Hawk 250 basic questions

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by SeanM76

See I'm glad I asked because I wouldn't have guessed the exhaust made a difference to the carb. I plan on changing out the exhaust as well. Although I'm not doing that till next spring when I completely change out the carb as well.

Do like I did and just remove or gut the cat on the stock exhaust. It will be a big improvement. Nothing wrong with the stock carb unless you change the pilot jet. Those seem to be non existing. That why most upgrade the carb.

[SeanM76]

How do I gut the cat? Same as a car? Jam a broom handle in there spin around a few times and dump out?

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by SeanM76

How do I gut the cat? Same as a car? Jam a broom handle in there spin around a few times and dump out?

Not that easy. You will need to either cut it completely off and weld a section of pipe in its place or cut it open and remove the guts. I have a thread on here somewhere about it.
http://www.chinariders.net/showthrea...t=17913&page=3

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by SeanM76

See I'm glad I asked because I wouldn't have guessed the exhaust made a difference to the carb. I plan on changing out the exhaust as well. Although I'm not doing that till next spring when I completely change out the carb as well.

That's good plan. Breaking it in with fresh American/Canadian oil, changing the fork oil, the brake fluid, and being sure that the front and back axles have grease on them, as well as the swing arm pivot bolt, is what you should do first. I would adjust the valves real soon as well (.003 intake, .004 exhaust). These bikes come from the factory almost always with the valves set too tight. You odometer reads in kilometers, so at about 800 kilometers it is broke in. That's enough for now. Then you can read up on carb tuning and exhaust effect on carburetion this winter, and change exhaust and carb before the spring riding season. I started a column on here called Hawk Talk, and if you page through it, you will find out maybe more than you want to know about carburetors and exhaust systems.....ARH

[pistolclass]

Tinkering with a carb is why I recommend buying a mikuni. (the fake one for about 30-40 bucks on ebay) easy to get too and if you completely hose it you can just pop on your old one in an emergency.

30 is a little fat, I would start with a 25 and see how it goes from there. The higher you are in elevation the less fuel you need. less dense air means less dense fuel needed.

Our colorado friends are so high...er I mean in elevation they require less fuel via the carb.

This illustration helps me and I still refer to it:

[olddirty]

Originally Posted by Michigan_Misfit

Yes it has a choke it is accessible from the left side of the bike just line up with the shut off valve then go down 6 inches and in to the carb you will find a big black lever it has 3 positions all the way down is choke off all the way up is choke on and there is a half choke inbetween

I tried to start my new Hawk twice and both times it sounded like the choke was on. I couldn't find the lever. I came back with a flashlight and located it then I couldn't understand how to operate it because the black lever was doing the opposite action to the actual choke lever. Now I'm confident to start it.