RPS Hawk Unstable?
 

2 Issues:
1.) My totally stock RPS Hawk doesn’t feel stable on the road. I have 32psi front 40 rear. It seems to want to wander side to side. I ride mostly for now on suburban and country roads. When I approach 40mph especially I feel the bike wants to move side to side - almost like I’m being hit with small gusts of wind. I have about 150 units on my odometer (km or mi - not sure which). Going over 40 at this point doesn’t seem safe. Is there something wrong with the bike or is it in my head?
2.) The long asphalt joint lines make the bike shimmy/shudder very fast side to side when my rear wheel gets in them. Is this normal? Same thing happens in the rain grooves on concrete roads. It’s really unsettling!

Thanks for any insight!

Concidering this time of year is kinda windy , I would say that you are indeed experiencing the wind shoving you around. I had a similar experience as you when I first started riding my Brozz on the faster roads. You learn to deal with it, but it is always going to be windy sometimes. You get used to it, and when you realize that even though you feel it pushing against you, you are still in control. I don't dread it now like I did. I especially dreaded watching oncoming vehicles coming towards me, in windy conditions. I only have about 550 miles on my bike now, so I am still inexperienced. I don't dread the wind like I did, but I do still get unpleasantly surprised by the gust from oncoming Semi , and box trucks. I am ready for them, but find them unpredictable. Sometimes it has little to no effect, and other times it really tries to throw the bike around. You will start to get used to it. I'm a worrier, and it make relaxing on the bike a longer process, but as I do get more, and more relaxed on the bike, the more a natural instinct takes over, and I realize that I have really advanced. One ideally needs to be intelligent enough to understand the potential risk of any situation, but confident enough to trust their ability. I have always been slow to gain confidence, but when I do get the hang of something ,I am usually average, or above average at doing it.

I'm embarrassed to admit this but I experienced a very similar issue until I realized I forgot to put the spacer on my front tire.

Ah man, now you made me wonder. I checked. The spacer is in and the axle is all torqued down. My issue is probably wind and lack of confidence. Thanks Bill Hilly for walking me through it. Guess I just have to build confidence that when the bike wiggles around I’ll be ok.

Have you tried messing with your tire pressure ?your numbers seem very high to me for a knobby tire bike .

Nope, face it, it's the bike. Cheap materials and wanky tolerances.

I have a couple of good quality bikes and after riding them getting on the China bike scares me sh!%Le$$.

Check your wheel bearings, especially the rear which are known failure points...apparently they're not so good at installing them properly.

Check your steering stem bearings. Mine were really loose, but too loose or too tight and the bike will weave.

Funny. My shitty chinese bikes have both been perfectly fine and stable., no .better or worse than my big name bikes. I think this is a case of PEBSAS - Problem Exists Between Seat And Sky.


This is where I would check first. Not only would a lack of proper tension cause these types of issues, but a lack of grease as well, which the Hawks are especially bad about. My steering stem bearings were completely devoid of grease. Proper prep and setup goes far with these bikes.

I also agree with Bruces, some of it might be in the tire pressure. 40psi is the max recommended rear, but that is intended for when riding 2 up, or if you are loaded down with luggage. If the tire doesn't have enough give it can feel a little twitchy due to a lack of resisfance.

On top of every one's comments, my experience with my new Hawk reminded me of how "weird" driving on blacktop with new knobby tires is. It has been a long time for me and even though I am a daily street MC driver, the Hawk feels very loose and doesn't want to track well. I replaced all my bearings and the air pressure is the recommended 32psi front and 40 rear. I love the bike so I'll keep trying to get used to it but I may change to a combo tire down the road. Good luck with your experience and bike.

That's a good point as well, if you're not used to riding Knobbies on the pavement it can feel a bit weird. Especially for less experienced riders that might actually be gripping the bars way to hard and not letting the bike "flow"

Lots of good tips here though to find the source of the issue......The only one I disagree with is that it's because it's a chinese bike - that's just dog poopie, these bikes can be great with a little knowledge and prep.

