Hawk 250 technical info thread

Todd91SS · 10-22-2017, 10:59 PM

I am new to this forum, but wanted to add some information that I hope will be helpful to you guys.

This thread was the reason I went with the Hawk over other china bikes I was considering. The information is really spectacular, and from what I have seen, has been 100% accurate, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I'm a mechanical engineer and pretty picky when it comes to quality, so I wanted to just post a write up of some of the things I've learned in the past few months since I got my hawk.

A little background.... I'm 40, and two years ago, we got a house with enough land to ride on. The kids had little quads and I wanted a dirt bike again, as I had not ridden since high school. And back then, I was always on something cheap, envying all the YZ's, CR's and RM's. So I bought a 2001 YZ125 modified all to hell. Big bore 144cc athena cylinder, not one stock part on the whole engine, and the same for the suspension. It was a rocket ship.

We have a local track around us that is not a trail track, it's a moto-x track with big boy jumps. A friend of mine bought a YZ250 the same time I bought the 125. We both went to the track. Both of us have done a fair amount of car racing, but neither of us are experienced dirt riders. He has raced street bikes, I have not. But we're not too bad for a couple of old guys. Well, we got out there and it quickly became apparent that we were not 20 anymore. We'd go out for a 5 minute session and almost died, plus, both bikes had very grabby clutches with a tendency to die, so you got to also stop, with full gear, sweating like crazy and kick start it 5 or 10 times every time you laid it over or killed it. Not only that, the actual comfort was absolutely garbage, and I was sore in places I never knew I had.

That, plus the enjoyment of trying to hold up the bike while finding your triangle after you could barely walk after a session was awesome. The choke had no happy spot, it flooded easy as hell, whatever.... Plus, it was way the hell faster than I had any need for and needed constant care and feeding.

So I decided to get rid of it and get an old mans bike, ie, one that had an electric starter, kickstand, some level of comfort, 4 stroke, air cooled. Low to no maintenance like the kids quads and dirt bikes, which are china ones (tao tao) and they take a beating like none other and just keep on going.

Cut to the chase... this weekend, I took the hawk to the track for the first time since I got it. We went to the badlands in Attica, IN. My buddy still has his YZ250 and he ran that. I got all sorts of crap for exchanging my real bike for a china toy.

The hawk was a champ. And we ran the hell out of the bikes for 5 hours straight.

A bit on how I have it set up - A few things were immediately obvious when I first sat on it. It was comfortable as hell, both of my feet could touch the ground, and it was extremely softly sprung, especially in the front.

By the way, someone mentioned the pegs being slippery, and they certainly are until you pop out the absolutely ridiculous plastic things in them for some unknown reason, and then you have normal pegs.

Mine did not come with instructions, but I have restored and built a wide variety of vehicles, so it wasn't rocket science.

As far as the comments that many of the bolts are not tight from the factory, I found that to be partially true, but not on critical things like head bolts or suspension parts. They did pretty good on that.

I have a small track in the yard with jumps just for test and tune, and right away, the suspension was bottoming out hard front and rear, with what I would consider to be a pretty medium jump. Nothing crazy. So, I ran the triple clamps all the way up, which helped, but I was still hitting the front fender a lot. I am around 210 lbs btw, and we are talking around 3 feet of air off the jumps, not 30. I'm far from a moto-x champ.

I followed the advice of others who suggested increasing the viscosity of the fork fluid, as well as the amount. Most of the people said the stock volume was 150ml. Both of mine were filled to exactly 180. I put in 15w oil, 195ml in both sides. Big improvement, but it still bottoms out when I'm hard on it. My next step will be to make longer spacers for the top above the springs. The stock spacers are around an inch and I'm going to try going up to 2" and see how it does. The rear suspension also bottoms out, and I have seen absolutely no way to really adjust that. The front is a much larger concern though.

The brakes are fine, I have never had them fade even during extended hard riding.

The comfort and ease of actually riding it are awesome. It has probably the most forgiving clutch of any bike or quad I've ever ridden. Almost impossible to kill, and if you do, it fires right back up. Speaking of firing up, I liked the idea of the backup kick starter if the battery died, but I tried to kickstart it a few times and not only is it pretty high compression, you have to kick the hell out of it for it to fire. Even after it's warmed up. I would hate to try to kickstart it cold.

