New Scooter
I have a new addition to the “stable.” I bought a 1993 Honda 750 Nighthawk. The Nighthawk is classified as a “naked” bike, neither a cruiser or a sport bike, but something in between. Basically, it is a classic motorcycle, a do everything pretty well, not particularly specialized type of motorcycle. Some people use them as daily commuters, some a lightweight touring bikes, some as want-to-be sport bikes.
The Nighthawk series traces its roots back to the original CB750 that Honda introduced in 1969. The 750 Honda redefined what a performance motorcycle was with its front disk brake, full loop frame, and its inline 4 cylinder SOHC engine. The 750 Honda was the fastest bike on the street when it came out. The Nighthawk series of motorcycles from Honda were introduced in the early ’80s as a inexpensive starter bike in the heavyweight category. They are designed to be reliable, handle well, have adequate power and be a general all around sort of bike.
I bought the bike from WOW Motorcycles in Marietta. They have quite an inventory of used bikes, all sorts from dirt bikes, to cruisers, to sport bikes and a few of the naked bikes. The Nighthawk is a cherry and apparently spent most of its life in a garage somewhere. It is in excellent shape, a few scratches here and only 3400 miles on it. I spent a few hours with some clear coat cleaner and got most small scratches and boot marks off of it, and some time cleaning the chain. The chain had 13 years of gunked-on grease on it. Some Kerosene and a brush took most of the years of caked on grease off and a fresh lube and it is as good as new. At least all that grease preserved the chain, it is clean and shiny as new under there.
One thing that was bad was two of the exhaust headers were crushed. Looks as if someone hit a curb with them. The bike seemed to run fine with the headers as is, but after I changed them out I realized that it did indeed affect the performance of the bike. The new headers produce much better acceleration!
This is just a fun bike to ride. It handles nicely, not like a sport bike, but also not like a cruiser. You can ride it fast, or ride it around town in traffic, it appears to be happy either way.
I’m sure that some of you thought that I was strictly a Harley guy. I love my Harley, I’ve liked everyone that I ever had. But, to be honest, I’ve owned more Hondas than Harleys. My first real motorcycle was a Honda CB77, a 1966 305 SuperHawk. I bought that bike used and barely running, rebuilt it and rode it for several years before trading it on a Honda 450 DOHC in a box. I rebuilt the 450 and rode it for several years…..well you get the idea! I’m not getting rid of the Harley, it is still my main cruising/touring machine, but I will ride the Nighthawk when its just me out to have a quick scoot and clear the cobwebs!
Later,
Bob