Hawk is here, yay!

[BlackBike]

Glad your getting this business worked out!

[goat67]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Page 5. Post 62

Thanks

[MOTOXtreme]

Looks great. Im Sure it will be even much better than before.

[Megadan]

Thanks guys, she is scarred a bit here and there, but rideable. I just took it out for a quick test ride and all feels solid and well.

I did discover one difference between the TT250 rear brake lever and Hawk brake lever. The TT250 unit does not have the hole for the brake light switch spring. There are two ways I can get around this, either drill a small hole or install a pressure switch banjo bolt. Not a big deal in either case.

I will say this, 17/43 sprocket combination is about as tall as I would ever want to go with one of these bikes. Stock its just a hair too tall and 5th gear is more of an overdrive. It's not entirely useless, but definitely a bit of a dog on steeper hills. I am sure with mods and tuning it will feel much like the 17/45 on a stock bike though, which I liked a lot for road use. If all else fails I can go back to the 45, but I want to wait to see what it's like modified first. If you wanted gearing for strictly road use though, it would be almost ideal. My other option is to keep all three front sprocket sizes and swap between them. 15 front would be perfect for off road shenanigans, 16 front would give the same gearing as a 17/45, and the 17 front for road duty.

I think my next project is to make some new preload spacers for the forks. My bike sags a solid 1 1/2 inches or more under it's own weight when you pick it up off the side stand. While I don't want a stiff suspension, I would like it to be able to at least hold itself up under its own weight a little better. I am undecided on what way to go about this. I may buy a bunch of washers that will work on top of the spring and stack them up one at a time until I am happy with the difference, and then cut some aluminum to the corresponding length. Or just buy some pvc and cut a few lengths to test out.

[Weldangrind]

I like the PVC idea; much less fiddly.

[Megadan]

I can do one better than PVC! I randomly stopped by the local metal shop and they had some 1 inch OD Bronze pipe a bit less than a foot in length, about Sch 80. thickness, that they let me have for 10 bucks (after tax ). Time to break out the band saw... I think I might start big with 50mm spacers, just to see how they feel. A bit more than double what the stock ones are.

[Megadan]

Ok, so for future reference, if you want to do preload spacers, the diameter you need is 22mm or 7/8 of an inch. I turned my bronze pipe down on my little mini lathe to the right size, but you can save yourself the headache. For reference, the stock preload spacers are 15.2mm in height, not quite as tall as I initially thought, so I decided to start off with 35mm preload spacers, and I tell you what, that is just about perfect. Taking the bike off the center stand, it now only sinks about half an inch or less, which is what the rear does. It also handles my weight a lot better. If you are a bigger guy like me or plan on loading up your bike, definitely consider making preload spacers. 1 1/2 inches - aka 38mm - thick 7/8 PVC would work fine and be an affordable solution. You could probably get a scrap cut for next to nothing.

I also decided to add a little more fork oil to the forks. 210ml was just too soft, so I added 20ml more to each fork, that brought the air gap with the forks compressed to 105mm each side, I will keep an eye on the fork seals, but given the long travel of these shocks I doubt 230ml will harm them, and I have heard of some guys running 240 without a problem. Between the new preload spacers and the higher fork oil level, it's a completely new bike. It will be much harder to bottom these guys out now.

I may try 40mm preload spacers next, but for now, I am quite pleased with it. The front dives a lot less, it handles a LOT better, and still rides like the squishy cloud that it should.

Now that my bike is back on the road, I am going to go ride it a bunch more. Need to rack up some more miles on her lol.

[Megadan]

over 100 miles logged on the bike today. The longest I have ridden it yet, through all sorts of conditions. City crawling to state highway blasting, and the new gears surprised me. It's still a tad tall for a stock bike, but not unreasonably tall, it just struggles with hills. At 60mph, in 5th gear, the RPM's sit right around 6200rpm. 50 at around 5000, and 45 will chug along around 4500ish. with 40mph sitting right around 4000-4100rpm being the lowest the bike will happily run on flat ground without lugging it. The bike happily cruises at 55mph with the throttle a bit more than halfway. Still doesn't have the steam to get past 62mph, and I have a feeling that is it's current limit with the stock exhaust and intake system holding it back. If I can get it to maintain 60 without maxing out the throttle on flat ground I will be happy. I think that isn't too unreasonable of a goal. For any actual trail riding though, I am probably going to swap the front sprocket back to a 15 tooth with the rear 43 that will give a 3:1 ratio, which should really wake up it's off road climbing capabilities.

