[Ariel Red Hunter]

Back down on this page I described how I would set up a Hawk for my uses. I don't want to have to trailer a bike to where the trail starts. I'll ride it there, thank you very much. I live in rural northern NY State, within a half mile of the Ste. Lawrence River. It is about 20-30 miles to the real Adirondak Mountains. That is where the gnarly stuff begins. There is no freeway or turnpike within 75 miles of here, so the highest speed limit is 55 mph. 60 or more will get you a ticket, expensive here. Luckily, I like wrenching on bikes, so the Hawk would be perfect for me. Because the Hawk, as delivered and assembled is not really up to the job. Carb issues, (the Shin wei carb is virtually untunable without spending as much to fix its problems as another, decent, carb costs), and a carb that won't pull right from idle to 7500 rpm is not going to make you happy out on the deer and cow paths. There are some good exhaust systems available as well. You must have a spark arrester off road in the Adirondak State Preserve. One of the problems with the Hawk, as delivered, is the location of the rear brake master cylinder, and the foot pegs. Now, if you guys will go to ChondaChondaChonda's post "took a plunge, trying a Pitster Pro LXR 250 EFI" and scroll down to post 177, note the location of the footpegs. And the rear tire, which is a Pirelli MT 43. Then go up or down a couple of pics to see the other side of the bike and check out the location of the rear master cylinder. That gives you a visual on how to fix these problems...ARH