Kenzo and Motorcycles

(plus a lot of rambling)

 

CONTENTS

 

In the Beginning

I have always loved motorcycles.  In fact, "motorcycle" was the first word I ever uttered.  Of course it sounded more like "Toh!" at the time (In French, my first language, motorcycle is "moto").  I was the kind of kid that watched "The Dirt Bike Kid" over and other again and who could play with toy motorcycles hours on end.  I still have my little green Kawi dirt bike with working rear suspension stored somewhere.  Growing up I only had two "opportunities" to ride motorcycles and both here small dirt bikes.  The first time the parents of the friend who owned the bike reconsidered and decided to not let me try it out.  I about died from disappointment.

 

The second time was with a different friends bike.  He and his little brother had been offered by their soon-to-be stepfather each a dirt bike if they chose not to go on vacation with their real father.  It worked.  I was offered to ride my friends' little brothers tiny Honda 50 something or other with fat little knobbies on it.  It was briefly explained to me how the controls worked.  I don't remember how it happened but I was left alone with the bike running for a few minutes, so I got on, and popped the clutch.  The bike lurched out from under me and soloed a few feet before falling over in the grass and stalling.  Freaking out I picked up the bike, backed it up, parked it, pulled the tuft of grass from the foot peg and went back inside.  I don't think anyone ever saw a thing.

 

This would be the closest I'd get to a bike for 14 years.  I itched for a bike for every one of those years, but even when I was of age my parents would hear nothing of it.  "You can get a bike and kill yourself when you move out."  My father would say.  Now that I look back on their decision I understand why they made it, but what a hypocrite my father was.  Even he would fantasize (as he sang Arlo Guthrie's "I don't want to eat a pickle, just want to ride on my motorsickle"), about buying a Honda Nighthawk 650 and riding across Australia.

 

Fastforward 14 years of random please to my parents to let me get a bike.  I was 22 and one day, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I mentioned getting a bike to my dad and he offered no objection (?!?!?!).  I jumped on the opportunity.  I scheduled a MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) training class, checked again with my dad to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and was off on a mission to ride.

 

MORE TO COME

 

 

EX500

The first bike I bought was a 1993 Kawasaki EX500E.  I was looking for a good beginner bike when I came across an article in a motorcycle magazine that rated the EX500 as the top beginner bike for several years.  It was "light, small enough, had a low seat hight, large gas tank (250 mile cruising distance!), and a 500 cc engine with good performance, but not so powerful that it could get away from you.  So, I searched around for an EX or a bike similar to it.  I religiously read over the motorcycle ads posted to a free classifieds website spacifically for the Bay Area CA (craigslist.org).  This is an awesome resource if your looking for used stuff.  I contiplated buying a Yamaha Secca II and a couple of other bikes, but then I found an ad from a guy in or around San Mateo for this '93 EX500.  I emailed him and we set up a time for me to come take a look at it.  Unfortunately, I didn't even have my motorcycles permit, so I couldn't test ride the bike.  I also didn't know much about bikes or what to look for when buying used.  For these reasons I brought a friend from school that had been riding on and off for many years.  He test rode it, said it felt good.  They guy was asking $1,800, but I thought I could talk him down a bit, so I said, "How 'bout $1,300?"  He said that was a bit low and offered $1,500.  I took it.

 

My friend followed me home on my new/used bike.  I parked it in my back-yard (summer) and it sat there for almost a week before I could get on it.  I was dying to get on it, but I had to get my permit.  I didn't want to risk anything without a permit.  Finally I got my permit and I was able to get on my bike.  I had already bought a helmet, jacket, and gloves.  I had never ridden before this, so I was pretty excited and a bit freaked out at the same time, but I hopped on her, started her up, got a feel for the clutch and off I went.  WOW!  You sure learn to appreciate speed when your on a bike!  I was going 25mph down my street and it felt FAST!  Then I thought about going 75 on the freeway and I was struck with the realization that you're totally open to the elements with nothing strapping you in.  It felt great, but freaky at the same time.  It was a little while before I got on the freeway.  For a couple of weeks I rode the bike around town after school and stuff.  Boy!  I remember how I couldn't wait to get out of school and get home so I could ride a little before dark.  With a permit you can't ride after dark or carry a passenger.

 

I owned the EX for about 5 months.  In those five months I took it on rides with my friend who rides a Kawasaki KLR 650 (dualsport), like a mad-man, downed it once going 15 mph on a turn (misdjudged it, went in to fast, freaked and pulled a low-side), battled with fuel starvation problems and learned how to rebuild carburators, etc.

I even got an '89 parts bike from a friend from school.  It came in really handy because my carbs where giving me hell, so I pulled the ones out of the '89 and installed them in the '93.  She ran like a champ from then on out.

 

 

About My Hawk

I bought my HawkGT without knowing too much about these "birds of prey."  In fact, I hardly knew anything at all, except that they had a small tank, single sided swing-arm, 650cc motor (didn't even know it was a V-twin), and that they had one hell of an appealing design.  Here's how I came to own one:

 

By the end of five months I was itching for more performance (faster, bigger, better, right?).  A friend of mine at school needed money and was selling his '90 Kawasaki ZX-7R for $2,485.

His was all black with a polished frame

He claimed he had pretty much completely rebuilt the engine after he blew it up and that it only had about 200 miles on the rebuild.  I was VERY interested.  This bike is a BEAST (close to 500 lbs wet), but I wanted it.  It also was pretty ugly and needed a major cleaning, plus it needed some work and wasn't running since it had sat for 6 years!  There are so many differences between the ZX and the Hawk that it's like comparing apples and oranges, so I won't attempt it.  Let's just say that I wouldn't mind the ZX's brute power, but I do not regret, in any way, my decision to buy the Hawk instead.

