The Passing Gear explained

[Doc]

If anyone else knows more about this please feel free to expand upon my knowledge.

The Hawk passing gear is known to be in the 1988 Blue model. Some people think it is in the "faster" red model and others think it to be in the Grey.
There are even disillusioned folk that think their 89, 90 or 91 Hawk have it, but it is the 88 in the stock Blue color that was equipped with the rare passing gear.

Long unknown, the fabled passing gear is even more difficult to engage.
There is a secret trick that the engineers have not been free with and only a scarce few know exactly how to activate the passing gear on the Hawk.

The Passing gear is said to make the Hawk faster in the top end, making the Top speed about 10mph more than your standard Hawk.

If you have a hawk with the passing gear you should feel very lucky.

[MrDude_1]

my bike had a passing gear on it, until i decided i wanted to live a little longer.

looked kinda like this when not installed

[MrDude_1]

now that you made me think about it... that hiperform tail does have alot of room under it...

[isaac]

I wonder if a Hawk engine has enough oil pressure to lubricate my favorite kind of passing gear, and enough crank/bearing strength to withstand it. A 120hp Hawk with 90ft lbs of torque would seem fun.

[MrDude_1]

I wonder if a Hawk engine has enough oil pressure to lubricate my favorite kind of passing gear, and enough crank/bearing strength to withstand it. A 120hp Hawk with 90ft lbs of torque would seem fun.

the crank has me paranoid.

everywhere i read, people break the cranks when they start makign power.

if it wasnt such a big issue, i would have a high hp hawk right now... but at the moment, im just too indecisive about what to do.
at what point to i have to say "stop. thats enough. anymore and you wont be reliable enough for hauling ass on road trips...ect.."

sure a 90hp hawk can hold together for a few races (or so i read)... but will it hold up to me using all 90hp, everyday to and from work? (because im stupid like that)

[isaac]

the crank has me paranoid.

everywhere i read, people break the cranks when they start makign power.

Well I'm gonna guess that the broken cranks are due to the bearing design, power level, and the vibration of higher revs. If you threw a very small turbo on there with close to a bar of boost and only revved it to 6,500rpm instead of doing a high flow NA build and revving it to 10,500rpm+, you'd have a better chance of the engine surviving, and a bike so torquey you'd have to lean over the tank in third gear to keep it down.

Of course lots of torque at low revs can also kill a crank, but I dunno how these things break. Maybe you could weld it up.

[dagus]

our Hord, who art in Ohio, please descend from above to dispel the notion that NOS is a good idea on a Hawk.

OMG, the great mythical passing gear. I wrote a bit on this, back a while ago - gonna have to check the List archives for it.

Once and for all - only the very first grey '88s to roll off the line in Hamatsu were graced with the fantabulous passing gear! 88 greys, no others! (and guess what mine is, underneath the stealthy black paint!)

[MrDude_1]

the crank has me paranoid.

everywhere i read, people break the cranks when they start makign power.

Well I'm gonna guess that the broken cranks are due to the bearing design, power level, and the vibration of higher revs. If you threw a very small turbo on there with close to a bar of boost and only revved it to 6,500rpm instead of doing a high flow NA build and revving it to 10,500rpm+, you'd have a better chance of the engine surviving, and a bike so torquey you'd have to lean over the tank in third gear to keep it down.

Of course lots of torque at low revs can also kill a crank, but I dunno how these things break. Maybe you could weld it up.

yes, the stress level on the crank and rods is less at lower RPMs... but still, you have a weak 2 main bearing crank.. and from what i understand, where the balance weight is, theres a weakness in the crank..
i woudlnt rev it past stock redline.. but i would like to be able to hit stock redline with a 700cc kit, ported heads and a cam... and not break.
an 75-80hp hawk would be very nice.... but only if it stayed together.

our Hord, who art in Ohio, please descend from above to dispel the notion that NOS is a good idea on a Hawk.

1. nitrous is a good idea on anything... atleast once.
2. nitrous is a horrible idea on a hawk..... but only after you've done it once.

i had a small kit on my hawk for one day... ive run nitrous on alot of cars, and a gokart... i have a good understanding of it and the motors ive run it on... i got a bike kit in a deal for partial payment of some work i did..
well, i hung the bottle off the subframe where the right peg is stock (i dont have rear pegs do to the highmount left exit exhaust)
set it all up with the foggers in the airbox....

now im 19 at the time.. ive run alot of nitrous in cars. none in bikes... so i decide im going to start very small.
very small in the car world is a 50shot. you cant even really feel a 50 shot. you just see it in your ETs.
a very LARGE shot in the bike world is a 50shot. it will make you wheelie a almost stock hawk, when going down the hwy at speed. i know this.


needless to say, it scared the piss out of me. i sprayed it for maybe two seconds... scared the piss out of me. wheel up on the hwy was a new sensation for me on the hawk.... i calmed down and tried it again... i almost killed myself.. lol. waay too much for the bike. knowing what i know now, im amazed that i didnt break anything..

i took the kit off when i got home... sold it, and swore id never run nitrous on a bike again.... now i know thats a lie, because a friend of mine in texas offered to let me ride his bike... a streched sprayed R1.. and i know i would if i go back there. lol.

i would not advice nitrous on the hawk.. its not that kind of bike.

