The Honda Hawk GT, NT650, featuring a liquid cooled, V-twin motor made its appearance on the shores of the United States in 1988. While the magazines loved it, Nick Ienatsch of Motorcyclist Magazine even bought one for himself, Americans never understood it.
That was not the case with me. I was in High School when it came out and I first saw it on the pages of a Motorcyclist magazine. It took about a blink of an eye before I was smitten with the bike. I read every article I could find. Would frequent the motorcycle shops to snag brochures of the bike. I even forced my dad to take a Honda Demo-ride on the bike with me on the back (before I had my motorcycle endorsement) just so I could feel what the bike was like.
Yep, it was at Sturgis, and Honda even saw fit to take a polaroid of the event. I found this image in November 2003, 13 years and two months after the picture was taken. I was 17 years old.
Unfortunately, a high school part time job is not enough to make payments on a $3500 dollar motorcycle and I was forced to by a 81 Yamaha XZ550 Vision (at least it was a V-twin). By the time I had the resources to buy a Hawk, I simply could not find one in good condition. Seemed all the ones in Northern Utah had be completely abused. So I bought an FZR600 instead and proceeded to wear that bike out.
Flash forward about 10 years, I had graduated college, had a good job and was making good money when a friend called me and said; "Dave, there is an '88 Hawk in the Ogden Standard Examiner." Well, I looked over at my tax return check, sitting on the counter and jumped up, threw some tie downs in the truck and Kris and I took off towards Ogden.
I didn't have the forethought to take any "before" pictures of the bike. But the poor thing had spent the last eight years in a barn underneath a thick layer of pigeon poop. 10,996.3 miles read on the clock. The kid selling the bike did a mediocre job of spraying it off, but it only revealed the few blemishes in the bike.
Someone has fastened a makeshift chain guard out of sheet plastic and wood screws. I was informed that the chain had broken on the previous owner. The countershaft sprocket cover was shattered and it explained the missing chain guard. The tires were stock from the factory and probably still had Japanese air in them. The seat was full of holes but all the foam was still there. The turn signals were held on with classic gray duct-tape and the brake lever was broken. But there was no damage to the curb feelers or engine cases. The Kerker exhaust system had corroded to a solid black and the existing chain was so stretched that it had worn a hole in the pad of the center stand, but I started it and it ran great!
I talked the kid down to just under the amount of my tax return check and said sold. I probably paid more than what the bike was worth, loaded into the back of the truck and brought it home. Where, because of a lack of funding, I parked it in a corner and slowly started collecting parts. It needed new fork seals, a new chain, sprockets, battery and new tires before I could even think about riding it. It could also use a chain guard and a cover for the front sprocket and some mirrors. Slowly, perusing ebay, I started collecting parts from ebay, 
the Hawklist Forum and local shops.
- I scrounged up a set of .90kg Race-Tech fork springs
- A pair of Buell Traction handgrips.
- A pair of Napoleon Bar-End mirrors
- A set of VTR-SuperHawk clipons to replace the stupidly-tall oem clipons.
- I replaced the fat rubber footpegs with aluminum solid-mounted pegs.
- I was never very crazy about the size and the shape of the Hawk front fender, so I found a CB-1 Front fender to replace it.
- I never saw myself toting anybody around on the Hawk so I removed the passenger pegs, then built my own brackets to keep the rear fender from cracking.
- I installed a turn-signal eliminator kit, but quickly supplemented it with real-live signals because of safety/visibility concerns.
- I threw away the dopey Honda winkers and replaced them with a full-set of Buell turn signals.
That took me about two years to get through and install so I could register the bike and start riding. And the more I rode it the more I loved riding it. The bike is, simply stated, a gas! But I quickly overwhelmed the rear suspension, particularly since I'd upgraded the front springs. I found, what I believed to be a CBR900 shock for the bike (a popular modification), but that turned out to be false and my shock upgrade was actually worse that the stock Honda shock. So I started out on a quest to replace the rear shock that ended up with me breaking down and purchasing a Fox Shox rear shock just before the company quit building motorcycle components to focus more on mountain biking. But after installing the rear shock, the sidestand was just too darn short, so I installed a chunk of aluminum between the sidestand and the frame.
