Building my 88 into a race bike

[StreetHawk]

I have had my 88 hawk for going on 17 years now. I did a complete mod out back in the late 2000s. Had ridden it like this for years. I was on a "federal vacation" from 2011 ta 2019 and came home during the whole covid mess so I took my time in 2020 to give the bike a whole refresh.

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I have been track riding since 2008ish and started on this bike. I got talked into getting my race license this year so me and a couple of friends all went to school with N2 and got our WERA novice license. I picked up a track built KTM RC390 and raced it in the E & F Superstock class.

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But I noticed the V6 lwt class is empty and that's the Hawks vintage class... so I'm converting her over to a track bike now and go and race against my self for some "cheap" podiums! There's really not a lot to be done to her. She's got a 4 way Penske rear shock and f3 uppers and racetech gold valves n springs in the front so the suspension is pretty good. Front brakes off a euro cb1000 and a gsxer master, it needs work it's super tight at the lever... like really no feel at all hard as a rock so I'm guessing I need a different size master... I don't know anything about how they work as in the right size I'll need to get more feel so any advice would be great. I
did just get these the other day... Tyga rearsets! Great price and super strong. I run them on my RC390 so saves me on part replacement since they use the same bits n pieces.

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I have body work on order from Air Tech and just waiting for arrival so I can start to piece it all together and get it installed and too see what I need to fab up or change.

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Well I'll keep ya posted!

[6]

JD has the masters on his site and lists the size pr caliper. I'd start there.


Pretty hawk to crash, but that's what race bikes do. Maybe pick up a spare tank and tail to rece with? I've built pretty race bikes, they don't stay that way.

Congratulations on the license and welcome back from your federal vacation. I mean shit, that easy better than a state or county vacation, so at least there is that.

If it where a few years ago I'd advise swapping out wheels, but these days you can get good race rubber in the hawks stock sizes.


Prepare the budget my man, racing in any form, ain't gonna be cheap, even those cheap podiums will cost ya.

[StreetHawk]

Thanks!

Yeah tires are way easier to get than they were 10 or do years ago. Oh I know the whoa's of track days crashes. It's just a bike and if I'm just racing my self then there's no real point in having to try and set killer lap times. That's better time and effort to be spent on my more competitive bike the KTM RC390.

As for costs I know all about it. At least with my two low powered bikes I won't eat through tires as fast as my GSXR750!

Shot my KTM RC390 plastics today while I was painting a Buick Grand Nationals bumper n plastic. I may not be winning but I'm gonna look good losing!


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[75GL1000]

Looking good! What racing organization do you run? Interested to see how the Airtech bodywork comes out, I'll most likely be using them on my current project.

[6]

Looking good! What racing organization do you run? Interested to see how the Airtech bodywork comes out, I'll most likely be using them on my current project.

It may just be my poor fabrication, but every time I mount bodywork to a hawk I can't keep front dragging it. Shit, the current race bike only has a belly pan, that thing is tucked up tight as I can, still drags.

I know there are guys who have races hawks with bodywork who are plenty fast and they make it work. I just don't know how....

[6]

Thanks!

Yeah tires are way easier to get than they were 10 or do years ago. Oh I know the whoa's of track days crashes. It's just a bike and if I'm just racing my self then there's no real point in having to try and set killer lap times. That's better time and effort to be spent on my more competitive bike the KTM RC390.

As for costs I know all about it. At least with my two low powered bikes I won't eat through tires as fast as my GSXR750!

Shot my KTM RC390 plastics today while I was painting a Buick Grand Nationals bumper n plastic. I may not be winning but I'm gonna look good losing!


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Looking good man!!

And white is a good choice.m.h.m.

[StreetHawk]

The wonderful times of making sense out if the wiring harness mess. 15 years ago when I built the bike I switched all of my controls over to sv650's and moved all the electronics to the rear of the bike. I guess I must have just had green wire back then because almost every splice is green! Ditching all of the left side (lights, horn, blinkers) so that's pretty easy. I am going key less so I have to make sense of the start stop and waiting on my new motionpro start stop switch to come in.

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[6]

The wonderful times of making sense out if the wiring harness mess. 15 years ago when I built the bike I switched all of my controls over to sv650's and moved all the electronics to the rear of the bike. I guess I must have just had green wire back then because almost every splice is green! Ditching all of the left side (lights, horn, blinkers) so that's pretty easy. I am going key less so I have to make sense of the start stop and waiting on my new motionpro start stop switch to come in.

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Will you be keeping the charging system in it?

I just use the standard Honda on, off, start button and let that handle the whole deal. Ignition, coils, ecu, batt, starter, starter solenoid, on/off/start switch and you can ditch the rest if you dont need it to charge and don't run an electric fuel pump.

Also, while you are re-wiring, the ecu can tuck right up under the tank over the front head. Keeps if clean and out of the way.

[StreetHawk]

I want to lose the bulky stock on off switch and throttle set up. The motionpro switch is smaller and will clean up the clipon. This is the setup on my grom pit bike and I will go with the same sort of setup on the Hawk.

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I and for the electronics I will be putting the fuse block under the seat. I do like the idea of placing the ecu under the tank so I don't have to try and extend the wires to make it go under the seat easier since it's not quite long enough to do so with out being in the way.

Hey 6, hit any of those 6061 subframe adapters left? I'm going to make my own aluminum subframe and WW sold you his last ones.

Thanks
Rob

[6]

I want to lose the bulky stock on off switch and throttle set up. The motionpro switch is smaller and will clean up the clipon. This is the setup on my grom pit bike and I will go with the same sort of setup on the Hawk.

20211217_223711.jpg

I and for the electronics I will be putting the fuse block under the seat. I do like the idea of placing the ecu under the tank so I don't have to try and extend the wires to make it go under the seat easier since it's not quite long enough to do so with out being in the way.

Hey 6, hit any of those 6061 subframe adapters left? I'm going to make my own aluminum subframe and WW sold you his last ones.

Thanks
Rob

Ya, that's very similar to the Honda one I use. If you look at the Honda MotoGP bikes, the onboard shots fr a couple of years ago you will see something that looks VERY familiar... If it works, it works hhaa

And yes, I have a set for you. Let me dig around and I'll send you a PM and get your address.

[StreetHawk]

Let me ask this... since I am no longer using the fuel pump... do I need the relay and the old fuel pump connector? I mean it's not powering anything since I use a mechanical one or is it needed to just make the ecu happy?

[eyhonda]

No, the relay isn't needed. The relay is powered by the coils output from the ECU. The relay is off when the engine is not running.

[ParcNHawk]

Just keep that blue/yellow wire from grounding out. Since you're tearing the harness apart, cut that wire at the splice point.

[StreetHawk]

Yeah I don't see the need for it anymore especially since it's not been used in the past 15 years when I removed the stock pump and put in the mechanical one. Just more wires I don't need in my way as I trim the harness down to the essentials.

I'm finding odd wire pairings... it might have something to do with why it wasn't running at 100%... I guess I'll find out down the road when it's time to start her back up.

I was kicking this around in my head today and think it might be another option for a tail section. I have my race tail for my RC390 just laying around since the bikes in storage. Might look into trying to fit it to the hawk. That way I have common parts on both bike if I need to do a quick swap...

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[eyhonda]

Cool! If you're fabbing a round tube subframe, you can template the seat mounting sections off the KTM subframe. Looks like the area around the tank will be close fitting. Tail looks similar to a later RS125 part.

Your right hand switch solution is pretty clean. I did a similar mod on mine using 900rr parts.