I got the 1983 Nighthawk 650 back in December and due to many things, 50 hour work weeks, days off spent at my Wife's Childcare Center, winter, kids, sick kids and then moving, I was not able to get the Nighthawk on the road.
It had a stuck left front piston and seemed to have a carb issue.
The cool thing was that when we moved (to an awesome neighborhood, best schools in town, large home, huge yard for the kids) our next door neighbor (who is also our landlord) noticed the Nighthawk in the huge carport. We hadn't even moved in but the next day I brought a van load over to drop off and my neighbor stopped by to ask about the Nighthawk.
I told the story of how I got it ($300!!!!) and that it had some issues. He loves Nighthawks; his friend in college had one and he'd be more than happy to help me get it fixed. By the way, he also had a motorcycle, a Suzuki DR 200.
This neighborhood is looking even cooler!
Then he told me he had an old '66 VW Bug, too. Wow, I used to be a huge air cooled VW guy. Loved them! Owner many of them.
So, anyway, we tinkered on the Nighthawk a bit and got it running but didn't tackle the brakes since we both have families, work, etc etc.
However, Saturday my neighbor comes over and asks to borrow a part off the spare set of carbs that came with the Nighthawk (that I paid $300 for) but they were still at the old house.
He then says 'Well, let's get your bike running then.'
And that's what we did. We didn't exactly fix the brake, we circumvented the left one :) And, no, I'm not going to ride the Nighthawk anywhere until all the brakes are fixed but I still have a perfectly functioning rear and front right brake and many Nighthawks didn't come with dual front brakes and by golly I wanted to finally ride my Nighthawk!
So I did.
Wow. It is nice.
I've missed riding.
I can't describe the feeling you get riding. In my case, I was putting along in second gear doing 25 mph. But it was enough. I am a rider again.
I haven't ridden thousands and thousands of miles; I've put maybe 2500 miles on two wheelss, before I sold my Kymco last year.
But that was enough to feel 'it'. You know what 'it' is. The feeling you get from riding.
I probably rode less than three miles but it was enough...well, not nearly enough, but enough. For now.
And for the record, the Nighthawk is awesome. Very smooth, very comfortable and more than likely has more than enough power for me. I was able to give it a bit of throttle and was very happy to feel the surge of power...and I didn't come close to redline.
So, be assured there will be more updates and some better pictures of the Nighthawk. So stay tuned!
