Hawk owners!!!!!
 

whats everyones starting procedure???
i have a hard time getting mine to start from time to time.
also, it feels like its hitting the rev limiter really early in first gear, any ideas???

Is your hawk stock.

bone stock

When you feel like it's hitting the rev limiter, how does it behave? Like the ignition is cutting out?

On mine it wouldn't idle with full choke. Half choke and no choke seemed to have no differing effect. It took a bit of throttle twist and Half choke to get it to start and idle from near freezing cold. Idle RPM would vary depending on how warmed up the engine was. Acted like it was cutting out at higher RPMs.

Although not perfect for a new bike, my solution was changing the carb to the Mikuni jetting it for sea level.

Power seems to be up, starts and idles on first try with very short starter spin time, idles on full choke when very cold . Much different bike. Best mod I've made so far.

My results were about the same I would have to give it gas to get it started and would sometimes have to hold the throttle. I would also have to adjust the idle screw up high then turn it down as the bike warmed. When I changed to the mikuni I set the idle screw once and haven't changed it since I just have to decide on choke position depending on temperature. On a side note first gear is extremely short with stock gearing maybe 10 mph tops.

If you guys could share your jetting and engine size, that might help other riders.

Sea level with mikuni with pod filter and exhaust weld grinded and with removed spark arrestor.
30 pilot jet
115 main jet
Middle of needle.

Sea level with mikuni with stock air filter and exhaust

Currently running
30 pilot jet
115 main jet
Middle of needle.

Have tried a wide range of jets. 29 pilot and 118 main gave slightly better high rpm results not as smooth idle.

SlowJunk, what size is your engine?

It is a HAWK. 229cc according to the sticker.

And it is too cold to do much more testing until spring.

Thanks SlowJunk and TXDSRIDER. That info will hopefully assist hnu13, among others.

Thanks guys

Swapping the front sprocket to a 17t, and either rejetting the stock carb, or replacing with the Mikuni listed above will make the bike night and day regarding starting and driving.

Responding to the original question (hard starting), the most effective thing I did was replace the stock battery with a Battery Tender Deltran 240 CCA Lithium Iron Phosphate.

I also crank up the idle speed until the beast warms up. Until the engine warms up the cold fuel won't atomize well enough to keep my Hawk running at "normal" idle adjustment.

I'm using the 30mm Mikuni clone off eBay, a 112.5 main jet, and a 35 pilot jet. About 400 feet above sea level at home in Smalbany, NY.

BTW, the "stock" carb on my Hawk had a knurled idle speed screw which made adjustment very easy. The eBay carb has a phillips head screw (different diameter, otherwise I'd swap them), which makes adjusting the idle speed a pain. One of my winter projects will be to drill/pull the EPA caps off the stock carb and install the proper jets. Then I'll start work on restoring my Ural Gear Up (-: