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Ariel Red Hunter · 08-22-2016, 07:29 PM

Part two was supposed to be chassis run through, but not so. Your poor scribe has been called out to defend the humble, but useful, pushrod OHV 229.9 cc HonChi engine. This engine has been compared to OHC engines, and crankshaft balance shaft engines. And it has been found wanting. So let's look more closely at this engines plusses and minuses. It has plenty of both. At least from my point of view. Plusses: air-cooled. Simple. Light in weight. Less expensive to produce. Unit construction (engine and gearbox in one set of cases). Because it is a pushrod engine, more weight is low, in the cases. It has some kind of gee whizz electronic ignition. It is relatively light in weight. It is relatively easy to do valve adjustments on. It responds very well to exhaust and carburetor upgrades. Minuses: It doesn't have a balancer shaft. It doesn't have an overhead cam. It only holds about 35 ounces of lube oil. Lube oil also used for transmission. So this engine is almost perfectly suited for an inexpensive off road dual sport at the low end of the price spectrum. It is much less qualified to be an engine in a bike that is primarily used on pavement. It does not have the top end for that job. I'm sure it can be modified for more top end, but if you do that you will lose out on the bottom end and midrange. The Magician and the TT250 are better suited for on highway use. I don't like the Magician because it has a 16" rear wheel. I don't like the TT250 because it costs a lot more than the Magician, or Hawk. The Magician and Hawk are the bottom feeders in the 250 class. The Magician is a nice 90% 10% on-road off-road bike. The Hawk is a very nice off-road bike that is street legal, at least in many states. Perfect for riding 10-20 miles to the dirt trails you want to ride all day. If you stay off the interstates with it. Bottom line: you can have a lot of fun on a Hawk for short money.

08-22-2016, 07:29 PM	#7
Ariel Red Hunter Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: akwesasne, NY-13655 Posts: 2,220	Hawk talk ll Part two was supposed to be chassis run through, but not so. Your poor scribe has been called out to defend the humble, but useful, pushrod OHV 229.9 cc HonChi engine. This engine has been compared to OHC engines, and crankshaft balance shaft engines. And it has been found wanting. So let's look more closely at this engines plusses and minuses. It has plenty of both. At least from my point of view. Plusses: air-cooled. Simple. Light in weight. Less expensive to produce. Unit construction (engine and gearbox in one set of cases). Because it is a pushrod engine, more weight is low, in the cases. It has some kind of gee whizz electronic ignition. It is relatively light in weight. It is relatively easy to do valve adjustments on. It responds very well to exhaust and carburetor upgrades. Minuses: It doesn't have a balancer shaft. It doesn't have an overhead cam. It only holds about 35 ounces of lube oil. Lube oil also used for transmission. So this engine is almost perfectly suited for an inexpensive off road dual sport at the low end of the price spectrum. It is much less qualified to be an engine in a bike that is primarily used on pavement. It does not have the top end for that job. I'm sure it can be modified for more top end, but if you do that you will lose out on the bottom end and midrange. The Magician and the TT250 are better suited for on highway use. I don't like the Magician because it has a 16" rear wheel. I don't like the TT250 because it costs a lot more than the Magician, or Hawk. The Magician and Hawk are the bottom feeders in the 250 class. The Magician is a nice 90% 10% on-road off-road bike. The Hawk is a very nice off-road bike that is street legal, at least in many states. Perfect for riding 10-20 miles to the dirt trails you want to ride all day. If you stay off the interstates with it. Bottom line: you can have a lot of fun on a Hawk for short money.
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