Still Have My Hawk

[dragonmojo]

I bought my '88 grey Hawk in '97 when I still owned a BMW K75S. The Beemer's gone, but I've picked up several bikes since then. I've considered selling the Hawk on an off over the past several years, most recently a few months ago when I sent it out for service. My mechanic called to provide his diagnosis, and lavished praise on the bike as he has never seen one in person. He enjoys older, smaller displacement bikes (as opposed to large, big-horse modern bikes), and the Hawk was more modern to him without being overdone. Wanted me to let him know if I ever decide to sell it, so after some contemplation I agreed. However, he was unable to cough up the funds (under wife's conditions), and very reluctantly had to pass on the deal.

Now that the bike is running again, I plan on hanging on to it. I will try selling a Yamaha VStar before I let the Hawk go (when Spring finally gets here... it's been awfully wet!). It also shares garage space with a couple of Beemers (having become a Beemerphile in '83); in contrast, the Bavarians are big, heavy bikes.

[Doc]

Welcome dragonmojo.

What Bmw's do you have?

[dragonmojo]

I had a K75S when I first picked up the Hawk (as my 2nd bike). The bikes were too similar, and a couple of years later I traded in the K for my first cruiser: the BMW R1200C. Love it, but the pegs are low in the cruiser tradition, hence the bevels on the chromed peg bottomside. A few years later (in 2002), I picked up a Yamaha VStar Classic just to play dress-up. I plan to part with it now; tired of playing Barbie. In the Fall '03 I got a great deal on a green R1150R-Rockster, which is a similar genre bike as the Hawk.

I like the Hawk's potential for customizing, putting on doodads. Shave some weight and improve the suspension, this is one lightweight bike esp compared to the heavy Beemers. I enjoy tight twisties where horses don't matter due to limits imposed by physics... you can only go so fast in a given tight curve. Work on my skills and I can feel good about personal bests, not what money can buy. I have already outridden a friend on his Suzuki TL1000S in the twisties above Hwy49 (Gold Country). He didn't have his bike that long, and I had years of experience on him.

What I do enjoy about the Beemers is that they are heavy enough for comfort when I log 500+ mile days. It's just hard to beat nimble, small and light for the really tight stuff!

[dragonmojo]

Doc, looks like I'm preaching to the choir, and that you enjoy the nimble, small and light bikes too!

(a Duc 900 is small as near-liter bikes go... at least in the BMW tradition).