Hawks & Turkeys

Stress Reduction Upgrade! I bought a LIXINTIAN Battery Charging Cable SAE to O Ring Terminal Connectors Harness, 10AWG Quick Disconnect SAE Cable for Motorcycles on Amazon. It's a simple connector permanently screwed in to the terminals from my Hawk's battery that allows me to trickle charge the battery without having to remove the side panel. It makes Hawk life so much easier.

When you get your new Hawk, you'll notice right away that the starter will struggle to turn over the engine - and you'll try so often to start the bike that the battery will require constant charging, forcing you to remove the annoying side panel...a mess

But here's what I learned: The battery "cables" are nothing more than thick wires and are incapable of delivering a strong electrical charge to either the solenoid or the starter. So between Amazon and eBay I ordered lengths of copper cable and ran one from the solenoid to the starter, and ran a very short cable from the red battery post to the solenoid.

For the very short red cable that runs from the battery to the solenoid, I discovered Gauge Wire and Cable on eBay. Their shortest listed battery cable is six inches, but if you message them with your order, you can ask them to cut it shorter. In my case I asked for four inches and with a little bending I got the cable to skooch in there. Its made a big difference.

Oof - still a lot of anger out there over dealer/distributors, registration issues...my Hawk actually arrived damage free. I paid a little extra for them to put the bike together and for a Nibbi carburetor upgrade and to complete a break in period. The only area I ding them for was the break in period, which, as far as I can tell, involved them letting the bike idle for extended periods of time (the odometer only read 4 miles); do an oil change, start it and let it idle some more; do another oil change. I had good support from the dealer's admin support person, who got me an original bill of sale. It helped at my DMV that the manufacturer's certificate of origin read, "motorcycle" and not "dirt bike," or, "off road."

In my efforts to get my new, 2024 Hawk to start, I found the starter struggling to power the engine and I thought it was a weak battery. In reality, the "wires" coming off the battery and solenoid weren't providing enough juice to the starter. I upgraded both "wires" to actual cables, and even found a seller on eBay who cut a six inch cable down to four inches before shipping it to me to make the short run from the battery to the solenoid. The seller is Gauge Wire & Cable, LLC. When you place your order on eBay, just message them and ask for a specific length.

One other thing I did with my new Hawk was a valve lash. Between the valve adjustment and the high grade cables I installed, its made a big difference in the Hawk's ability to routinely start.

More next time. Thanks for checking in.