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Emails
I wish I would have thought to start this a long time ago. Once in awhile I get a really neat note from some Nighthawk rider, and just recently I thought how cool it would be to share them here. (I always will ask permission first.) So, if you have some reflections on biking that you would like to share with others, send me a note, and be sure and let me know if you would like me to print your email address. I will use an advanced Java script to scramble your email address before publishing your address. -Paul
October 2005
Hey, Paul, thanks for the site!
You asked to have visitors write to you about their 'hawks, so here
I am writing about mine. I picked my '83 CB550 'hawk up for $100 from
a guy whose mother-in-law used it as a commuter. Apparently she had
been riding home at dusk, misjudged a curve, and ran up over a curb,
thru some bushes, and finally dumped it by a tree. The front wheel has
a bit of bead missing, the headlight lens and mounting arms are broken,
the speedo housing cracked, and for some reason whenever you hit the
starter it overloads the circuit breaker, but the engine turns if you
put it in first and push the bike. Unless, of course, the clutch is
just slipping.
Apart from the front-end damage and a little bit of denting on the
tank, the rest of the bike is in excellent shape. They kept it covered
in the garage in the event that they would be able to repair it, but
out of sight means out of mind (the driving concept to all these
mega-storage facilities, I think), and there it sat for a year or so.
Their son in law attempted to work on it, but knows nothing of
mechanics, and quickly gave up. They then thought of parting it out on
ebay, but since the rest of them couldn't figure out which end of the
screwdriver you use to hit the nail, that idea got scrapped too. It
wasn't until I posted an ad to Craigslist asking for basket-case bikes
that he saw his 'out' and offered it to me.
My plan is to replace the front wheel, repair the damaged headlight
arms and get a new bulb, patch the speedo housing, and sell it to a
friend of mine. I think it will make a perfect first ride, and he's
already sat on it and likes the stance. I'd keep it for myself, but as
I already have three other bikes, I think that's pushing it. Well, I
don't, but the wife does. LOL!
Anyway, thanks again!
Nick Lenarz
May 2006
Hi, Paul,
Thanks for putting up the Nighthawk site, it's terrific in many ways, has been a help to me so far and no doubt will continue to be.
Mine got trailered home last November ('05), a fiftieth birthday gift to myself. I've been wanting for 30 years to have a motorcycle, Plan A was formulated some 7 years ago, which was to find an old bike, buy it, take the training and get some road miles under me on it, then sell it after a year and move on to the bike I really wanted, which I was thinking for a long time was a '90 750 Nighthawk.
Plan B turns out that I found the bike I really wanted, this is it. I'm smitten, nothing's going to pry this one away from me. I dropped a line to the woman I bought it from the other day to thank her for not wanting it.
Here's my impressions from my 1st week of riding (mostly just commuting to work):
2.) I feel as though I've already been riding for a long time (instead of six days practice, then the M.S.F. Basic Rider course last weekend and then this week's commute to work.).
3.) I am totally comfortable, at one with it, into the routines of helmet, gloves, boots, shifting, turning, leaning, anticipating, canceling the turn signal, stopping in balance and scanning around me.
4.) As people have said, the smells are as much a part of it as the wind: wood in a fireplace, garlic in olive oil, fried chicken in the fat, Rohm & Haas baking acrylic, bread baking in the oven, oil & gas, mowed grass, wet pavement, everything in bloom in Spring.
5.) It's average to see 6~8 vehicles at a time run red lights at high speed, every day, every time, often 18-wheelers and box trucks.
6.) The 12~15 seconds of steel grating on the bridge over the Delaware River doesn't get any easier to acclimate to with repeat runs, it's still unsettling in it's wiggliness.
7.) It's a lot easier to be very precise in speeds on a motorcycle / there are no speed limits, or consequences, for most drivers, they do whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want.
8.) Most are in no way shy of coming to within inches of the bike when stopping, from behind or the sides.
9.) Riding a motorcycle is an amplification of all the senses, like it or not.
10.) I may have found my first and last bike, it fits me like a glove, or an old pair of comfortable shoes; is big enough and small enough, old enough and like-new enough, and I love the way it looks, too.
11.) Having worn & tested all of my accumulated riding gear through a variety of temperatures & conditions I'm happy and lucky to have chosen correctly, as it all works the way it should.
12.) I went to the supermarket and found the helmet doubled as a shopping basket for carrots & celery.
13.) The wind on a hot evening heading home from work is invigorating.
14.) A louder horn gets installed this weekend.
15.) The headlight is superior to the Jeep's.
16.) The balance and anticipation skills from skiing are at work / play here, as was agreed by a fellow student at the M.S.F. class.
Paul Hollerbach
December 2006
Paul,
Your website is great! After much searching your site was one one the
best places to get information and encouraged me to get a nighthawk to
ride myself!
I had limited funds last summer and found a wrecked 2001 750 with only
6k miles about 100 miles from where i am living. Seeing as how I was
tired of being couped up in my dorm and ready to make a stupid move, I
bought it. The previous owned had hit a curb and practically everything
was broke. I didn't know the first thing about motorcycles or repairing
them but I thought to myself: I'm getting a degree in engineering, I
should be able to do this.
A couple of problems to overcome, My parents will likely disown me if
they ever found out I have a motorcycle so it had to be done away from
home. I was living in a friends frat house over the summer as I was on
a co-op full time. I had no tools or experience working on motors and
the one on the bike was cracked(crankcase). Other then that it's cake. I got the guys to let me set up in the corner of the 150 year old
garage(literally, its a historic building) so I had about 6 feet by 3
feet to work with in a section that previously had cupboards with no
lights and 1 electric socket. The bike fit only at an angle! I bought a
repair manual and the parts i needed from eBay over a couple of week and
ordered new gaskets. I used a donor motor bottom end but everything
from the connecting rods up i replaced. (I would recommend getting help
when lifting out the motor, my back hurt something fierce after I got
mine out. Also be careful not to strip out the cam sprocket bolt on the camshaft ;) ) I worked all summer and got it all put back together
the day before I had to move out for the fall semester and put the bike
in a parking deck which I obviously couldn't work in. Amazingly this
bike started on the first try! A true tribute to Honda engineering,
after all the crap I did wrong putting together I was sure it wouldn't work.
I put 600 miles on it this semester to and from class and taught myself
to ride. (Nobody I know owns a bike or has even driven one.) It still
runs great and I just put it up for the winter, using tips from your
page of course. I love this thing and would recommend it to anyone
looking for a bike currently.
James L
Cleveland Ohio
PS Sorry the photo is dark, the parking garage is a bit dim and I was
too tired to roll it outside now that the battery is out for the winter.