T
TLKDPROD
Well-known member
Hi fellow Hawkers, thought some of you would like me to share that! Sorry that's a freakin long post, I know !
Went out for the first real time of the season last saturday to test the updates I did to my Hawk & do a bit tuning before Hawkfest. All of that happened in Revy (frisby Ridge) couldn't tell exactly the elevation I'd say 3500 to 5000', with Turbo Al & Steve (another mechanic at the Boulder mountain Sled Shed) as my two guides and tuners !
First I gotta tell you my Hawk has never performed as well as it did in the deep Chiiiat Saturday ! Steve was on a 154" 700 doo & Turbo Al was riding his custom 800 tube frame sled and so far there wasn't a spot where we went that I my 144" hawk couldn't handle. We were in about 1.5 to 3 feet deep stuff. Good snow to test what I really wanted to test: Clutching.
Clutching: Primary : purple/purple spring (aka : STD mtn spring, 160-320), 415 ramps, Hollow pins with one 1/4" long set screw, 3rd Clicker. Secondary : Stock 50/40 helix, Purple spring (which is stiffer and backshifts as hell compares to the stock green). I wasn't quite pulling 8100 RPM as I'd like it too. All over the day, I was around 7800-7900 but the purple secondary spring is a very good choice to allow quicker backshift when going up, hitting a super soft spot or load the "clutch" when making a hard turn. It backshifts quicker so it doesn't "kill" you RPM as bad as the stock green spring did to me last season. Taking off the 1/4" set screw or adjust the clickers would probably have gotten me to this 8000-8100.
Motor: RKtek 800 drop in kit (piston & head) is in there. Still breaking in. THe 20something to 1 ratio of gas/oil didn't helped me pulling my RPM correctly, was still a bit rich at 390 main at the very top according to Al. 3 hours on the motor now. Sounded just horrible when I first put on, Now the weird noise is almost gone (rings apparently...) Motor seemed to pull harder even in break-in period than stock.
Jaws Pipe : Took the reducing sleeve off of the stigner, sure can't play against me here with the motor mod.
Silencer : The Thing can from Turbo Al. Sounds just awesome. Resists back fires unlike stock can that I blew twice because of back fires last year. When motor will be running at its full potential with normal gas/oil ratio, we'll be able to further see how it performs. This is, without a doubt, a high quality unit replacement silencer.
45L Gas Tank : Walbro fuel pick-up retrofit. (1 pick-up at the back and one at the front of the tank) The problem was with the last 1/3 of the 45L tank going up a hill, the Hawk would run out of gas because all the gas went to the back of the tank & pick up was at he front. This retrofit totally solves the problem.
Footpeg brackets : I designed myself a pair of lowered & backwarded footpeg bracket. I had a guy here in Salmon Arm water jetted them for me out of 1/4" 6061-t6 Aluminum. I went 1" down and 1" back. Sure felt way better but the problems I noticed with lowered pegs, is the following ; if you go through a pretty deep whoops section, your footpegs will drag and your foot (if not
both of your feet) will come off of'em, putting you in a superman like position at WOT... That happened to me twice. And if you're in pretty deep snow you'll notice your feets are dragging more than on the stock position.
Cog Belt : I was supposed to go with the chain drive and I still have top sprocket and DID Gold Chain for that... but I took off the torque limiter (spun an adapter flange out of the bottom sprocket for the wide 56T pulley) and ran the stock cog belt. Worked good (didn't splip!) for the conditions I was in saturday; deep pow in tight tree lines. I now carry a spare cog belt around my back pack & the f'hawkin imperial 3/16" allen key to take off the cog belt pulley taper adapter... Just in case !
Track porting : Seemed to work very good. Oh and I have to mention it; I took my snowflap off. That probably made a huge difference as well. First time I ever rode without it. And I never had that much snow in my jacket's hoodie ! It was FULL. I know whitesurf's got the proper snowflap to prevent that.
Belly pan opening : As of last season, before even leaving for my first ride, I added some mesh over the punched sheet metal on the primary clutch opening. Now Last saturday, the cog belt side had an accumulation of about 4in of snow at the bottom of the belly pan, near the bottom. Not a super big deal but I might add some mesh on the exhaust side opening
Ski : Stock ski with snow trackers. I may sound weird here but as soon as I WOT'd it, the ski comes right out of the snow as if I was wheeleeing a bike. I really don't know if a simmons ski would have made any difference here. But again, I've never tried one and I think the stock ski with snotrackers got the job done pretty darn good that day.
Suspension : Twin rear shocks with custom wound 280-400 Spring. Worked very good for me even in the deep whoops section, I'm around 170.
Air intake : We have to admit it; we were in some pretty nasty deep stuff that day and 7 to 10 minutes of hard deep snow pulls would have the air intake area to be really hot. Turbo Al suggested to get better, colder air by maybe adding a cold air intake, something like using a 90 deg elbows PVC tube to connect each carb on each side of the tank, where air is colder than around the pods. I may work on that a bit this week if I have time.
Overall I was stoked on how well my Hawk performed in the deep snow, I didn't had any problems (except for arm pump & lack of energy from mid-day)
following these guys on 154" (quitly modded) sleds in decenltly deep snow and let me tell ya, they sure can throw a sled around trees ! I was quite impressed about it ! They know this area more than anyone else I think, it's basically their backyard from their shop ! We got very nice pictures of that too ! Thanks to my new kick *** camera ! Turbo Al is behind the lens there.
I had a lot of fun and (watch out about for sentence: ) I finally proved to myself that my Hawk is TOTALLY capable of keeping up with a sled on a deep snow day, you just gotta have the good setup. So many things are wrong on these Hawks when they come out of the factory for mountain use, starting with the clutching, that most Hawks owners as well as Sled & Bike kit owners aren't even aware of the real potential of this awesome snow machine.