 

I was under the impression that my friend was going to get the ZX running soon and sell it to me, so I sold off my EX fast since I needed the money to buy the ZX.  Well, my friend got busy and wasn't making the greatest effort to get the bike running to sell it to me.  It was Sept and the riding season was coming to a close.  I lost patience and began looking for another bike. 

 

I went back to craigslist and looked around.  I had seen Hawk GT's before and had fallen in love with their design.  I did a search for this bike and came up with a few.  One was advertised for $3,000 and was in the city of Alviso (about 5 miles from my house).  I also went to Ebay, and low and behold, the same bike was up for auction.  There was a reserve, but I placed a bid for the heck of it.  I had $2,500 to spend.  The auction ended and no one had met the reserve.  I was the highest bidder, and when an auction ends where the reserve is not met, a link stating that you have the option of contacting the seller directly to make an offer shows up at the top of the page.  I sent an email to the guy asking if I could come check out the bike.  He replied and we set up a time.

 

I had another friend come with me in case I decided to buy the bike.  We went evening of Oct first 2001.  Alviso is a bizarr little city.  It seemed to be a bit of an old fishing community and you commonly see the rotting carcases of old fishing boats laying next to houses.  Very different ambience from Santa Clara and its surrounding cities. The seller told us to look for a barn, this tells you something already.  So we spotted the barn and pulled into a long gravel driveway.  A guy, who turned out to be the seller, was hammering away at the house's porch cover.  He stopped when we got out and we introduced ourselves.  Bart explained that he had enlisted in the Navy and was heading out in a few weeks.  He signed up just a couple of weeks before 9/11, imagine that.  He showed us the bike, which was parked in the barn with a sheet covering it.  I liked what I saw.  He started it up, but it ran cold and would stall if the choke was turned off.  I wasn't used to this because my EX would start choke or not.  We let the bike warm up and spoke loudly about it over the throb of the exhaust.  We chatted for a bit and I examined the bike, then he shut it off and we addressed the money end of the deal.  He was looking for $3,000, but was willing to negotiate.  He also had a couple of other people interested.  I asked him to call me up if he wanted to sell it for less and he said he would.  As my friend and I walked back to the truck and Bart headed back to the house, I thought, "Well, I've got $2,500 here with me, I want a bike soon and I like this one....shoot, why not!"  I turned back around and called to Bart.  "Hey, I've got $2,500 with me right now, would you take it?  He turned around and headed back our way.  He thought and said, "Yeah, I guess."  "Okay," I said, "But I'll need to test ride it first.  I can give you a deposit in case anything happens."

 

So I handed him $500 and he pushed the bike up and out of the gravel as I put my gear on.  I hopped on it, started it up and tried to go, but the clutch had a very short "sweet spot" and I stalled it; tried again and was successful.  The exhaust sounded great, but I was a little disappointed at the power.  This is a 650 and it didn't seem much more powerful than my EX.  It is also a V-twin and has much lower revs than my EX.  I was used to reving the motor out more.  The Hawk redlines at 8.5k rpm, while my EX was an inline twin and redlined at 12 or 13k rpm.  Big difference.  The Hawks more torquey, but has less top end.  I still liked it and figured "what the hell."  I went back and Bart and I went inside to do the paperwork and I was on my way home with my new/used HawkGT.

 

Current Hawk Setup/Mods

 

As of 11-22-02:

 

Whew, have things changed with my Hawk.  Here's what I did to my Hawk.

 

Future Hawk Mods

I think I've put enough time and money into modifying my Hawk.  The next thing I'll do is buy a more comfortable road bike.  One thing I can think of that I might still do to the Hawk is:

  1. Possibly a bracket for the rearsets to move them back further.  The rest of my bike is setup as a "sports bike", so I figure if my upper body is in that position I might want to match the lower with it.

  2. As noted below I love Suzuki TLs.  I now have the biggest itch to swap a TL motor into a Hawk.  As soon as I get a job and have some cash flow I will be doing this project.  I think I'll perform it on another Hawk.

 

Currently and for the Future

The rest is a blur of great rides with friends and hawkgt list members,  nights and days of wrenching in my garage, and dreaming of my future with motorcycles.  In the future I'd like to own a large 4 cylinder sports bike.  I'll keep the Hawk, of course.  I briefly rode a friends '96 or '97 GSXR 750 once; just like this one:

Courtesy of sportbikes.dhs.org

Oh, man!  How smooth are those 4's!  It was like riding the wind, such a difference from thumpy twins.

 

8/02

Okay, so I've changed my mind.  My new dream bike is a Suzuki TL1000R.

Picture linked from suzuki.com

Whew!  I've never heard such an awesome sound.  With aftermarket exhaust the TLR and TLS (half faired version), the TL's give off an unbelievable rumble.  Here's an audio clip from Two Brothers Racing's website of a TLS with their aluminum cans.  The TLR has a 996cc, 90 degree V-twin, DOHC, 8-valve engine that puts out something like 125hp.  With slight mods to the intake system, FI (re-map), and exhaust, 130 rwhp is not hard to attain.  It has a claimed dry weight of 434 lbs.  There have been scares that the TL's are unstable bikes and that they tank-slap easily.  From what I heard this was a brief issue with the release of the TLS in Europe, but the TLR's don't have the same problem.  They are also factory fitted with a steering damper.  What a beast, folks, and I'd love to own one.  Crazy?  Yes, but so what!

 

 

 

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Last Updated:  05/31/08 09:45 PM