First bike! 1983 Honda Nighthawk 550.

[Xavias]

Hey everyone,
Just found this site, and I just picked up my nighthawk on friday night.  She runs like a charm, save for a flat spot around 3k RPMs. (Currently running seafoam through it to hopefully clean out the carbs, hoping that helps it.  Any further advice on it would be great!) Needs a new seat, but other than that, she looks great!  I was riding my dad's 79 Yamaha 750 beforehand, but I actually like the ride of this bike a lot more.

Got her for a solid $900, with about 24,000 original miles on it.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, the garage  I'll get some more when the weather is better and I can take her out of the garage.  But this will have to do for now.

[Option13]

Looks like a solid bike. Congrats and welcome to NHF!

[NightHawked]

  Lookin Good!

[gammer]

  Xavias,

Does it need a new seat, or just a new seat cover?

Hope the SeaFoam does the trick for you...its good stuff. BTW, are you running the stock air box with air filter?

[geemann]

  to the NHF!

looks like a hella good steal for $900!

i have my fingers crossed that seafoam works for you, goodluck!

cheers,
-g

[bustinbeats7]

Great little bike !  Actually goes pretty good when you wind it up, but sedate in the lower RPMs for easy learnin'. Don't be afraid to play around with the positioning of that little windshield , even a very slight adjustment can make a big impact on it's performance.

I've got a nice little 550 'Hawk in my collection, too. Interesting story behind it. Bought it from Dave Grohl , of Nirvana/ Foo Fighters fame. It was his primary means of transportation during the early days of Nirvana. Kinda cool !

Have fun on the new bike !

[rcNighthawkCB650SC]

bike looks great! the windshield looks to be pretty good sized. is it about 18" from the top of the headlight to the top of the shield or smaller? cant quite tell cause the top isnt in the pic. does it seem to block the majority of the wind?

[Xavias]

Thanks for all the replies! (And thanks for the welcome party)

gammer: I believe it's just the seat cover.  I think a re-upholstering would do the trick, but I'm not sure yet.  I am pretty sure it's stock air box, not sure about filter, though.

bustinbeats7: Thanks for the tip.  I might play around with it tomorrow (weather's supposed to be nice enough for a ride!)  That is a really interesting story, it'd be nice to have a bike with history, but I think i'll settle for a cheap bike for the time being.

rcnighthawk: Thanks!  I haven't measured, but I will.  It blocks most of the wind from hitting the center of my chest, and my head.  It does seem to let a lot of wind around the sides, but that's not that big of a deal. 

I think I'm going to go wheel it out into the driveway and take some sunset pictures now...

[hockeyhawk]

Nice looking 550, enjoy it.

[Xavias]

Just took some more pictures.  Hope you enjoy.  Dog's name is Sunshine.

[NightHawked]

Lookin better already, keep um coming.

[mattrowe19]

  Where do you call home? That looks just like one I saw not too long ago on CL.

[rcNighthawkCB650SC]

wow bike looks even better than first pics. chrome seems to be in nice condition too. 

[Xavias]

mattrowe: I call Grand Rapids, MI home.  (still have to get around to updating my profile.

rcNighthawk: Thanks, I was actually really surprised as to how good of condition the bike was in.  The guy I bought it from said it was a barn find and he cleaned it up himself.  (And then drove it for the last 3 years.

[bajakirch]

Great looking 550, from another one-and-done rider.

Your chrome looks great in those pics, as does the paint. And it looks like you have both side panels too.

I got mine with 10k and just turned 22k. She's still running well. I've noticed mine has good pull up to about 3500 rpms, flattens out, then kicks in nicely at about 7000. Pretty standard for these bikes.

I'm not a big cruiser fan, so I didn't buy mine for the cruiser-styling. But I will say that I love the diagonal slash pipes on these bikes. Mine are starting to corrode out a bit underneath, but I can't bring myself to spend $400 on a new set of pipes for a bike that's probably only worth about $1k.

And, after black, red is my second favorite color on these bikes [inside joke].

[bajakirch]

I've got a nice little 550 'Hawk in my collection, too. Interesting story behind it. Bought it from Dave Grohl , of Nirvana/ Foo Fighters fame. It was his primary means of transportation during the early days of Nirvana. Kinda cool !

 
That's kind of cool. We've occasionally heard rumors about celebrities owning NHs -- there was one floating around that Angelina Jolie owned one and was often seen riding it -- but nothing ever substantiated.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled topic.

[Xavias]

Yeah, the paint is in decent shape.  There are a few spots (though, with a bike that's 8 years older than I am, there are bound to be..) where the clear coat is starting to show wear and tear.  The right side fender is actually black, and doesn't look very good.  First order of business is getting different handlebars.  Current ones are bent, then the next is finding a red cover for the right side (or trying to match the paint of the left side).  And lastly, saddle bags, bluetooth intercom to talk to my dad while riding, and possibly a helmet cam are all in the same bracket on the list.

The style of the bike has really grown on me, to be honest.  The more I look at all the NH's on here, the more I begin to like them.  I think I may be falling in love... 

[bajakirch]

I think you'll be very happy with that bike. I've had mine 3 years now and it rarely disappoints me. When it does, it's typically due to my own ineptitude rather than anything having to do with the bike itself.

My seat's in need of repair as well. I've been getting by with black Gorilla tape on the right side (regular duct tape doesn't like to stick to the seat vinyl) but now I notice that the left seam is starting to split. I think this winter's project will be reupholstering the seat.

The only mechanical issue I'm dealing with is some tapping on the top end that comes and goes. Probably a bad tappet. I keep telling myself I'm going to open it up and fix it, but I'm just having too much darn fun riding  

[Count de Monet]

The style of the bike has really grown on me, to be honest.  The more I look at all the NH's on here, the more I begin to like them.  I think I may be falling in love...  

As is frequently said around here, " to the addiction!"

Welcome and ride safe!

[Xavias]

So, I hit the 100 mile mark on the bike.  I'm officially addicted to riding it.  I want to every night after work, and am actually sad when I can't...

Here's a pic of the ride last night:

[NightHawked]

Yes the pics help all of us with our addiction.

[JB1290]

Your bike looks beautiful. Gorgeous dog too. You can get a nice seat cover from eBay for about $40 bucks. Ride safe.

[geemann]

Yes the pics help all of us with our addiction.

+1
haha!

xavias, what type of helmet is that?

two more tips for seat repair.
1) if you must use tape for a quickfix (just to get you through the riding season) duct tape fails quickly on the seat vinyl.  however, gorilla-tape seems to last a good bit longer.
2) somewhere around here, coffe_break did a pretty thorough how-to on seat recovering. not sure where exactly...

cheers,
-g

[talespin]

xavias, what type of helmet is that?

I'm betting it's a GMax GM68. Great helmets, I wear one. Increases your bike's horsepower, improves gas mileage, and is a chick magnet.

[Xavias]

I know it's a GMAX, and I believe it actually is a GM68. I picked it up for $100 at Performance Motorsports in Holland, Michigan.  Has LED Light bar on the back.