On the plus side, I averaged 67mpg with a lot of playing around, so I am pretty happy with that. I have a feeling if I actually tried to get good fuel economy I could crack 70mpg.

On the suspension side of things, I went ahead and gave it a few tests on a rough cobblestone road and a rutted and washed out dirt path I am familiar with. Performed well and didn't bottom out on some of the larger dips and bumps. I think I found a good sweet spot for the stock forks and my weight.

[goat67]

The speeds and rpms you are describing are real similar to how my Brozz acts.
I have the stock 17 - 46 gearing.

I do not gain much from 1/2 throttle to full in speed.

I to wonder about the exhaust I need to either gut it or just get a new one.

As far as intake I can not do any more running a filter right on the carb.
Only other option would be EFI conversion.

[MOTOXtreme]

Very similar. My brozz has over 1600 miles now and is quite peppy for a 250. She still wants to top out around 65 (actual mph).

Your goal of maintaining 60 should not be a problem with the future mods you have planned.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by goat67

The speeds and rpms you are describing are real similar to how my Brozz acts.
I have the stock 17 - 46 gearing.

I do not gain much from 1/2 throttle to full in speed.

I to wonder about the exhaust I need to either gut it or just get a new one.

As far as intake I can not do any more running a filter right on the carb.
Only other option would be EFI conversion.

17/46 isn't too far off from 17/43. I had a 45 tooth before and the bike didn't really change too much in its behavior as far as top speed, but it did a good job of dropping the RPMs down just a little bit more. and that made a change in my bikes comfortable cruise speed from 50 to about 55 without pushing the engine too hard. Like I said before, the 43 tooth rear is pretty much road-only gearing.

The 45 rear is definitely a little better suited for road use with some trail riding. The 43 is just enough of a step down that it might be a real pain in the butt on more difficult terrain. The reason I chose the 43 is because it gives me 3 options with a simple and easy front sprocket swap. A drop down to a 15 tooth gives a great off road ratio while still being street friendly. a 16 tooth would put it right back at the same basic ratio as a 17/45. If I ever go on a trip/adventure to say an off road park or state park trails, I can hide away a 15 tooth front sprocket easily, and the minimal tools needed to do said conversion. Far simpler than a rear sprocket change.

As far as opening up the bike more, if you already have a pod style filter then, as you said, there isn't a whole lot more you can do intake wise. I still have a stock unmodified airbox and filter. So, for you the exhaust would be the biggest thing holding you back, and that cat is very restrictive. If you can gut the cat, or spend the money on the ebay exhaust, then after you re jet the carb, it should really wake up the bike.

Originally Posted by MOTOXtreme

Very similar. My brozz has over 1600 miles now and is quite peppy for a 250. She still wants to top out around 65 (actual mph).

Your goal of maintaining 60 should not be a problem with the future mods you have planned.

That is the hope. The extra 5mph, so I can hold 60mph without maxing the bike out, would make it far easier to do a little traveling with the bike to different places I want to take it.

The main reason I am looking for that kind of capability is down to where I live. Out here in the great plains, even our state highways have 60-65mph speed limits. As it sits right now, I wouldn't try to take any sort of trip with the bike outside of where I live in Omaha

[Megadan]

New little video on the bike.

[hertz9753]

Is it possible that the studs are from a Honda SL175 or XL175. I'm asking because the Honda Elsinore is something that Honda called the early CR motocross bikes and it didn't have 175. The Honda MT and MR had 2 stroke engines like the CR and they did have a 175 engine. The MR175 had the Elsinore sticker on the side panel though.

Sorry for my long post.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by hertz9753

Is it possible that the studs are from a Honda SL175 or XL175. I'm asking because the Honda Elsinore is something that Honda called the early CR motocross bikes and it didn't have 175. The Honda MT and MR had 2 stroke engines like the CR and they did have a 175 engine. The MR175 had the Elsinore sticker on the side panel though.

Sorry for my long post.

That was a minor brain fart on my end. They are the part number for the XL175 and MT125 aka Elsinore (supposedly)

[Megadan]

Since my Goldwing is down I have been using my Hawk for commuter duty. It has performed its task admirably, and thanks to that I will hit 500 miles by the time I get home.

So the real question is. Do you guys think 500 miles is enough of a break in for a dyno run, or should I wait until 1000 to ensure total ring seating?

Personally, I want to run it already as I am itching to put my mods on, but I am always open to opinions.

I have been checking my compression since day 1 every 100 or so miles on a cold engine, and it has started to plateau, which tells me the rings are just abput as sealed as they will get. Gear shifts are super smooth and I am starting to hit neutral with zero issues, so the transmission has finally started to loosen up as well.