Hawk is here, yay!

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by pete

on dry / firm ground you maybe surprised where the 705s will take yer....



...

I have heard mostly good things about them, and they were less than half the price of the Avons I was looking at, so if I decide I do want a more off-road tire I won't be out a ton of money, plus I will be keeping the knobbies the bike came with, so if I feel like it I can always put those on for an adventure.

[ben2go]

705's is good all around tire except deep sand and mud.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by ben2go

705's is good all around tire except deep sand and mud.

Glad to hear it. I don't do the deep mud and sand thing....yet. Mainly road use, some dirt roads and side "roads". I'm not a serious off-roader. Too broken and too fat to go bouncing around off rocks and stuff lol.

[ben2go]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Glad to hear it. I don't do the deep mud and sand thing....yet. Mainly road use, some dirt roads and side "roads". I'm not a serious off-roader. Too broken and too fat to go bouncing around off rocks and stuff lol.

I can relate.

[pete]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Glad to hear it. I don't do the deep mud and sand thing....yet. Mainly road use, some dirt roads and side "roads". I'm not a serious off-roader. Too broken and too fat to go bouncing around off rocks and stuff lol.

I most lightly am aswell... but it dosn't stop me...
apart from the fat bit.... prob all this bouncing off rocks
and stuff is the reason...

[Megadan]

The fatness came from being broken mixed with a poor diet. I was more or less immobilized for 15 months with a back injury and post surgery recovery back in 2011-2012, but while my activity rate changed, my diet didn't. By the time I was recovered from my surgery I weighed 377lbs. After 6 months of progressively harder physical therapy I was down to 324lbs. I kind of hovered there for a couple of years until my health started to suffer, and I put myself on a diet with the help of a nutritionist due to a kidney evaluation leading them to do blood sugar testing that showed me being borderline diabetic. After 14 months of light exercising and walking 4 days a week and a drastic change to my diet I am down to 262lbs, and I have kind of plateaued here. I have about another 50lbs to go to be at a "healthy" weight, but my health is much improved.

Beyond all of that, I also have 4 pins holding 2 tendon anchors in my right ankle, had multiple surgeries on both knees to repair ACL and miniscus tears, and my left shoulder had a pinched nerve and 2 torn muscles from getting ripped out of socket pretty hard that never quite healed all the way. Now that I am starting to get older a lot of this stuff is starting to come back and haunt me lol.

My doctor described me a couple of years ago as a 32 year old with a 50 year old body and an 18 year old attitude.

[pete]

well I have had one broken arm.... thank you very much KDX175...

i have been very lucky... never have any issues.. still only
a couple kgs heavyer than I was when I was in my 20s...but I have
noticed I am no where as strong as I once was... Or my bike is getting
heavyer to pick up...

..

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by pete

well I have had one broken arm.... thank you very much KDX175...

i have been very lucky... never have any issues.. still only
a couple kgs heavyer than I was when I was in my 20s...but I have
noticed I am no where as strong as I once was... Or my bike is getting
heavyer to pick up...


..

I've never broken a bone in my life, just everything between and around them lol. Strength was never my problem. I am every bit as strong as I was half my life ago. My problem is that the rest of me can't handle the stress as well. Lifting restrictions, impacts, etc all take their toll on me. Even standing for a few hours leaves me in pretty nasty pain. You would never peg me with a disability from the outside lol.

[pete]

If you are a bit worryed about coming off & hurting yourself...

Ok story time.... take a seat....

a few years ago I came off at quite a speed on a enduro got the front wheel in
a rut & high sided landing on my sholder.... couldn't lift my left arm above my head
for the best part of 2 months...
so I went and bought a set of Fox body armor.. always thought it looked bulky & restrictive..
So the first ride wearing it "you guessed it i came of pretty hard".. got up , picked the bike up
and off again... a few minutes later I thought to myself... Shit I didn't even hardly feel that off..
come off a lot of times since still the same... this stuff works... I won't ride with out it now..
after you have had it on for a few minutes it settles onto your body & you don't know
you are wearing it..




.

[clark]

Pete, thanks for the body armor review. Only problem for me, here in SW Florida... the heat! It will be into the 90's Sept, and maybe Oct also... think HOT. The body armor would likely add to the heat and cause me to pass out... thus defeating the purpose of the armor? And from just a cursory search, most of the armor was dark colored, which absorbs more energy from the sun vs white color (reflects heat.) Heck, the heat from the Magician 250 exhaust pipe alone is uncomfortable.
(Having said the above, I saw one 20-something youth on a super bike w/ body armor... he looked around at following cars at the stop-light. (I was directly behind him, in a Toyota Taco) I knew what he was about, scanning for police. When the light turned green... you guessed it... super-bike wheelie time!)

