Toughness of the Hawk

[SuburbanCowboy]

This summer I am wanting to do the continental divide ride from canada to mexico. I like crazy adventures and have been thinking of buying two hawks and doing a lot of mods to it. I need it to handle 1500 miles of dirt trails and carry the rider and 70 pounds of gear and gas. Most of the riding I see people doing on these things are small rides at atv parks and round town riding. Couple of questions.
1. Can these machines do some serious off roading for thousands of miles at a time and not falling apart?
2. Has anybody heard of anybody doing this kind of extreme ride with good results?
3. Has anybody see racks an panniers put on the hawk?

I have been riding bikes for 40 years and currently have a kawasaki versys 1000 but it isn't made for this kind of riding.

Thanks for the help

[timcosby]

Originally Posted by SuburbanCowboy

This summer I am wanting to do the continental divide ride from canada to mexico. I like crazy adventures and have been thinking of buying two hawks and doing a lot of mods to it. I need it to handle 1500 miles of dirt trails and carry the rider and 70 pounds of gear and gas. Most of the riding I see people doing on these things are small rides at atv parks and round town riding. Couple of questions.
1. Can these machines do some serious off roading for thousands of miles at a time and not falling apart?
2. Has anybody heard of anybody doing this kind of extreme ride with good results?
3. Has anybody see racks an panniers put on the hawk?

I have been riding bikes for 40 years and currently have a kawasaki versys 1000 but it isn't made for this kind of riding.

Thanks for the help

wouldnt see why it wouldnt hold up. i would break it in first and get carb dialed in. the stock 15/50 is good for trails but if your going to hit open road too get a 17 tooth front sprocket to carry with you. easy to change. i am making my own panniers and rear rack since i havent seen any available to fit the hawk. im taking mine from south alabama to alaska but it will be on my bike carrier on the front of my truck most of the time. sounds like fun go for it worst case you set them on fire and get a bus ticket home.

[ben2go]

Originally Posted by SuburbanCowboy

This summer I am wanting to do the continental divide ride from canada to mexico. I like crazy adventures and have been thinking of buying two hawks and doing a lot of mods to it. I need it to handle 1500 miles of dirt trails and carry the rider and 70 pounds of gear and gas. Most of the riding I see people doing on these things are small rides at atv parks and round town riding. Couple of questions.
1. Can these machines do some serious off roading for thousands of miles at a time and not falling apart?
2. Has anybody heard of anybody doing this kind of extreme ride with good results?
3. Has anybody see racks an panniers put on the hawk?

I have been riding bikes for 40 years and currently have a kawasaki versys 1000 but it isn't made for this kind of riding.

Thanks for the help

The Hawk won't take to kindly to 70lbs of gear on the back, while beating down a trail. The rear subframe just isn't stout enough. Maybe 40lbs.

Some guys have put up some major off road miles on these china bikes, but not many. Check out SpudRider's threads.

1. That depends on your definition of serious offroad. If you take the time to set up the suspension and sag properly, there shouldn't be any problems offroad.

2. It depends on your idea of extreme riding. I wouldn't ride it like a motocross bike and expect it to survive long. I refer you to SpudRider's threads again.

3. I have not seen any racks or panniers spec'd for any china bike. Taobao or aliexpress may have something spec'd for them. However, Tusk makes a cheap quality set of aluminum panniers for under $300. I have a set of large silver Tusk panniers for my CB500X. I haven't mounted them yet because I use my JCW boxes currently. On China bikes, you'll more than likely have to come up with your own solution for racks.

[pete]

just have a good bike recovery plan in place....

.

[Emerikol]

SuburbanCowboy; I have a make-shift rack I mounted on the back of my Hawk.
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491301593
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491301593
No issues out of it, but I haven't really loaded it down, either. I can tell you it carries a loaf of bread and a half gallon of milk just fine. If I were going to do any serious distance riding, I would get a set of Nelson-Rigg dry bags and hang those off the rear. I have a set on my DR and they're the greatest thing going. I would stay away from hard cases since the bike is so light. The fear I have with light bikes and hard cases is that the bike won't just fall over and pin your foot, it will bounce a couple times before it comes to rest on your (now very mangled) foot. I've dumped my DR in some pretty nasty stuff and had the dry bags hit my foot, no worries, no injuries, no damage. Just my two cents' worth. Here's the link to the Nelson Rigg bags on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/SE-2050-BLK-W...=tusk+panniers
FWIW, I just noticed you can see the corner of the bags on my DR in the pictures. Let me know if you want some other pictures of them.

[Sir kayakalot]

I'd like to see some more pics of those bags Emerikol.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by SuburbanCowboy

This summer I am wanting to do the continental divide ride from canada to mexico. I like crazy adventures and have been thinking of buying two hawks and doing a lot of mods to it. I need it to handle 1500 miles of dirt trails and carry the rider and 70 pounds of gear and gas. Most of the riding I see people doing on these things are small rides at atv parks and round town riding. Couple of questions.
1. Can these machines do some serious off roading for thousands of miles at a time and not falling apart?
2. Has anybody heard of anybody doing this kind of extreme ride with good results?
3. Has anybody see racks an panniers put on the hawk?

