[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by wmwalker

I guess this is as good a place as any to introduce three new hawks in SC.
We ordered these as a family. Two for mine and one for my brother-in-law. I assembled a blue and a black, brother-in-law assembled a blue. It took about 6 hours to put the two together. Brother-in-law took a few days.
In all fairness I used to work at Honda of Rantoul (in Illinois) and Honda of Tampa. Both part time jobs back in the early 70's when I was in the military. I assembled many a CRM250 (Elsinore) before they were made in Marysville Ohio. So this task was kinda remedial sandpile.

Here are a few tips echoed elsewhere in this forum.
1) Change the oil. I use Rotella T synthetic. Great for these air cooled engines that go from ambient to close to 200F on hot days. Change again at 50K. Rotella is cheap. $12-$13 at Walmart for 2+ oil changes.

2) Change the spark plug. Picked up NGK DPRE8EA-9 's for a few bucks.

3) Set the valve lash. Both bikes were DRASTICALLY wrong. Daylight shown through the blue bike intake. About the width of a screwdriver tip. Blue bike exhaust had NO lash. Black bike had both valves with no lash either. Remember tappy is happy. RPS manual says 0.05 MM. Not inches.

4) Locktite (blue) everything. And I mean everything except the key slot. Be sure to tighten all nuts and bolts. Don't forget the triple tree. Very important.

5) Lube the cables. Don't use WD-40. I used good chain lube.

6) Inflate the tires. China has a bad air. Blue bike had 10lbs on front, 12lbs on back. Black bike had nearly no pressure on either tire. Front 32psi, Back 40psi. This is not a trials bike. Check your tire pressure daily for a while. Black bike had two bad schrader valves. I stole them from brother-in-laws truck. It will be weeks before he figures it out. (not really)

7) Tweak or replace the carb. Brother-in-law's bike has the original whatisit carb and the bike will not run unless it is half choke. I replaced the carbs with the Mikuni/Keihin PZ30 clones. After re-jetting to 110/30 and a bit of tweaking the black hawk stands on it's tail with throttle only. My wife is a beginner so her's is detuned a bit (until she finds out).
Both bikes start with no choke and after a minute or two for warm up, they are ready to roll. Warm up is really necessary for these CG clone pushrod engines. Circulate that oil!

8) Adjust that rear brake pedal. Straight in-line with the foot peg. Adjust the clutch cable (after lube).


These bikes come with the Honda CG clone engine. It is a durable, long lasting, tame and easy to maintain engine that will last for years. I found a Haosen 250 clone powering a quad runner that had 30k miles on it. The owner uses it at construction sites every day. Told me that one day he may even change the oil. I believe if you take care of these fine bikes they was last for years.

Your bikes look great. Thanks for posting the comprehensive list of items to check after receiving a Hawk motorcycle, especially the valve lash. Tight valves will quickly become burnt valves.