The tires are every bit as good as the tires I was running on the YZ. They are great in deep sand, great on hard packed, great on rocks, great in deep or shallow puddles/streams. I run 18psi front and rear. You can drift it in the sand and it takes a lot less fighting than the YZ did. Pretty predictable.

And at the end of the day, on the trails, I was every bit as fast as my buddy on the YZ250. Of course, I'm not even hinting they are similar in power. It literally makes around 1/3 the power that my yz125 did. That is one of my few complaints. It really could use more power. Going up steep hills, starting at the top of third, you always have to downshift to second and sometimes first, wide open the whole time (on like a 30 percent grade) to get up. But the nice thing is that the torque curve seems flat a a ruler, so you don't have to get the revs up and keep them there, there's just not that much power to go around. It's has a lot more bike than motor, but the engine runs great, never misses a beat, idles great and is super smooth.

A few more complaints. The seat hold down design is total garbage. Riding hard when you are standing and sitting all the time, you push the seat back a little and it falls off. Very convenient. And it takes an act of congress to get it back on. There's a possibility that there is a retaining screw to hold it in place once you snap it in, but I have not found it yet. Plus, you have to have the side plastic fairings in exactly the right spot when you slide the seat forward, or they will fall off too. All of the plastic fit/tolerance/grommets leave something to be desired.

Anyway, by the end of the weekend, most of the china jokes from my buddies had stopped and they were pretty impressed with what it was capable of considering the price.

Oh, also, mine was short one piece of plastic from the crate, and I contacted the company and they sent a new one quickly, so the only customer service I have had to do was painless.

At the end of the day, my buddy was just as sore as I always was on my yz in all the wrong places, and I was seriously fine. Tired, yes. Sore all over, no. It's a great bike for ergonomics.

I can also attest that it can go through every bit of 16" of water without the engine ingesting any or sputtering. I have not looked into installing the crankcase vent filter that this thread suggested, but it's on the list.

I guess those are the main things I wanted to share. Anybody considering one, I would give it a very strong thumbs up for value for your dollar. It also has a surprisingly large gas tank, and while I have not driven it on any roads, it seems to get great fuel economy.

Again, thanks for all the information in this thread. I truly appreciate it and wanted to try to return the favor as much as I could.

