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Sep 24
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The Honda Hawk NT650 Rides Again

By Honda, Honda Hawk, motorcycle, NT650, photography, RC31
After a year of being out of commission, 3 mechanics and 1.5 paychecks later… my beloved motorcycle is back on the road. The carbs took so much time to clean, I might have been better off trying to find a used set somewhere. Now they tell me. It was in dire need of some TLC after just riding it for 10 years.


Many guys have adolescent dreams involving exotic machines. For some boys, their fantasies included an outrageous Lamborghini Countach, or a historic P-51 Mustang fighter or a chromed out muscle car. While I certainly dig all those things, I knew I would never own one. Instead I chose two wheels.

Blacked out rat bikes circa early 1990s

For me, it was the 1988 Honda Hawk (RC31) motorcycle that caught my eye and imagination. The lines on this bike make it a modern classic. In my mind, it would also become a time capsule of my art school days when I would blast around Richmond, Virginia with hooligans on kickstart Kawasakis and Suzukis in leather jackets and combat boots. Visualize vintage Mad Max style motorcycles like the ones to the left and you start to get the picture. The blacker and junkier, the better…. hence the nickname “rat bikes”.

The Hawk is no rat bike though. It’s too nice for that, but the hooligan spirit is there. It is considered a “naked bike” before the industry came up with such a name. They echo back to the 1960s cafe racer bikes of Norton and Triumph with long tanks, single seats and low bars. They only go about 120 mph, but they are sublime in the curves and able to keep up with much more powerful and modern motorcycles.

There are no secrets hidden here. One can see welds, bolts, bluing on the exhaust pipe and several shades and textures of silver metal. It is an honest machine of deceptively simple design… 2 wheels, 4 spark plugs, 2 cylinders, 1 exhaust pipe and 1 swing arm…. yes, just 1.

This rear wheel appears to float when viewed from one side because Honda chose to use a single-sided “Pro Arm” suspension derived from exotic Grand Prix technology. Most motorcycles have 2 swingarms that sandwich a wheel so this is pretty unique. Unlike modern motorcycles, this one has a sensibly sized rear wheel… not a oversized fatty tire like those silly TV choppers.

OEM NT650 exhaust Pipe
For some reason, Honda originally chose to cover the “floating wheel” with a very ugly exhaust pipe that looked like a coffee thermos as seen in the inset. My exhaust was rerouted to the left which gives the illusion of a detached wheel. Below you can see the rerouted exhaust, the custom seat, custom foot pegs and the lower clip-on handlebars that give it the cafe racer look. 

This engine is a 650cc V-twin and it has a great throaty rumble. It could really wake the neighbors if I were to open the throttle too much. The carbon fiber canister really barks nicely. The exposed frame is a mixture of extruded and sand cast aluminum parts. The design still holds up today and I was surprised  at a local bike gathering when a small crowd gathered around it. They knew that they were looking at something special. They only made them for 3 years and many were converted to track bikes to be abused and wrecked. I wonder how many still exist today?

This is my view from the cockpit. Simple controls and analog dials… just like they should be. The keychain has a tiny pink pig because this is my version of a “hog”. Less than 13K on the odometer.

Many years ago when a friend worked on the bike, we discovered white rice in the air box. This is a mysterious thing to find in a motorcycle and my imagination went wild. Assuming that was the original air filter, I theorized that the Honda assembly technician  dropped some of his lunch. Or maybe it was used in a hooligan wedding? What if a Shinto priest placed sacred rice into it to give it special powers? What ever the reason was, I now know why I secretly Asian food whenever I ride it.
May 08
Love0

My Video Is Shown on the Jay Leno Show

By Honda VFR, Jay Leno Show, motorcycle, Video DSLR

Some things have a life of their own… like a video I shot of my trusty motorcycle being loading into a pickup truck when I sold it. It was a sad day for me since I had put over 30,000 miles on the odometer and the 1998 Honda VFR Intercepter looked practically new. I made the video for myself as a memento and at the request of my friend, Justinas, who picked up the bike. He works a large used motorcycle shop and this is one of his many duties. He is uniquely qualified for this job because it requires that the operator must drive the bike up a ramp into the bed of the truck in one smooth motion. When I say “drive” I mean that he walks beside the bike while rolling on the throttle to make the bike drive up the ramp. The operator then makes one giant step into the bed of the truck before securing the vehicle. Justinas is 6’5″ so he has an advantage over short people trying to do this job.

Anyway, the video has received several thousand YouTube hits and eventually ended up on the Jay Leno Show in a segment called Internet Success & Failure. You can imagine finding videos showing the right way to do something and the wrong way. My video starts 2:28 into the segment and literally lasts 7 seconds, but you got to start some where. Thanks Jay!

Jul 03
Love0

Spotting the Legendary Kawasaki H-2 750 from 1972

By 1972 Kawasaki H-2 750 Triple, motorcycle

Here’s something that you don’t see everyday… a motorcycle with a kickstart. I have owned  seven motorcycles in my life and only one had a kick start. Since my Kawasaki KZ650 also had an electric starter, I would only use it if I was trying to look cool. I needed all the help I could get in college. Sad but true.

I had heard stories of the 2-stroke monster from the early seventies often called the Kawasaki Triple. I had only seen a few in passing, but here was one sitting right in front of me. She looked pretty good for a 38 year old motorcycle with just a hint of corrosion on the tank.

I could just imagine the blue smoke wafting up from the triple exhaust pipes like some 2-wheel mosquito fogger. It was great to see something this cool still on the road and ridden. There was over 41,000 miles on the odometer…many miles of smiles.

It had a single disk brake in the front and a drum brake on the rear. This baby was not really made for the curves, but could go in a straight line pretty fast.
Jun 07
Love0

Goodbye to My Trusty Honda VFR Motorcycle

By Honda VFR, motorcycle, Wow Motorcycles

Eleven years and 30,000 miles together was how long our love affair lasted. To be honest, I still love her to this day. I still remember when I met her, looking like a shiny red rock star, with a bark like a pit bull. Of course I am talking about my 1998 Honda VFR Interceptor. Through the years we had many adventures together and I met some of my best friends on long Sunday rides with her.

Some of the highlights included:

  1. Fighting the Dragon at Deals Gap
  2. Wolf Pen Gap’s tight, twisty and narrow roads
  3. Highway 60 through gorgeous North Georgia farmlands
  4. Richard Russell Scenic Highway… our own personal racetrack
  5. A stupid top speed warp to 160 mph (a scary 234.67 feet per second)
  6. Picking up friends who ran out of gas and laughing all the way to the gas station
  7. Watching daring feats of skill in front of me by talented/crazy riders
  8. Racing another VFR until he crashed
  9. Being covered from head to toe in flies because I rode through a mile long night swarm. This was disgusting and made me wonder why Harley Davidson riders wear open face helmets.
  10. And, number one on the list… almost getting bitten by a huge rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of the road. Eyewitnesses behind me said it coiled up and sprang at me, missing me by inches. And I thought it was just a big stick in the road. Geez!
My good buddy Justinas from Wow Motorcycles picked up my bike, and now I hope she will go to a good home where she will have even more adventures. Thanks for the memories.

Dec 01
Love0

Riding Motorcycles in North Georgia Mountains

By motorcycle, North Georgia
It has been a long time since I have ridden my motorcycles in the North Georgia mountains. A few weekends ago, I finally got back up there during a warmer than normal November day. It was a great escape with just me and my friend, Kris, running all of our old routes. Even though the mountains change, a good friendship never does, and it was nice to relive our glory days.
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