will do a full tear down, polish/refinish and repaint everything to get it looking like new.

[rogue555]

Do I get an "I voted" sticker?

Pretty cool bikes for so little initial investment!!