New Hawk is awesome, just remember the Locktite

[Bazook]

First off I want to say thank you to everyone on here that has posted about the Hawk, you guys are the reason I bought one. Bought mine used with 22 miles on the clock, but it ran like awful. So the first update it got was a Mikuni clone upgrade and a home made gasket between the carburetor and intake to stop an air leak, now it runs like it should. I replaced the front sprocket with a 16 and the rear with a 44, now cruises 55+ without trying to shake its self apart. So there I was cruising down a country road 30 miles away from home enjoying the fruits of my labor when it happened, a loud bang, a grinding noise, and then out of the corner of my eye I see it, my front drive sprocket spinning off into oncoming traffic, and down into a field. As I sat on the side of the road waiting for a friend to show up with a trailer, I couldn't help but rerun some of the post on here in my head, "Locktite anything that can come loose." but i didn't, i got in a rush to ride and test out my new sprockets....lesson learned. By the way, anyone on the fence about this bike should absolutely buy one, its a great bike and you wont be sorry, just don't be in a rush and Locktite, Locktite, Locktite.

[BlackBike]

First off I want to say thank you to everyone on here that has posted about the Hawk, you guys are the reason I bought one. Bought mine used with 22 miles on the clock, but it ran like awful. So the first update it got was a Mikuni clone upgrade and a home made gasket between the carburetor and intake to stop an air leak, now it runs like it should. I replaced the front sprocket with a 16 and the rear with a 44, now cruises 55+ without trying to shake its self apart. So there I was cruising down a country road 30 miles away from home enjoying the fruits of my labor when it happened, a loud bang, a grinding noise, and then out of the corner of my eye I see it, my front drive sprocket spinning off into oncoming traffic, and down into a field. As I sat on the side of the road waiting for a friend to show up with a trailer, I couldn't help but rerun some of the post on here in my head, "Locktite anything that can come loose." but i didn't, i got in a rush to ride and test out my new sprockets....lesson learned. By the way, anyone on the fence about this bike should absolutely buy one, its a great bike and you wont be sorry, just don't be in a rush and Locktite, Locktite, Locktite.

No damage? I take it you lost the sprokets? Bad karma better spin the prayer wheel.

Mabey human being will bless with some good Chinese wisdom.

[humanbeing]

Bad karma better spin the prayer wheel...
Isn't USA's motoo In God We Trust? Someone w/ asian background willl suggest it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Festival (unfriendly to ducks in South) fault.
Back to the real world:
Check ALL bolt's tightness...
The rubber cushion around fuel tank maybe not strong enough in this model, fuel cap dancing & cracks around petcock often heard. Find some way to improves it...

[Weldangrind]

Welcome, Bazook!


I'm glad to hear that you weren't hurt when the sprocket parted company. I'm sure that most of us have been eager to ride a new bike, without necessarily dealing with all of the details. I'm in that club.

[firebank]

I'm in the same boat man, I didn't locktite anything and lost a bolt out of my front brake caliber yesterday. But it's a blast to be on. 188 miles in a couple days.

[Fame28]

I assembled all of my bike very meticulously, but did not loctite anything. Most of all the motor mount bolts lost their nuts or came loose including the exhaust header flange bolts. Make sure to double nut the header bolts and loctite even the bolts the factory tightened or you will be at the local hardware store trying to match nuts and bolts to replace stuff.... I also had the issue of my gas tank petcock leaking, so make sure you epoxy it if it breaks or just do it ahead of time to save you that headache later. The tubes in the tires are very thin and slowly lose pressure so replace them or just check you air tire pressure weekly.