Japan Meets Britain...

New Grips!

Real NOS Granturismo 'Flash' grips will soon replace the tired Beston Granturismos.

Gotta love Italian rubber....
Grips2.jpg
 
Hey Vince,
The ribbon looks great and the artist did a good font on the 1966!
This bike is so amazing! With that being said, when you chromed the chain guard last year what was your reason for putting the Castrol decal on the clean look of the chrome? This bike is just so great and the Castrol sticker distracted my eye from the great artwork of the two flags,,,just for a secod though! :)
 
I actually quite like the Castrol decal, but I do appreciate your thoughts. It's a vintage original 1960's decal , and for me I can see a mirroring of the checkers in that decal with the checkered flag on the side covers, and the red in CASTROL with the red in the Japan flag. Plus, it really has that vintage look and a connection to its Isle of Man TT sponsorship and to Honda at that time. So for me I think it all fits. The nice thing about a decal is that it can be removed if I change my mind down the road.

With all that being said, the chain guard is going to change completely (but still remain chrome). Last weekend it fractured at the rear mounting point (this is about the 3rd time this has happened with chain guards I've had on this bike), and it seems to be a common occurrence on SuperHawks. So we're going to try to build a better mousetrap of a chain guard -- I'm going to rework the original guard (the one that's on there is 'supposedly' a stronger-made reproduction) and design a clevis mount for that rear point. There are two mounts up front, so that part is fine, but it's that rear singular mounting point that always seems to fracture, so we're going to improve it so that it doesn't happen again. This should hopefully be done within 2 weeks.

Who knows, maybe with the improved chain guard, I may decide to not replace the Castrol decal -- we'll see!
 
HOLDEN comapny in UK has the speedo's and the bar mounts. Great Brit stuff and leathers. I have purchased from them for my BSA and they are great to deal with.
 
buckeyebomber00 said:
HOLDEN comapny in UK has the speedo's and the bar mounts. Great Brit stuff and leathers. I have purchased from them for my BSA and they are great to deal with.
Click to expand...

When you mean 'bar mounts', are you referring to the mirrors or the mounts for aftermarket speedos? Wasn't sure if you were talking about those or perhaps the pocket watch holder on my handlebars -- I checked Holden's for the pocket watch holder and I don't think they carry that, if that's what you're talking about. As far as mirrors go, yes they carry Halcyon ones, as well as the tax disc holders. Earlswood Reproductions makes the reproduction tax discs in whatever year you need.

As far as the pocket watch holder goes, PJ Speedos in Kirk Michael on the Isle of Man made/offered them, but they ceased operation a few years ago, so I couldn't tell you if they are even available any more.

I've never ordered anything from Holden's before, but I see their advert in Classic Bike Magazine every month...they always want to tempt me with their selection of Belstaff jackets!
 
New projects with the SuperHawk.....

Unfortunately the chain guard fractured at the rear mounting point -- it's about the 3rd time it's happened. Probably due to the vibration, as well as the fact that the Hagon shocks were mistakenly dialed up and were stiffer than they needed to be. So, the 'new and improved' chain guard has been strengthened, reshaped slightly and is currently at Ronnie Brown's (Brown's Chroming). Should be back by the end of the week.

Second project involves the gas cap arrangement. One of the things that all these SuperHawk gas caps seem to do is leak. It's more than likely due to the design, as the vent location and the flatness of the cap allows gas to vent right underneath the cap, resulting in a fouling of your paint around the cap. I've tried different caps, different gaskets, and all with the same result. A more permanent solution had to be devised....

I always thought that the cap arrangement on CB350 tanks was a better alternative, as the cap is raised up from the tank. So, I first managed to track down a good SuperHawk tank, and then found a CB350 tank with cap on eBay for $20.00. The idea was to take the CB350 gas cap section and graft it onto the SuperHawk tank, plus a collar was going to be installed inside the tank to prevent the sloshing gas from potentially making its way up to the gas cap.

Currently, the welding work is done. The new cap now resides in the middle of the SuperHawk tank, the inside collar is installed, the dent in the top of the SuperHawk tank has been pulled, and right now the inside is being cleaned/treated. It will be at the painter by the end of the week (still going with the painted checker motif), and should be done by the 23rd. Then I just transfer the newly-chromed side panels, new badges and rubber knee grips from the 'old' SuperHawk tank onto this new one, and it's done. The nice thing is that all this should be ready for Mid-Ohio!