[Megadan]

Header wrap that exhaust with a 50 to 75% overlap, it will help cut down the heat quite a bit.

[Megadan]

Got the 705's mounted and Did the rear wheel bearings. I was going to do the fronts, but they are still stiff (in a good way) so I will keep the new ones I bought for later.

As far as the rear bearings, they were starting to go, likely due to the initially poor installation from the factory. I first re-seated them and everything felt fine, but I was expecting them to not last if the cage got damaged at all, which they likely did. They were binding and started to wear on the axle bolt a little bit. Luckily they didn't cause any real damage to the bolt, just started to make a shiny spot.

Now I have fancy German made bearings, new wheel seals, and a new rear axle bolt courtesy of the TT250 - and matching adjusters now (yay).

I'm a bit under the weather so I won't be riding too much, but I am going to go give it a quick run around town to heat cycle the tires and try and wear off the release agent.

As a side note, while I was messing around with the rear wheel I decided to see how a 130/90-17 tire would fit in the swing arm and with a wide enough wheel it would be possible to run that width in a road tire. A 140 or 150 width in a smaller diameter may also work without hitting the chain, although that is more of an unknown. So anybody wanting to "Sumo" one of these bikes may well be able to.

[clark]

Yikes, you say "rear bearing starting to go"... and your bike is still new. How many miles on the bike when you changed the rear bearing? (And maybe the factory installed my bearing on the Magician 250, er, less poorly?)

[Megadan]

After logging about 50 miles on the new tires I can make a few observations.

The obvious ones - the "duh" variety
- Much smoother on the road. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less tire noise. They still have a hum to them at 50+, but it's a mild drone compared to the resonant howling of the knobbies.
The much stiffer carcass combined with the much larger tread blocks makes the suspension and brakes feel more responsive and effective. The inverse of this though is that it highlights the weakness of the chassis more. It's like throwing R spec autocross tires on a 1970's Cadillac. The rear shock being the biggest weakness as the rear suspension has to soak up a lot of compression before allowing the chassis to respond. I sure would love a little bit more compression and a lot more rebound dampening. The spring rate is fine.
- Worlds better on road, but anything beyond a loose packed gravel or dirt path is going to be asking a lot from these. They handled some of my normal routes without skipping a beat though.

The less obvious or otherwise not discussed.
- Change in tire profile. The 120/80-18 in the rear fits just fine to the stock rim, contrary to what many people claim. The tire id not overly pinched, although as I often state, this is about as wide as you can go. Being more of a road tire, the crown of the tread pattern is more peaked both front and rear vs. the profile of the knobbies. The bike is much more willing to lean into corners. It's actually a lot of fun.

The only thing I really have left to figure out is the right tire pressure combination for these things now. I have an odd way of going about this, inflate both tires to max cold psi, ride it a bit, let out 1 or 2 psi, repeat. That will be my project today.

As a side note, if I were to turn a Hawk into a strictly road going bike, I would likely use the rim and tire sizes found on my Goldwing. The 19 front 17 rear has some good options for a 100/90-19 front and 130/90-17 rear. I think this would be a good compromise between sportiness and the stability/comfort of bigger wheels. I may experiment with this down the road, but for now I am quite happy with the bike as is.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by clark

Yikes, you say "rear bearing starting to go"... and your bike is still new. How many miles on the bike when you changed the rear bearing? (And maybe the factory installed my bearing, er, less poorly?)

Exact mileage 1190. My definition of "starting to go" is noticing a mild notchiness to the wheel bearings, usually caused by the bearing cage being bent or deformed from improper installation. I've been keeping a close eye on them since day 1 of assembly, when I first noticed them locked up due to poor installation from the factory. I removed and re-installed them to spin freely, but I know from lots of work experience how improperly installed bearings tend to behave and fail prematurely.

The fact that my front wheel bearings still feel as good as they did from day 1 shows that the bearings themselves aren't of a super poor quality (maybe not great but not bad). Even the best bearings will fail if they are installed improperly.

I now have German made SKF bearings in the rear, and a set for the front when I decide to get around to it.