Honda NT 650 GT Hawk
I've had some small problems with the Hawk this year that have taken too long to fix because I've not given the bike enough attention. Also I've finally cleaned up the looks by having the wheels sandblasted and resprayed.
@ all the Hawk-fans: September 10-12 I've attended the Hawk-meeting in Essen-Kettwich (Germany). Not as big an event as the biannual Pegestorf affair but well worth the visit all the same. Hawk meeting .
In March I visited Hoogland Motoren, a well known dutch Hawk specialist. I went there for a regular service but wanted the bike to do a Dynojet testrun as well. To see how it performed, what fuel-air ratio was like and what could be improved. As it turned out the Hawk was healthy (50BHP at the rear wheel) but didn't do too well at higher revs. So I let them talk me into having a K&N Stage 3-kit installed, that is with the seperate airfilters instead of the original box. As shown in the pics, original on the left, seperate K&N on the right.
The improvement in performance is definitely noticable and it feels stronger than the 53bhp and 55Nm that the chart showed (couldn't retrieve the files from the floppy so these graphs will follow at a later date).
As it was before the change the Hawk didn't like revs above 7500rpm very much and I hardly went into the red zone. Now it pulls crisply until it hits the revlimiter. Biggest difference however is the instant pickup after changing up a gear at full accelleration. You can tell a lot by the recording of a testrun, loud but healthy! The alteration isn't without drawbacks however. There is no gain in performance at all up to about 5500rpm (no loss either) and the air induction noise is a lot louder. Almost too loud to my taste. So is it worth about 170 Euro? I think it is, but if you like your bike quiet, forget about it!.
The HAWK-meet at the Luchtvaartmuseum Soesterberg on September 28th was spoilt by bad weather. Causing all but the hardiest (or those that lived nearby) to cancel. We'll try again next spring when the Hawks have crawled from their winterlair and are ready to spread the wings again.
5-7 September 2003 there was an international Hawk Meeting in Pegestorf, Germany that I attended. A report with lots of pictures on my Hawk-treffen page.
Also check http://www.gt647.de to see the fantastics pictures that Dirk has uploaded on his Hawk-site and the report on the new german Hawk forum www.hawkster.de
Last years international Hawk meeting (September 13th-15th 2002) was at the Nurburgring.
I didn't attend that one myself, reading the stories and watching the pictures I am sorry I didn't go. Going round
the actual Nurburgring must have been as good as scary. There is a really worthwile report with lots of pictures on
Steve Beatty's website and on
Marcus Lacroix's website Marcus has also got a report on the 2001 meeting in Pegestorf. Unfortunately he no longer rides a Hawk but the site and the love for the bike remains.
I've owned a completely stock Honda Hawk from 1996 to 1997. I always liked the bikes character but it certainly has its limitations in size, comfort and range due to the tiny fuel capacity.
So it had to go. Now I have the perfect solution, the Triumph for long hauls and burning rubber and the Hawk for the v-twin
sound and fun on the back roads. (errrmm, so what the h... is the excuse for my TRX then?!?!) The left image is the one I had in 1996 and the one on the right is the one I own now.
All Hawks were built in 1988 and 1989, but not all were sold then. Mine has a 1992 registration and by now around 21.000 miles on the clock. The parts that differ from original are the exhaust system, indicators, front fork and suspension, mirrors, flyscreen and the paintwork on the wheels (not too sure about that color).
May 19th 2002 I attended a Hawk-meeting that started at a pub in Beesd. For various reasons (mainly holidays) there were just 6 showings compared to 18 last year. That was a bit of a shame. But it was fun to meet some other enthousiasts, see their solutions and listen to other ideas. Leo Wesselink organised the day and had laid out an interesting tour through the Betuwe. At the lunch stop I took a few pictures of the Hawks. The one on the left is mine. The others ranged from stock to streetfighter look and a raised exhaust with not much of a silencer.
As you can see there were some different bikes that tagged along as well. The more the merrier. The organiser no longer owns
a Hawk. It now looks to be a year without a dutch Hawk-meeting.
