Please put in a word to flying eyes to carry a few foam backed glasses for their motorcycle line. The air swirling around regular glasses is annoying to me.
Lesson 1: Always carry zip ties on your motorcycle. Lesson 2: Testicles are not a good substitute for quality crash protection gear. Lesson 3: Motorcycles are fun & you don't have to spend a ton of cash on one to enjoy riding.
China bikes have one feature that Ducati and BMW just can't beat: the don't give a shit factor. They're always a little better than you think, and you make up for the rest with happy thoughts and a lack of mechanical sympathy. And if you total the whole thing, it still costs less than a couple hard parts on a euro bike. The built in birth control is a nice feature too.
I got thr rxe 250, it has a few better parts than the hawk, it rides so smooth, best way to explain it, a mid 80's Honda motor on a 2020 frame lol, I been riding for 20 some years and I love it lol
I owned this bike. It was my first bike. It was amazing for the price and I loved it. I had the DLX fuel injected version. If you’re on a budget and want something nice to get around on, this is it. Plenty of online communities and whatnot talk about modifications and improvements.
I’m buying a used one (same model as yours) for $400 and I’m nervous because I’m a new rider. Is there anything specific to look out for with the maintenance of the bike?
@@alexusa9153 yeah, loads unfortunately. Id ask original owner if they did any valve adjustment from factory, last oil change, any aftermarket parts, etc. Some people modify the heck out of these bikes, some people don’t do much from factory. If valve adjustment from factory wasn’t done, there are videos on RU-vid that can walk you through it. Best of luck 😎
yaaaay! more hawk 250 content! i just got my 2021 DLX model (fuel injected) up and running again after getting a flat tire last season. SPITE: CHECK FOR LOOSE SPOKES! I did all the work myself even wrenching off my Shinko 705 tires (what a workout!). This over looked maintenance left me stranded a couple of times, and I actually crashed at 25mph limping it home because of this once. The spokes came loose and punctured the inner tube. In fact the old spoke was still in the inner tube when I took it out 😂. The "Good 'Ol Boys" RU-vid channel has some great Hawk 250 content out there on maintenance items to watch out for. He got over 10,000 miles on this bike. I dont want to see you stranded in a worse situation than I was. Thanks Spite! ❤
I love your attitude bro. You’re brave and aim to have fun yet are not afraid to be humbled. You pick yourself up and move forward with such positivity. This video actually brings to mind a video yammie posted years ago where he took his desert sled down a trail that ended up having some patches of snow and he laid it down a few times , bruised his ego and had a completely different attitude about it. He’s since removed the video😂 so it’s really refreshing to see your confidence and honesty in posting something like this. Mad respect and rooting for your channel to keep growing!
I mean honestly as someone with literally zero offroad experience, who wants to dip my toes in but isnt entirely sure if i wanna commit, some beater Amazon bike like this would be perfect. I could run it through the woods in my backyard.
Ah… a little first time off-roading. You gave up too quickly once you had a couple of mishaps. 1. Falls are just a part of dirt riding. With some experience you’ll learn how to shift your weight around and use outstretched legs and the throttle to minimize that. Sometimes the wheels just wash out and down you go. 2. Stand up. Stand up! 3. Lofting the front wheel is useful when encountering ledges or irregularities on the trail. Get the front wheel up and the weight back and power over it. 4. Don’t hit trees. 5. Loosen up. You looked pretty rigid which transmits more of the trail into your body. Riding the dirt is a better experience with a better bike, but given the limitations of the hawk it didn’t seem that bad. I’ve ridden far more clapped out and junky bikes on the trails.
My Hawk has just under 12K miles on it now. I bought it in 2018 (new of coarse). I have broken some things but parts are cheap. I keep mine in very good condition and have ridden everything from single track to work commute. I was an A class rated motocrosser earlier in my life so I understand the Hawk is just a fun dual sport bike that can teach riders how to ride and work on a bike. There’s all kinds of free and inexpensive things that can be done to improve this bike.
Pretty soft off-road riding. I found it funny. I used to ride off road and I mean not on roads. I rode paths went through creeks and climbed hills and went down hills. That is off road. I do hope you get better and have fun. The best stuff is finding a challenge and having a bike buddy in case someone needs to get help.
