[Ariel Red Hunter]

One of the charms, generaly speaking, of 250 cc motor-cycles, is you can enjoy riding them really hard without annoying the minions of the law. Also depends on which state you live in, of course. Vermont has a 45 mph limit on two lane roads, Texas has a 70 mph limit on their 2 lanes, out in the country.

Now, back to the Hawk. I would immediatly change the engine oil to a 15W-40, or 20W50 before I even started it up. I use Shell Rotella because it is easy to get. I would run dino oil for the first 500 miles, then change it to synthetic. Synthetic deals with the heat these engines produce better, and lasts longer. It also deals with lubing the transmission better, because it withstands the slicing and dicing going on in the transmission better as well. Then I'd change the oil every 1000 miles. Oil really takes a beating in this engine, partly because there isn't very much of it.
Old timey trick is to smear grease over the inside of the air-cleaner box (not on the element!). Captures sand and other grit going in the box. What to do about carburetion and exhaust is up to you. I would change to a VM26 Mikuni, the one with a starting circuit instead of a butterfly choke. I would change the exhaust system completely. The stock head pipe is the worst I have ever seen for exhaust flow. Also change the gasket where the head pipe meets the head to the copper o-ring type. These engines seem to respond really well to changing the spark plug to the Iradium type. Be sure to check the valve adjustment. They seem to come from the factory over tight.