I have been riding bikes for 40 years and currently have a kawasaki versys 1000 but it isn't made for this kind of riding.

Thanks for the help

These bikes primary market is Asia. South America, and Africa. They run overloaded much of the time, but at about 40 MPH. If you split that weight to 40-50 lbs in a tank bag and 20-30 on the rear, the bike will be a lot happier. And so will you. I would change to better inner tubes and a high quality rear chain before I even left. I would carry a spare high quality chain with an extra half dozen master links OF HIGH QUALITY as spares. I explained how to lubricate a chain in another thread here yesterday....ARH

[culcune]

I am guessing that this trip is doable provided, as ARH mentioned, you are planning to keep the speeds low, as well as the other advice he gave. There is a member, Wolftrax, who prepped a Hawk for a ride he coined a 'ride and dump.' He was planning on riding from Georgia clear down to Argentina where he was going to sell his bike for parts, or even dump it. He rode about 300 miles if I recall, and something happened to his Hawk--he rode back home, and traded the bike for his CRF250L. It wasn't something catastrophic, but more of a nuisance that he did not have time to repair (maybe he had to wait for a part?), so that is why he simply took his Honda. Maybe he will see this thread, or contact him via PM, or you can search and find his thread on his trip.

By the way, where are you riding to? I mean as far as getting into Mexico? I live in Yuma, so would welcome you and all that, but in the summer clear to early/mid Oct. it will be a continuous furnace this way; just keep that in mind! Not sure how much, if at all, Texas is that time of year, but would be 'cooler' than AZ!

[Emerikol]

Sir kayakalot; Ask, and you shall receive:

The bags don't have a lot of support by themselves, so I went to Walmart and got two 7.5 Gallon office trash cans and cut two inches off the tops of them. They are a perfect fit for the bags and give the bags some structure when they're not loaded up. Also, (and this is the most important part) when you get to camp and unload the bags, having the trash can in there makes a perfect cooler for beer and breakfast items. In the morning when the ice is all melted, just pull the whole thing out and dump it on the fire, wipe out the can and away you go. I've camped like that about a half a dozen times, and it works out an absolute treat. The other advantage to soft bags is that if they get a small or even large tear, a quick fix with a roll of duct tape keeps them waterproof and intact. Even if I have to buy a new set of bags every two or three years the price is still tough to beat. I've had these on the bike for a little over a year now, and they've held up really well. Hope this helps!
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491355348
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491355348
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491355348

[SuburbanCowboy]

Emerikol do you have any photos of just the racks? What did you use to fabricate them?

[wilserchinarider]

Many have taken these bikes on long rides throughout Asia. People with thinner wallets ride the piss out of these things much further than your plan. Really depends if you have the patience and skill set for minor repairs, and the time and skill set for major repairs...
Most often the bikes come thru without major incident.

[Merlin]

Thanks for the video. Great Adventure.

[emptyschmitz]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

SuburbanCowboy; I have a make-shift rack I mounted on the back of my Hawk.
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491301593
http://chinariders.net/attachment.ph...1&d=1491301593
No issues out of it, but I haven't really loaded it down, either. I can tell you it carries a loaf of bread and a half gallon of milk just fine. If I were going to do any serious distance riding, I would get a set of Nelson-Rigg dry bags and hang those off the rear. I have a set on my DR and they're the greatest thing going. I would stay away from hard cases since the bike is so light. The fear I have with light bikes and hard cases is that the bike won't just fall over and pin your foot, it will bounce a couple times before it comes to rest on your (now very mangled) foot. I've dumped my DR in some pretty nasty stuff and had the dry bags hit my foot, no worries, no injuries, no damage. Just my two cents' worth. Here's the link to the Nelson Rigg bags on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/SE-2050-BLK-W...=tusk+panniers
FWIW, I just noticed you can see the corner of the bags on my DR in the pictures. Let me know if you want some other pictures of them.

The N-R dry bags are what we have for our trip. I also am attempting to build a support rack to keep them in place, I will post progress once I finally get the tool in that I ordered...

[timcosby]

i ride with my 120 lbs daughter on the back recon im gunna break it???????

[RogerWFarrier]

I think that any of these bikes that have technology that was designed for the Asian market are going to be extremely tough. There's a guy named Ed March that does major adventure trips on a little Honda C90. In fact on one trip something jammed the oil pump sprocket and the cam chain was loose enough to that it actually was passing over the gear and ground the off the teeth of the sprocket which he later discovered after he had ridden 1500 miles at 7000 rpm with no oil pressure. You don't get any tougher than that.