As well, a few decals are going away -- specifically, the Castrol decal on the chain guard, the Ace Cafe decal on the tank, and the Isle of Man TT decal on the back part of the front fender. Think I'm going to simplify the the look a bit, as I think the decals have been getting in the way of the rest of the bike. Who knows, I could change my mind in 6 months!

The photo below is of two tanks, pre-grafting work. I'll try to post some shots of the 'new' tank (pre-paint) once I get it back later this week.

_5270719.jpg
 
nice ride..i made slicers for a few bikes out of aluminum sheet and mounted using spacers and threading right into the hubs..only difficult part is tapering of the spacers due to most all hubs are not square...you can actually make a set fairly easy using sheet aluminum t3 or t6 aprox .125 as i remember a compass/divider-hole saw to drill holes ,cut outter diameter with a jig saw and coarse bit -18 tpi and finish up with belt sander etc...joe@vcycle
 
joea said:
nice ride..i made slicers for a few bikes out of aluminum sheet and mounted using spacers and threading right into the hubs..only difficult part is tapering of the spacers due to most all hubs are not square...you can actually make a set fairly easy using sheet aluminum t3 or t6 aprox .125 as i remember a compass/divider-hole saw to drill holes ,cut outter diameter with a jig saw and coarse bit -18 tpi and finish up with belt sander etc...joe@vcycle
Click to expand...

I considered making a set too, but luckily I found these through Brian Crichton (a former editor at Classic Bike Magazine) in the UK. Mine belonged to a collector, and were specifically made for the SuperHawk back in the 60's. As well, they connect to each other through the spokes, so no drilling is required.
 
This bike is getting changes too? I look forward to seeing where this goes Vince.
 
Yup, and it should all be done within a week.

As you can see from these recent posts, the bike is getting a revised SuperHawk tank, that will hopefully eliminate the problem of gas leeching out and fouling the paint. In addition, I'm picking up my new (and hopefully IMPROVED) chain guard today, and hopefully it will be the last time I will have to do anything with a chain guard on this bike. The final cosmetic change will be the removal of three decals -- the Castrol one on the chain guard, the Ace Cafe decal on the tank, and the IOM TT decal on the rear portion of the front fender. I think I'm just going to let the design of the bike come through a bit more, and not so much the superfluous decoration (though the bike will still have enough of that!). Add to that a general checkup, oil change etc before Mid-Ohio in a couple of weeks.

The hope is that these latest changes will clean the bike up a bit, as well as fix a few design flaws (just my opinion, mind you) that I think are inherent to this bike.

BTW, if anyone has a nice push-button gas cap latch that fits a CB350, I could use one. The one that came with the CB350 tank I bought for the tank project has a crack in it. I do have an NOS keyed version, but I think the push-button would look better.
 
just thought i would add the info for guys that like to do all their own work and save money as it can get expensive farming all the work out and i always get guys asking where to buy these as they think they are difficult to make...i'm cheap and do not like to spend money unless i absolutly have to plus i really enjoy the design/fabrication side of this hobby of building bikes.....joe@vcycle
 
joea said:
just thought i would add the info for guys that like to do all their own work and save money as it can get expensive farming all the work out and i always get guys asking where to buy these as they think they are difficult to make...i'm cheap and do not like to spend money unless i absolutly have to plus i really enjoy the design/fabrication side of this hobby of building bikes.....joe@vcycle
Click to expand...

Nice thing about the pair I have is that I got them for free, but I certainly agree with your sentiment!
 
Introducing the most beautiful (and probably most expensive!) chain guard in the world.....

chain1.jpg

It better not break!
 
Soon to be the most beautiful SuperHawk tank around...

Tank2-1.jpg


...and possibly the world's first CB77-CB350 hybrid tank???
 
Don't I wish...
DSC_0063.jpg


So I was doing a bit of 'cheating' on my SuperHawk this morning -- not only did I ride another SuperHawk today (!), but I tried out my friend Scott's Black Bomber.

Scott's stock SuperHawk was magical, and almost made me wonder why I bothered doing all the modification work to mine. The Black Bomber though was another story: It had tons of power, and I made a point to wring its neck a bit -- okay, maybe more than a bit. Definitely had the power, but also had the vibration, and it didn't feel nearly as 'refined' as the SuperHawk. Didn't like the seat, the foot position wasn't quite right, and I concluded that it would be a real effort to take this for an extended ride (like 200 miles or more). Could also depend on what you're used to, but I just don't think I could get used to this bike, though admittedly it is gorgeous.

Jumping from the SuperHawk to the Black Bomber confirmed to me how good the SuperHawk is. Can't wait to get mine back together!
 
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