Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
HOLY SMOKES!!!!
My old scooter riding buddy, Glynn rode over from Jacksonville to see some family but we met up Saturday morning for breakfast and to hang out and check out my new Nighthawk.
So we did. He took it for a spin and thought it was nice and was cool enough to let me take his UM 650 sport cruiser around the block. That's a nice bike, very nice.
Then we went to get my next door neighbor to come see the bikes and we all decided to clean my carbs a bit. There was some thought that would increase the performance of the Nighthawk so I took it for a spin to see. It did indeed make the bike ride quite a bit better.
I'm no expert but this seems to be a very nice bike and even though it is 26 years old, it is in pretty good shape.
Anyway, after a quick hospital stay for me (weird day and a half experience), I got home and decided to ride the bike. It's funny how such a small ride around my neighborhood can make me feel.
On the Nighthawk forums, one of the regular posters told me that the Nighthawk has a really nice surge of power at 7k rpms.
In my limited riding, I had barely reached 4k rpms but today, my son was at the end of the driveway on my second lap encouraging me to 'GO!!!'.
So, I did.
I was enjoying the speed, the sound of the bike, the slight roar of the wind, THE HOLY SMOKES I AM SCREAMING DOWN THE ROAD.
Wow, what was that? It seems that on my Nighthawk, 5k rpm is where the funzone starts. It was very very smooth but a very very large surge in power. Very very smoth. Very very large gain in power.
I like my $250 Nighthawk!
So we did. He took it for a spin and thought it was nice and was cool enough to let me take his UM 650 sport cruiser around the block. That's a nice bike, very nice.
Then we went to get my next door neighbor to come see the bikes and we all decided to clean my carbs a bit. There was some thought that would increase the performance of the Nighthawk so I took it for a spin to see. It did indeed make the bike ride quite a bit better.
I'm no expert but this seems to be a very nice bike and even though it is 26 years old, it is in pretty good shape.
Anyway, after a quick hospital stay for me (weird day and a half experience), I got home and decided to ride the bike. It's funny how such a small ride around my neighborhood can make me feel.
On the Nighthawk forums, one of the regular posters told me that the Nighthawk has a really nice surge of power at 7k rpms.
In my limited riding, I had barely reached 4k rpms but today, my son was at the end of the driveway on my second lap encouraging me to 'GO!!!'.
So, I did.
I was enjoying the speed, the sound of the bike, the slight roar of the wind, THE HOLY SMOKES I AM SCREAMING DOWN THE ROAD.
Wow, what was that? It seems that on my Nighthawk, 5k rpm is where the funzone starts. It was very very smooth but a very very large surge in power. Very very smoth. Very very large gain in power.
I like my $250 Nighthawk!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
So, I have this nice Nighthawk. Maybe I ought to, you know, actually ride it....
I got the 1983 Nighthawk 650 back in December and due to many things, 50 hour work weeks, days off spent at my Wife's Childcare Center, winter, kids, sick kids and then moving, I was not able to get the Nighthawk on the road.
It had a stuck left front piston and seemed to have a carb issue.
The cool thing was that when we moved (to an awesome neighborhood, best schools in town, large home, huge yard for the kids) our next door neighbor (who is also our landlord) noticed the Nighthawk in the huge carport. We hadn't even moved in but the next day I brought a van load over to drop off and my neighbor stopped by to ask about the Nighthawk.
I told the story of how I got it ($300!!!!) and that it had some issues. He loves Nighthawks; his friend in college had one and he'd be more than happy to help me get it fixed. By the way, he also had a motorcycle, a Suzuki DR 200.
This neighborhood is looking even cooler!
Then he told me he had an old '66 VW Bug, too. Wow, I used to be a huge air cooled VW guy. Loved them! Owner many of them.
So, anyway, we tinkered on the Nighthawk a bit and got it running but didn't tackle the brakes since we both have families, work, etc etc.
However, Saturday my neighbor comes over and asks to borrow a part off the spare set of carbs that came with the Nighthawk (that I paid $300 for) but they were still at the old house.
He then says 'Well, let's get your bike running then.'
And that's what we did. We didn't exactly fix the brake, we circumvented the left one :) And, no, I'm not going to ride the Nighthawk anywhere until all the brakes are fixed but I still have a perfectly functioning rear and front right brake and many Nighthawks didn't come with dual front brakes and by golly I wanted to finally ride my Nighthawk!
So I did.
Wow. It is nice.
I've missed riding.
I can't describe the feeling you get riding. In my case, I was putting along in second gear doing 25 mph. But it was enough. I am a rider again.
I haven't ridden thousands and thousands of miles; I've put maybe 2500 miles on two wheelss, before I sold my Kymco last year.
But that was enough to feel 'it'. You know what 'it' is. The feeling you get from riding.
I probably rode less than three miles but it was enough...well, not nearly enough, but enough. For now.
And for the record, the Nighthawk is awesome. Very smooth, very comfortable and more than likely has more than enough power for me. I was able to give it a bit of throttle and was very happy to feel the surge of power...and I didn't come close to redline.
So, be assured there will be more updates and some better pictures of the Nighthawk. So stay tuned!
It had a stuck left front piston and seemed to have a carb issue.