[MrDude_1]

btw, for anyone that doesnt know...

nitrous isnt anything to be scared of, once you understand it...
it doesnt give you instant speed. it doesnt blur the road and make you shoot blue flames out the exhaust. it doesnt increase your speed once you hit the limiter.


the only thing it does, is make the engine rev up faster... im sure most of you have ridden two strokes or modern 600cc bikes.... know how you hit that magic RPM and the engine suddenly starts pulling harder? its kinda like that. its just a little more power... so the engine revs up faster, and you shift sooner.. thats all.

[jaysun0ne]

so dude

let me get this strait, the movie "fast and the furious" was not a documentary whats next your going to tell me a giant astrod is expected to hit earth in the year 2036 thats crazy talk.

[isaac]

a very LARGE shot in the bike world is a 50shot. it will make you wheelie a almost stock hawk, when going down the hwy at speed. i know this.


needless to say, it scared the piss out of me. i sprayed it for maybe two seconds... scared the piss out of me. wheel up on the hwy was a new sensation for me on the hawk.... i calmed down and tried it again... i almost killed myself.. lol. waay too much for the bike. knowing what i know now, im amazed that i didnt break anything..

Alright that anecdote was damn cool. I want to see it all written out in story form. That's just plain badass. A 100hp Hawk that does freeway power wheelies is cool as hell.

[MrDude_1]

a very LARGE shot in the bike world is a 50shot. it will make you wheelie a almost stock hawk, when going down the hwy at speed. i know this.


needless to say, it scared the piss out of me. i sprayed it for maybe two seconds... scared the piss out of me. wheel up on the hwy was a new sensation for me on the hawk.... i calmed down and tried it again... i almost killed myself.. lol. waay too much for the bike. knowing what i know now, im amazed that i didnt break anything..

Alright that anecdote was damn cool. I want to see it all written out in story form. That's just plain badass. A 100hp Hawk that does freeway power wheelies is cool as hell.

uhh, what do you want written out? a step by step 'how to kill yourself and your hawk with the push of a button' article?

i wish i had some cool stories on it, but in a breif moment of sanity and almost wet pants, i took it off that evening... its not like i have anything cool to show from it... if memory serves correctly, i got $300 for the kit, and i spent half that on a joe rocket mesh jacket that promptly got stolen two days after i bought it.. lol.

[Hordpower]

I don't care if you have a 90hp Hawk at 9500 rpm or 90hp at 5000 rpm, either will break the crank.

I have debated with many people/tuners about the crank problem, and while crank "whip" is almost certainly an issue, the consensus is torsion plays a bigger part. IOW, the crank twists into 2 pieces. That's a torque issue, not rpm. But keeping the revs down won't hurt! That's why I build very few engines with the 10.2k cdi.

[MrDude_1]

thanks, JD... thats exactly the conclusion ive come to from reading..

what about the impossible to find, made from unobtanium billet cranks that cost over 2k?? what level are they reliable to?



anyway, on that stupid nitrous episode, just thinking back.. things i did wrong:

1. i used a non return regulator on the electric pump. i bet the pressure was sky high because of that. this probly saved my dumbass from going lean

2. no WOT switch... and even if i had one, they're CV carbs.. with thoes slide/needle things in the way, i have no idea how that would effect the fog.

3. you DONT aim nossles straight down the carbs. it upsets their fueling.

4. i have no idea what the timing is.. i didnt change to colder plugs.. and i didnt know the compression... i was just begging for detonation.

5.the nitrous noid was dangously close to the positive battery terminal.

6. i had the bar switch wire between the tank and the frame... now that im wiser to what chafing is... i know that it would have rubbed thru and shorted on the tank or the frame

7. the fuel pump was not fused when i wired it...(idiot.) :doh:


im probly not remembering everything..... lol.

[isaac]

I don't care if you have a 90hp Hawk at 9500 rpm or 90hp at 5000 rpm, either will break the crank.

I have debated with many people/tuners about the crank problem, and while crank "whip" is almost certainly an issue, the consensus is torsion plays a bigger part. IOW, the crank twists into 2 pieces. That's a torque issue, not rpm. But keeping the revs down won't hurt! That's why I build very few engines with the 10.2k cdi.

You can't weld more material onto the crank?