[Rider2016]

We are back, and after a long thee days of hard riding on the OBDR Route 3 have some highs, lows and reviews of the Hawk 250, and our gear.

1) The Route: The ODBR Route 3 is a 447 miles trek through Central Oregon from the HooDoo OHV Staging Area to Doris, CA. We road 296 miles of this route staring Thursday and ending a day earlier than planned ending our trek in Prospect OR.

This route is the gambit of riding, from nice cinder roads to down right white knuckle riding. One section of the route had been closed by the forest service, with no choice but to find an alternative route to get back on course the pucker factor was high on more than one occasion.

2) The bikes. Black Hawk: 2015 Hawk 250, Miles on bike at trek start 300. Red Hawk: 2015 Hawk 250, Miles on Bike at start 21. Green Roc: 2005 Rocketa 200. Miles on Bike at start 275.

3) Bike evaluation: Both Hawks performed amazingly well. Red Hawk was literally "out of the box" with the only additions being the gear we installed. No modifications to the stock bike. Black hawk had more test miles it but was the same, bone stock. The lil Rocketa was also stock and proved to be the weak link. But since were not evaluating that bike. we'll just say the loss of the clutch and rear breaks brought the trip to a close a few miles early.

Red Hawk: Took more than it's share of spills, bumps, and oh shit moments on the trial. Even with these she suffered no more than a bent clutch lever from one of those mishaps. The bike stood its ground and proved it could handle everything the route tossed at it.

Black Hawk. Also took it's share of bumps and bruises. Only two items of note shown that we considered noteworthy. It developed a small oil leak at the oil site glass, and the welds on exhaust mount broke, which we didn't even notice until our return and cleaning of the bikes.

Both hawks suffered from damaged fork boots, but as we look at these items as expendable parts its nothing we hold against the bikes them selves.

All in all these bikes maybe based on old technology, but they proved without a doubt they can stand their own and should be considered by anyone looking to enter the dual sport arena.

4) Our Gear:

a) The N.W. TerraFirma Pannier Mount System for the Hoasen (RPS) HAWK 250 (U.S. Pat. Pending)

The mounts proved to be a solid design. Both bike showed a weak point in one bolt mount area which was field repaired with a higher grade bolt that solved the issue after day one of riding. These system are projected to be market available in Jan 2017 and we feel they will be a great addition to the Hawk 250 for those wanting to go beyond a daily run-about dual sport.

b) The Shark Power Port, Electrical Monitoring System. These proved in valuable in keeps our two ways radios charged and keeping an eye on the health of the bikes power systems. The hawks both sedately maintained 14.3 - 15.2 charging systems during the ride.

c) Off road lighting. These systems proved to bulky and heavy for the mounts we designed. All three bike in this challenge suffered from damaged mounts due to weight of the lighting systems. We're going back to the drawing board on these and hope to have a new set up ready for market about the same time as the pannier mounts are.

Conclusion. We were skeptical that these bike had the mettle to take on this route without heavy modifications. More than one of the "leading" competitors bikes have succumb to some of these trials.

We were happily proven wrong. These lil 250's can take the challenge head on giving their rider the confidence they can explore any place any time.

N.W. Terra-Firma Co.