I also found that the VTR-Superhawk clipons were far too aggressive for my liking because it made the bike brutally uncomfortable, so I swapped clipons again, only this time I used VFR800 clipons with great results.
I polished the Kerker exhaust system until it gleamed and looked like new. I even went so far as to fit a titanium hanger! But the fact that they don't make Kerker exhausts for the Hawk anymore I was extremely paranoid about dropping the bike and damaging the irreplaceable component. Particularly since I was taking the little raptor out to the track more and more frequently. Because the Kerker was so rare, and mine was in such good condition, I was able to sell it to another Hawk rider, and use that money to purchase a M4, high-mount system, which has the added advantage of allowing enough clearance to remove the rear wheel without having to remove the exhaust system.
The more I rode it, I also started to notice an audible "clunk" coming from the drive line of the bike. The rubber cush-drive in the rear wheel gets hard with age, and 18 years is probably much longer than Honda ever designed them to last, so I installed a complete new set of cush-dampers into the rear wheel which also had the added benefit of making the bike shift much smoother once the new parts were installed.
Because I was making more trips to the track, while still wanting to use the Hawk on the street, tires became and issue - either I was using road tires on the track, beyond their intention, or I was unwilling to ride the Hawk on the street so I could save the sport tires. The Hawk spent a fair bit of time in the garage until I came across an extra set of wheels. The replacement hoops weren't the prettiest things, so I sanded them down and hit them a couple cans of Krylons finest satin-finish black paint.
The bike has proven to be one the most enjoyable bikes I've ever owned. Not only does it draw a fair bit of attention from other motorcyclists who all seem to say the same things;
- I wish I'd never sold mine?
- No way that thing was made in 1988 - it looks like a modern bike!
- If you know of any other Hawks, let me know
The bike has no power! When on the track or trying to pass other vehicles, its easy to forget how slow a Hawk can be. But the Hawk was never designed for pure speed. It lives for the corners. Doing the suspension mods was the best thing in the world for the bike, improving and upgrading the components that really bring out the best the bike has to offer. But its lack of power has resulted in me bouncing it off the rev-limiter and running it hard more than I normally would. When it came time for a 6000 mile valve adjustment I was delighted to discover that despite the abuses I'd put the motor through, the valves were exactly where I'd set them 6000 miles earlier. The bike is relatively light. Putting mine on a calibrated scale, with a full tank of gas only registered 386 lbs.
The narrow front wheel is a bit of an irritant. 110 front tires are not as common as they once were and the rim is too narrow to fit a 120 width, so don't try it. There are a few options to change it, but requires wheels of of other bikes, many of which do not have the attachment for the speedometer drive - so in many cases a wider front wheel means giving up on the speedometer. However, Michelin Pilot Roads and Pilot Powers as well as the Metzeler M1-Sportecs and new M3's all come in a 110 size front tire, so its still easy to put modern tires on the bike.
The small 3-gallon gas tank limits fuel range to a mere 100 miles. Many other Hawk owners fit CBR tanks, Superhawk tanks are coming into fashion and a few have been successful by cutting and welding on their existing tanks to increase 
capacity to a volumous 5-gallons.
Flying around the outside of bikes 18-years newer is a priceless experience - although it comes with the price of getting passed like you're in reverse on the straight-away. But that also brings with it a level of appreciation. Its not uncommon for riders to wander over to the pits to look at the little gray antique that bested them through the corners.
So infectious is the bike that two fellow CanyonChasers have since obtained their own Hawks. Eric and Dawn found one in Loa Utah, of all places, and Dale also found one and has become equally obsessed with upgrading the little gem of a bike.