Thierry
Went out for the first real time of the season last saturday to test the updates I did to my Hawk & do a bit tuning before Hawkfest. All of that happened in Revy (frisby Ridge) couldn't tell exactly the elevation I'd say 3500 to 5000', with Turbo Al & Steve (another mechanic at the Boulder mountain Sled Shed) as my two guides and tuners !
First I gotta tell you my Hawk has never performed as well as it did in the deep Chiiiat Saturday ! Steve was on a 154" 700 doo & Turbo Al was riding his custom 800 tube frame sled and so far there wasn't a spot where we went that I my 144" hawk couldn't handle. We were in about 1.5 to 3 feet deep stuff. Good snow to test what I really wanted to test: Clutching.
Clutching: Primary : purple/purple spring (aka : STD mtn spring, 160-320), 415 ramps, Hollow pins with one 1/4" long set screw, 3rd Clicker. Secondary : Stock 50/40 helix, Purple spring (which is stiffer and backshifts as hell compares to the stock green). I wasn't quite pulling 8100 RPM as I'd like it too. All over the day, I was around 7800-7900 but the purple secondary spring is a very good choice to allow quicker backshift when going up, hitting a super soft spot or load the "clutch" when making a hard turn. It backshifts quicker so it doesn't "kill" you RPM as bad as the stock green spring did to me last season. Taking off the 1/4" set screw or adjust the clickers would probably have gotten me to this 8000-8100.
Motor: RKtek 800 drop in kit (piston & head) is in there. Still breaking in. THe 20something to 1 ratio of gas/oil didn't helped me pulling my RPM correctly, was still a bit rich at 390 main at the very top according to Al. 3 hours on the motor now. Sounded just horrible when I first put on, Now the weird noise is almost gone (rings apparently...) Motor seemed to pull harder even in break-in period than stock.
Jaws Pipe : Took the reducing sleeve off of the stigner, sure can't play against me here with the motor mod.
Silencer : The Thing can from Turbo Al. Sounds just awesome. Resists back fires unlike stock can that I blew twice because of back fires last year. When motor will be running at its full potential with normal gas/oil ratio, we'll be able to further see how it performs. This is, without a doubt, a high quality unit replacement silencer.
45L Gas Tank : Walbro fuel pick-up retrofit. (1 pick-up at the back and one at the front of the tank) The problem was with the last 1/3 of the 45L tank going up a hill, the Hawk would run out of gas because all the gas went to the back of the tank & pick up was at he front. This retrofit totally solves the problem.
Footpeg brackets : I designed myself a pair of lowered & backwarded footpeg bracket. I had a guy here in Salmon Arm water jetted them for me out of 1/4" 6061-t6 Aluminum. I went 1" down and 1" back. Sure felt way better but the problems I noticed with lowered pegs, is the following ; if you go through a pretty deep whoops section, your footpegs will drag and your foot (if not
both of your feet) will come off of'em, putting you in a superman like position at WOT... That happened to me twice. And if you're in pretty deep snow you'll notice your feets are dragging more than on the stock position.
Cog Belt : I was supposed to go with the chain drive and I still have top sprocket and DID Gold Chain for that... but I took off the torque limiter (spun an adapter flange out of the bottom sprocket for the wide 56T pulley) and ran the stock cog belt. Worked good (didn't splip!) for the conditions I was in saturday; deep pow in tight tree lines. I now carry a spare cog belt around my back pack & the f'hawkin imperial 3/16" allen key to take off the cog belt pulley taper adapter... Just in case !
Track porting : Seemed to work very good. Oh and I have to mention it; I took my snowflap off. That probably made a huge difference as well. First time I ever rode without it. And I never had that much snow in my jacket's hoodie ! It was FULL. I know whitesurf's got the proper snowflap to prevent that.
Belly pan opening : As of last season, before even leaving for my first ride, I added some mesh over the punched sheet metal on the primary clutch opening. Now Last saturday, the cog belt side had an accumulation of about 4in of snow at the bottom of the belly pan, near the bottom. Not a super big deal but I might add some mesh on the exhaust side opening
Ski : Stock ski with snow trackers. I may sound weird here but as soon as I WOT'd it, the ski comes right out of the snow as if I was wheeleeing a bike. I really don't know if a simmons ski would have made any difference here. But again, I've never tried one and I think the stock ski with snotrackers got the job done pretty darn good that day.
Suspension : Twin rear shocks with custom wound 280-400 Spring. Worked very good for me even in the deep whoops section, I'm around 170.
Air intake : We have to admit it; we were in some pretty nasty deep stuff that day and 7 to 10 minutes of hard deep snow pulls would have the air intake area to be really hot. Turbo Al suggested to get better, colder air by maybe adding a cold air intake, something like using a 90 deg elbows PVC tube to connect each carb on each side of the tank, where air is colder than around the pods. I may work on that a bit this week if I have time.
Overall I was stoked on how well my Hawk performed in the deep snow, I didn't had any problems (except for arm pump & lack of energy from mid-day)
following these guys on 154" (quitly modded) sleds in decenltly deep snow and let me tell ya, they sure can throw a sled around trees ! I was quite impressed about it ! They know this area more than anyone else I think, it's basically their backyard from their shop ! We got very nice pictures of that too ! Thanks to my new kick *** camera ! Turbo Al is behind the lens there.
I had a lot of fun and (watch out about for sentence: ) I finally proved to myself that my Hawk is TOTALLY capable of keeping up with a sled on a deep snow day, you just gotta have the good setup. So many things are wrong on these Hawks when they come out of the factory for mountain use, starting with the clutching, that most Hawks owners as well as Sled & Bike kit owners aren't even aware of the real potential of this awesome snow machine.
Thierry
See ya soon.