What's your previous riding experience? If you are coming from a road bike, a knobby will feel squirrely as hell at first. Your pressure is pretty high, you will probably get some funny center ware after a while.

This is a prime example of why these bikes should be put together by professionals. Sadly the Average user will have a really hard time putting the bike together (properly) and when they fail to do so, it's easier to blame the motorcycle.

You can take the most expensive motorcycle in the world and if it is put together by someone that doesn't know how, it will ride like crap.


Try to have both the front and rear at 30 psi.
Also check the spokes and the wheel bearings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fqLmSY_4sw

I disagree, there's no reason why the average joe with a little bit of mechanical knowledge can't put these together. In fact these bikes are a GREAT way to learn how to wrench on your bikes. The biggest factor here (assuming the person is competent) is the lack of assembly instructions. So people need to do a little of their own research if they are unsure. And yes, these need a little extra care.

I agree with the end of your statement, when not assembled and setup properly it's easy to blame the bike and many people will. I always assume I did something wrong before I blame whatever equipment I'm dealing with, but that's just me.

The Average Joe i'm talking about is the one that don't want to learn and just blame the product because it's made in China, or in "x" place
Instead of finding if he or she made and mistake and how to fix it.

It is a cheap bike. With cheap parts. With no real quality control or engineering. They are a great learning bike but I got rid of mine asap and got a real jap bike. The difference between the 2 is insane.

That said, on the 50/50 tirea my jap bike would do 80 on the road no prob.
With the 80/20 tires it is a little wonky at speed on the road. So I would suggest a tire upgrade.

Changing the fork oil can help as well.

I would also check for proper chain slack. The one issue I have with the hawk is the flexy swingarm and rubber swingarm bushings. You can feel it move especially when riding it back to back with another similar sized bike in the same riding conditions. The back end does move around a little. I will be doing the swingarm and shock upgrade if I end up keeping the bike long term. The rest of the bike is not too bad for the money :)

If nothing else works try lowering the front forks a little in the trees. Mine was really squirrely, and I had tried everything suggested and nothing else worked, but as soon as I lowered the forks an inch the bike tracked like my old Honda did.

Just going back to tire pressure, 32 and 40 seem really high for knobby or knobbyesh (new word) tires. I have always ran 20 lbs. in both f/r from my Honda Thumper days and I recall Motocheez, saying on that "Raven" video he always runs 18 lbs. ...so what's the story? At 20 lbs. my bike feels just dandy!

I've been doing allot more off roading lately and run my DOT knobbys about 16lbs, and forget and ride it on the road like that and they seem just fine. However if I'm not an idiot, and I remember, I usually run about 25-30lbs.

When I first got mine I think the manual said like 32/35 lbs, and it rode pretty harsh.

My new Hawk dlx manual says 32 front and 40 back. The problem is on the side of both tires is a 32 max inflation pressure. Just thinking we may not want to go over what the tire says on the sidewall. Just a thought

When i ran knobbies on my roketa or even on my kawi KE100 i never went past 28psi in either tire... if it was up padt that it would feel sketchy as heck and the front and back would get real squirrelly and lock onto any small cracks in the road, dragging me all over the place...

Even now with street tire on my roketa with the supermoto conversion i am running 28 front and rear with no issues...

What about the rear axle?

Are you sure it’s perfectly lined up from any chain tightening adjustments or from original assembly?

That can make things pretty drifty

I'm old enough to recall the same crap being said about the Jap bikes when they first started being imported to America. Guess what? The bikes were fine, it was the perceptions of the buying public being stoked by domestic and European manufacturers to protect the market share. How'd that work out? Guess which is now the most popular brand in America? Honda.

I know that this is an old post but I have found that lowering the front forks about an inch made my Hawk much more stable.
Maybe made the forks stiffer?

My hawk did the same thing,all over the road. It would follow the drizzle lines almost change lanes for no reason. The tires are like the old 8ply truck tires completely uncontrollable for about 700miles . At 2k its a completely different bike. I started to buy tires at 200 miles but I'm glad I didn't . You just have to ride it out.