Shifting Questions

[mikalius]

Hello everyone i am a proud new hawk owner. This is my first bike and i have a question or two. First When driving on the freeway at about 75 mph my rpm's are sitting at about 5500, is this right? Also when i am in first gear and i try and get it into neutral, i only press about half way down to get it there. I think i may need to adjust the shift lever but am unsure of how to do this. Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

[RxRC]

Ya, that sounds about right. And you're actually not even going seventy. Ohh, to have an accurate speedometer and a sixth gear.

There are two ten millimeter nuts on the shift rod. Loosen them and make a minor adjustment to the rod. Other wise remove the ten millimeter pinch bolt from the rod itself to move more.

When you're turning the rod for adjustment make sure you leave a few threads in on each end so the rod won't come loose.

[mikalius]

So at 5500rpm's i'm not actually going 75mph, is my speedo off then? Also are you from minnesota?

[RxRC]

Hawkgt speedometers are known to be optimistic. Then compound this by removing the tall, stock, Bridgestone bias ply tires and replace them with shorter radials.

I'm not sure how much they were off from the factory but I'll bet it's at least 7 or 8 percent. My friends '88 wore a 110/70 radial in the front and it was a little ridiculous. I think it was 12% off or something. I just put new Avons on another friends '89 with the front being a 110/80 and we have yet to take it out with the GPS.

There's really not much you can do about it unless you you want to run a bicycle speedo. I just accepted this fact about the Hawk and it's still a super motorcycle.

Yes, I live in Minnesota.