1988 Hawk NT650 resto

mikey said:
Best idea is to take the tank to the best paintless dent repair guy in your area. It takes experience to do a good repair and buying a set of tools and having a go might be fun but you will be money ahead just having the work done. I'm not just saying that. My brother has a set of tools and I've used them on an old tank. Its much harder than it looks.

Nice bike, David!
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Thanks Mike!
Completely agree with you!
I’m good with the mechanical bits but the bodywork aspects are outside my scope of experience. Plus I’d like it to actually look nice :D


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That's a nice looking bike, David. My motorcycle days ended many decades ago, so I'm not very familiar with newer models. If you look at my avatar, that and other cars I've rebuilt or modified make 1988 look space-age new! My last bike was a Honda 550 '74 or '75 as I recall. What kind of engine issues are you dealing with? Will you need to do a complete rebuild?

Regards,
Terry
 
tjb said:
That's a nice looking bike, David. My motorcycle days ended many decades ago, so I'm not very familiar with newer models. If you look at my avatar, that and other cars I've rebuilt or modified make 1988 look space-age new! My last bike was a Honda 550 '74 or '75 as I recall. What kind of engine issues are you dealing with? Will you need to do a complete rebuild?

Regards,
Terry
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It’s mostly neglect. The carb slides are really tight which is suspect is a result of varnish buildup from poor storage.
It turns over fine but will not catch. So nothing seized, it only has 15k miles on it and the engines were really strong and understressed with only 50’ish hp.
It may have seen some track time as the rad hoses are safety wired.


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What are your plans for the suspension? Some cartridge forks and a Penske triple clicker out back would transform that bike.
 
mikey said:
What are your plans for the suspension? Some cartridge forks and a Penske triple clicker out back would transform that bike.
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It may get a CBR front end if I can find one at a reasonable price. Otherwise it will get some Gold Valve emulators.
Out back it already has a Progressive Suspension shock with remote reservoir with preload, rebound and compression damping adjustments.
Full Two Brothers Racing exhaust also.


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tjb said:
So would some ape-hanger handlebars, black leather saddlebags with silver rivets and lace, and skull and cross bone chrome foot pegs.
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No, on a bike that is actually capable of leaning into a turn, no!
 
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DavidR8 said:
It may get a CBR front end if I can find one at a reasonable price. Otherwise it will get some Gold Valve emulators.
Out back it already has a Progressive Suspension shock with remote reservoir with preload, rebound and compression damping adjustments.
Full Two Brothers Racing exhaust also.


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Do the forks if you can. Emulators can be tuned and oil viscosity can be chosen to improve rebound but cartridge forks will do it with the turn of a screwdriver. If you prefer the feel of stock forks or plan to race in a class that requires stock fork externals then great but for ease of adjustability, improved braking and easier ability to balance the tune of the suspension, cartridge forks are the way to go.

I have a 2010 SV650S with GSXR forks and a Penske triple clicker in back and I can tell you that those mods totally transformed the bike from a decent street bike into a real sport bike. It isn't the fastest thing on the street but it will keep up with most anything in the turns.
 
DavidR8 said:
I rode one of these when they first came out. Didn’t have the coin to buy one but it stuck in my head.
Good luck with your racing efforts! I love seeing these bikes compete as they still give a good showing.
What team are you supporting?


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The Hawk belongs to Harry Vanderlinden, a former pro ama guy that rode for Yoshumura back in the day., team mate of Wes Coolie. I just do the suspension work. I do a bunch of that work for him and some other guys that worked for Kevin Schwants when he had a riding school going.

one of the guys who works with me just sold his Hawk.
 
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