10-22-2017, 10:59 PM	#32
Todd91SS Join Date: Oct 2017 Posts: 1	I am new to this forum, but wanted to add some information that I hope will be helpful to you guys. This thread was the reason I went with the Hawk over other china bikes I was considering. The information is really spectacular, and from what I have seen, has been 100% accurate, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'm a mechanical engineer and pretty picky when it comes to quality, so I wanted to just post a write up of some of the things I've learned in the past few months since I got my hawk. A little background.... I'm 40, and two years ago, we got a house with enough land to ride on. The kids had little quads and I wanted a dirt bike again, as I had not ridden since high school. And back then, I was always on something cheap, envying all the YZ's, CR's and RM's. So I bought a 2001 YZ125 modified all to hell. Big bore 144cc athena cylinder, not one stock part on the whole engine, and the same for the suspension. It was a rocket ship. We have a local track around us that is not a trail track, it's a moto-x track with big boy jumps. A friend of mine bought a YZ250 the same time I bought the 125. We both went to the track. Both of us have done a fair amount of car racing, but neither of us are experienced dirt riders. He has raced street bikes, I have not. But we're not too bad for a couple of old guys. Well, we got out there and it quickly became apparent that we were not 20 anymore. We'd go out for a 5 minute session and almost died, plus, both bikes had very grabby clutches with a tendency to die, so you got to also stop, with full gear, sweating like crazy and kick start it 5 or 10 times every time you laid it over or killed it. Not only that, the actual comfort was absolutely garbage, and I was sore in places I never knew I had. That, plus the enjoyment of trying to hold up the bike while finding your triangle after you could barely walk after a session was awesome. The choke had no happy spot, it flooded easy as hell, whatever.... Plus, it was way the hell faster than I had any need for and needed constant care and feeding. So I decided to get rid of it and get an old mans bike, ie, one that had an electric starter, kickstand, some level of comfort, 4 stroke, air cooled. Low to no maintenance like the kids quads and dirt bikes, which are china ones (tao tao) and they take a beating like none other and just keep on going. Cut to the chase... this weekend, I took the hawk to the track for the first time since I got it. We went to the badlands in Attica, IN. My buddy still has his YZ250 and he ran that. I got all sorts of crap for exchanging my real bike for a china toy. The hawk was a champ. And we ran the hell out of the bikes for 5 hours straight. A bit on how I have it set up - A few things were immediately obvious when I first sat on it. It was comfortable as hell, both of my feet could touch the ground, and it was extremely softly sprung, especially in the front. By the way, someone mentioned the pegs being slippery, and they certainly are until you pop out the absolutely ridiculous plastic things in them for some unknown reason, and then you have normal pegs. Mine did not come with instructions, but I have restored and built a wide variety of vehicles, so it wasn't rocket science. As far as the comments that many of the bolts are not tight from the factory, I found that to be partially true, but not on critical things like head bolts or suspension parts. They did pretty good on that. I have a small track in the yard with jumps just for test and tune, and right away, the suspension was bottoming out hard front and rear, with what I would consider to be a pretty medium jump. Nothing crazy. So, I ran the triple clamps all the way up, which helped, but I was still hitting the front fender a lot. I am around 210 lbs btw, and we are talking around 3 feet of air off the jumps, not 30. I'm far from a moto-x champ. I followed the advice of others who suggested increasing the viscosity of the fork fluid, as well as the amount. Most of the people said the stock volume was 150ml. Both of mine were filled to exactly 180. I put in 15w oil, 195ml in both sides. Big improvement, but it still bottoms out when I'm hard on it. My next step will be to make longer spacers for the top above the springs. The stock spacers are around an inch and I'm going to try going up to 2" and see how it does. The rear suspension also bottoms out, and I have seen absolutely no way to really adjust that. The front is a much larger concern though. The brakes are fine, I have never had them fade even during extended hard riding. The comfort and ease of actually riding it are awesome. It has probably the most forgiving clutch of any bike or quad I've ever ridden. Almost impossible to kill, and if you do, it fires right back up. Speaking of firing up, I liked the idea of the backup kick starter if the battery died, but I tried to kickstart it a few times and not only is it pretty high compression, you have to kick the hell out of it for it to fire. Even after it's warmed up. I would hate to try to kickstart it cold. The tires are every bit as good as the tires I was running on the YZ. They are great in deep sand, great on hard packed, great on rocks, great in deep or shallow puddles/streams. I run 18psi front and rear. You can drift it in the sand and it takes a lot less fighting than the YZ did. Pretty predictable. And at the end of the day, on the trails, I was every bit as fast as my buddy on the YZ250. Of course, I'm not even hinting they are similar in power. It literally makes around 1/3 the power that my yz125 did. That is one of my few complaints. It really could use more power. Going up steep hills, starting at the top of third, you always have to downshift to second and sometimes first, wide open the whole time (on like a 30 percent grade) to get up. But the nice thing is that the torque curve seems flat a a ruler, so you don't have to get the revs up and keep them there, there's just not that much power to go around. It's has a lot more bike than motor, but the engine runs great, never misses a beat, idles great and is super smooth. A few more complaints. The seat hold down design is total garbage. Riding hard when you are standing and sitting all the time, you push the seat back a little and it falls off. Very convenient. And it takes an act of congress to get it back on. There's a possibility that there is a retaining screw to hold it in place once you snap it in, but I have not found it yet. Plus, you have to have the side plastic fairings in exactly the right spot when you slide the seat forward, or they will fall off too. All of the plastic fit/tolerance/grommets leave something to be desired. Anyway, by the end of the weekend, most of the china jokes from my buddies had stopped and they were pretty impressed with what it was capable of considering the price. Oh, also, mine was short one piece of plastic from the crate, and I contacted the company and they sent a new one quickly, so the only customer service I have had to do was painless. At the end of the day, my buddy was just as sore as I always was on my yz in all the wrong places, and I was seriously fine. Tired, yes. Sore all over, no. It's a great bike for ergonomics. I can also attest that it can go through every bit of 16" of water without the engine ingesting any or sputtering. I have not looked into installing the crankcase vent filter that this thread suggested, but it's on the list. I guess those are the main things I wanted to share. Anybody considering one, I would give it a very strong thumbs up for value for your dollar. It also has a surprisingly large gas tank, and while I have not driven it on any roads, it seems to get great fuel economy. Again, thanks for all the information in this thread. I truly appreciate it and wanted to try to return the favor as much as I could.
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