The cool thing was that when we moved (to an awesome neighborhood, best schools in town, large home, huge yard for the kids) our next door neighbor (who is also our landlord) noticed the Nighthawk in the huge carport. We hadn't even moved in but the next day I brought a van load over to drop off and my neighbor stopped by to ask about the Nighthawk.
I told the story of how I got it ($300!!!!) and that it had some issues. He loves Nighthawks; his friend in college had one and he'd be more than happy to help me get it fixed. By the way, he also had a motorcycle, a Suzuki DR 200.
This neighborhood is looking even cooler!
Then he told me he had an old '66 VW Bug, too. Wow, I used to be a huge air cooled VW guy. Loved them! Owner many of them.
So, anyway, we tinkered on the Nighthawk a bit and got it running but didn't tackle the brakes since we both have families, work, etc etc.
However, Saturday my neighbor comes over and asks to borrow a part off the spare set of carbs that came with the Nighthawk (that I paid $300 for) but they were still at the old house.
He then says 'Well, let's get your bike running then.'
And that's what we did. We didn't exactly fix the brake, we circumvented the left one :) And, no, I'm not going to ride the Nighthawk anywhere until all the brakes are fixed but I still have a perfectly functioning rear and front right brake and many Nighthawks didn't come with dual front brakes and by golly I wanted to finally ride my Nighthawk!
So I did.
Wow. It is nice.
I've missed riding.
I can't describe the feeling you get riding. In my case, I was putting along in second gear doing 25 mph. But it was enough. I am a rider again.
I haven't ridden thousands and thousands of miles; I've put maybe 2500 miles on two wheelss, before I sold my Kymco last year.
But that was enough to feel 'it'. You know what 'it' is. The feeling you get from riding.
I probably rode less than three miles but it was enough...well, not nearly enough, but enough. For now.
And for the record, the Nighthawk is awesome. Very smooth, very comfortable and more than likely has more than enough power for me. I was able to give it a bit of throttle and was very happy to feel the surge of power...and I didn't come close to redline.
So, be assured there will be more updates and some better pictures of the Nighthawk. So stay tuned!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ok, here's the story...
Well, the FZR pictured below was going to be mine, but I really did not want or need 146 horsepower. But, it did ride well, at least, it felt good on the two mile ride I had on it. So, since the price was right, I decided that a good solution would be to take the FZR and trade it for something like a Ninja 250 or a dual sport.
So, off to Craigslist I went. I posted an ad saying it was in ok shape but probably needed some work so send me some trade offers. I got a million replies. Quickly.
Tons of offers for 600's, as if they need more power. Offers for some really cool bikes.
So, I asked a friend of mine who knows a lot more about bikes than I do to take a look at it and give me some idea of what it needs. A day or so before we were able to inspect the bike, my Nephew was riding it and it cut off on him in mid ride and he ended up having to push it home.
So, when my buddy checked it out, he did not give a good prognosis. Faced with the potential of $800 or so in repairs, with no way of knowing until someonme tore into the bike, I decided to not trade or sell it. Some minor work is one thing, but $1000 of wrk is something I was not comfortable trading to someone who might be hoping it was a minor fix.
However, I ran across a guy with an 89 Katana 1100 project bike. He had parked it a few years ago when he got his new bike. He said he'd let it go for $250 so I went to take a look. It had been sitting a while but looked pretty decent.
I mentioned it to one of the guys I had still been emailing and he sounded interested. Very interested. I emailed him and told him it looked nice but I had no idea what condition it was internally. He offered me his Nighthawk (see picture below)... I told him I'd do that trade but repeated several times in both email and over the phone that I knew next to nothing abotu the Katana or the owner. He said that was fine so after picking up the Katana, we rode over and traded a nonrunning Katana for the Nighthawk.
He says he is happy and I hope he gets the Katana running with no major problems but I am happy as can be with the Nighthawk in my garage.
So, off to Craigslist I went. I posted an ad saying it was in ok shape but probably needed some work so send me some trade offers. I got a million replies. Quickly.
Tons of offers for 600's, as if they need more power. Offers for some really cool bikes.
So, I asked a friend of mine who knows a lot more about bikes than I do to take a look at it and give me some idea of what it needs. A day or so before we were able to inspect the bike, my Nephew was riding it and it cut off on him in mid ride and he ended up having to push it home.
So, when my buddy checked it out, he did not give a good prognosis. Faced with the potential of $800 or so in repairs, with no way of knowing until someonme tore into the bike, I decided to not trade or sell it. Some minor work is one thing, but $1000 of wrk is something I was not comfortable trading to someone who might be hoping it was a minor fix.
However, I ran across a guy with an 89 Katana 1100 project bike. He had parked it a few years ago when he got his new bike. He said he'd let it go for $250 so I went to take a look. It had been sitting a while but looked pretty decent.
I mentioned it to one of the guys I had still been emailing and he sounded interested. Very interested. I emailed him and told him it looked nice but I had no idea what condition it was internally. He offered me his Nighthawk (see picture below)... I told him I'd do that trade but repeated several times in both email and over the phone that I knew next to nothing abotu the Katana or the owner. He said that was fine so after picking up the Katana, we rode over and traded a nonrunning Katana for the Nighthawk.
He says he is happy and I hope he gets the Katana running with no major problems but I am happy as can be with the Nighthawk in my garage.
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