My '83 650

[2wheeLVegas.com]

Hey, all. I'm no stranger to bikes, but this one's my first Nighthawk. Picked it up a few weeks ago, and as with every other bike I've brought home, I immediately started thinking about what I could do to change it. When I got it, it had a rattle can flat black paint job and a handful of really cheesy decals on the tank, which had to be addressed at once. I sanded, sealed, sprayed, and buffed a decent looking silver base, with a black stripe down the middle of the tank and tail. The front brakes were nonexistent, but a few dozen phone calls netted a new (to me) brake line splitter, and the gods of deceleration were once again pleased. All four stock turn signals were broken at the stalks, but who really wants to keep the stock ones, anyway? Fluids were changed, and the bike was now ready to assume the duties of a daily commuter, thus keeping me from spending an arm and a leg to fill up the Durango every week. Now, most sane people would be happy with a mechanically solid and now aesthetically pleasing ride.

I am not one of those people.

As I'm sure most of you know, it's a bit difficult to locate a reliable source of aftermarket parts for a bike that's not only 25 years old but one for which there was never much offered in the first place. As a buddy of mine has been known to say, "Beat it to fit. Paint it to match."; words I often live by. I procured a bikini fairing for an 86 700S, and was quickly made aware of the fact that Honda never intended this particular piece of plastic to be mated to the 650SC. If Home Depot was an airline and gave out frequent flyer miles, I'd be sitting on a orange 747, right now. You'd be surprised at how many things from the Electrical and Framing departments become useful tools in the course of performing an extremely complicated "Insert Tab 'A' into Slot 'B'" type process.

So, here it is...my recently acquired, repaired, painted, and customized 1983 Honda CB650SC Nighthawk.

[2wheeLVegas.com]

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[2wheeLVegas.com]

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[2wheeLVegas.com]

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[Krtismo]

Nice bike! Great job getting that fairing on.

[xxxbotchlaxxx]

looks better than most 700s do lol

[DesignFlaw06]

I like the fairing on there. Sharp paint job.

[MrF]

Pretty slick looking with that fairing.  Nice!

[detdrbuzzard]

now you've done it 2wheel vegas, putting a 700 fairing on a 650, now everyone wants to know the secret to installing one on their bike. all kidding aside great job. i was thinking of how i could put a 700 fairing on my 750f

[2wheeLVegas.com]

Thanks for the comps. Mounting the fairing wasn't that difficult, really. Do a lot of measuring, and keep a ton of misc. brackets and hardware handy. Had I taken more time to plan it out, I might have saved myself a few Home Depot trips. Most of it was just trial and error and getting the full use out of my cobbled together tool collection. I still have some tweaking to do, but I gave the fairing it's first road test, today, and it's still on the bike, so I guess I did something right. Here's the best shot of the brackets I altered to make it all work.

[2wheeLVegas.com]

right side...

[2wheeLVegas.com]

from the back...

[2wheeLVegas.com]

Oh, and don't forget to label your wires.

[layback209]

Nice paint!

Masking tape is your best friend when it comes to wirring.  Many a-times this handy tool has made me confident enought to take stuff apart and be able to put it back together ;)

[83CB650Nighthawk]

that fairing looks so good on that bike. now i want one for my 83 650sc lol

[Flashhawk]

Looks good! Is that the only 2 brackets you had to make it fit or arethere more?

[2wheeLVegas.com]

Thanks for the comps. As for the brackets, all I used was two L-shaped framing brackets that were wide enough to cover the difference in width between the stock headlight mounting brackets and the tabs on the "new" fairing. I had to drill new holes in the brackets, but it all pretty much went together with a few carefully selected (not too long, but long enough) bolts and nuts. I never got around to devising a plan to mount the lower part of the fairing, so it would bounce a bit when I hit a large enough bump in the road. I was always worried that a significant enough jolt might snap off the upper brackets on the fairing, so I would strongly advise bracing from the lower tabs of the fairing, also. I figured a simple rubber strap with an S-hook on each end should do the job. You could easily hook one side to a lower tab, run the strap behind the forks, and hook into the tab on the opposite side. Thr rubber strap would keep everything in place and provide some vibration dampening to the fairing.

If anybody is looking into making this addition, I'd be happy to try to answer any questions...or you could bring the bike and a couple of six packs out to Vegas, and we could hammer it out in an afternoon.

All in all, I was fairly pleased with the outcome, but as I am not one to settle on a particular look when I have so many more ideas, the bike only stayed in it's "Honda shoulda made 'em this way" form for a few weeks. Last weekend, I swapped the stock mirrors for a set of bar end mounted "can't see a damn thing out of them, but they sure look cool" units, ditched the fairing and front fender, cut off a ton of extra rear fender, and went back to a satin black finish with painted black and white checkered racing stripe straight down the middle. I also took off the grab rail and will soon reshape and recover the seat, for a sort of "Mad Max meets cafe racer" look.

Pics will follow shortly.

[Maxx]

LOL...Mad Maxx had Kaw's....hehehe

[2wheeLVegas.com]

Maybe, but I'm kind of a Honda guy.

[83CB650Nighthawk]

i finally found one of these fairings but i have to find the original brackets to the fairing so i can mount it. or do i need to make new brackets altogether?

[daclown]

I like the look of your black exhaust, what kind of paint did you use and has it held up well?

[jonnypockets]

I like the look of your black exhaust, what kind of paint did you use and has it held up well?

Ditto, not to mention it's 4 into 1, not 4 into 2? How'd you swing that?

[BlackLabel82]

Nice bike...the fairing fits it well! Another nice hawk!     

[fishmeister]

      I'm starting to like these solid color bikes! Good Job....

[2wheeLVegas.com]

I like the look of your black exhaust, what kind of paint did you use and has it held up well?

Hey, thanks for the comps. Haven't been on here in a while, and I sold the bike in January. I'll do my best to answer any questions that come my way, though.

The exhaust is an old MAC 4 into 1 that was on the bike when I picked it up. From what I could tell, it appreared to have the original gloss black finish underneath a coat of hi-temp flat black. Some of the flat had burned off near the heads, and it was something I just never got around to recoating.