I started with the CSC TT250 (upgraded Hawk) before swapping to the Templar X 250. The Templar series has more to offer at similar price point than the Hawk/Brozz/Tbr7/TT250 models, if off roading is your focus. A street oriented option would be the KPX250.
Watched this episode/show out of the blue following a rabbit hole...but thoroughly enjoyed the episode. Was fun watching you conquer? the trails and doing it in style on a super affordable bike.
One other Hawk note. You do need to run the 35-40psi in the tires because the stock bike doesn’t come with rim locks. You can add them for $6 each at a Honda dealer. Drill the rim 180 deg. from the valve stem. With a rim lock you can run a more normal 12-16psi off-road without getting a flat (tearing the valve stem).
1st rule for off road riding - stand on the pegs for any obstacle, in fact stay on the pegs most of the time off road. You get much more control with your weight down low when you use the motorcycle the way it was designed. I have been riding off road for 50 years, starting with old Yamaha Enduros that had little suspension.
Rule #1 with Chondas, always carry zipties. Rule #2, know something will break eventually. There are good Chinese built Enduros and road bikes. The templar is probably the best for the cheaper end bikes. The Cove is probably the best of the more expensive.
I had the smaller version of that bike. The Magician. Same exact engine. My god was it horrible. I sold it and bought a wr250r and my god the difference is insane between the 2. No lie my clutch lever broke on the first gentle drop. I came to a stop, didn't see that there was a tire indent on my left side. Put my left foot down. Bike starting going over. I caught it but it was too far down to completely stop, but I let it down gently.... The mirrors broke and fell off on a smooth trail. I had to redo the carb out of the crate. I dropped it again in loose sand going slow. The SAND put a hole in the crank case. Luckily I am a welder so I just welded it up. But still... SAND broke metal.
The thing about these Chinese bikes is that they're bascially all the same frame, but built to different specifications - generally they use the same zongshen 230cc engine, but have different suspension, dash, levers, etc. The magician is the absolute lowest spec one I'm aware of. In terms of quality it goes magigican
They are very well built for a Chinese bike. My buddy at work has one and the only thing he had to change out was the chain. Everything else has kept up with the only maintenance being oil changes. Lifan has impressed me. I've got the X-Pect. Same thing. Except my chain is ok .
I have it's little sibling, the lifan xpect, and I use it as a daily vehicle to get to work and an adventure machine on the weekends. I just took it on a 160 mile ride with over an hour straight of WOT on a two lane highway and it didn't skip a beat. I would wager the KLX250 is probably one of the absolute best Chinese dualsports you could possibly get right now. Over 1200 miles on my xpect this season alone and not a single issue.
I ran the single track trails out there on a 96 dr350se and it was a workout. I ran them again on a kdx220 and it was so much more fun. I went superman over the bars coming down from the lookout area so I feel your pain. Lockhart has single track trails with no rocks but they have cactus instead.
Spite, As someone who has ridden over 20 years offroad, let me repeat what has been said in the comments already. You must stand up, you will gain strength and stamina as time goes on, I stand up more than I sit when riding offroad. Good luck.
Aside from it being Chinese, I've been pretty impressed with some of their bikes, in 2016 my wife and I had some DF250RTC's and they were great. We had them for 4 years and sold them at a small lose , I think we lost like $400 a piece. Now I have a ninja 600r but my wife has a 21 Icebear Fuerza with a ZS212 engine and it's been pretty great as well. Great video my friend. Love the videos 👍🏻👍🏻
The endro tank to the gentleman's area is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, it's the kind of pain you gotta just lay on the ground and pray to a god of your choosing for mercy
When these were $1200 back in 2017 they were GREAT value for the money, I did the replace chain and sprockets, new carb with rejet, airfilter, new dashboard and loctited everything. I got 4500 miles out of it on dual sport riding on forest service roads. But the self lightening feature of it losing random parts while riding got tiresome, I trade straight across for a KLR250, then upgraded to a -83 Honda XL600r which I'm still riding. A 41 year old Japanese motorcycle will still be light years more reliable than the crappy Chinese bike.
Haven’t watched yet but I own one of these and it’s a pretty amusing little bike. It’s nowhere remotely close to the quality of a Japanese bike but it’s still a lot of fun. No mechanical issues so far but I learned the hard way that you can’t thrash it like a true dirt bike when I bottomed out landing a jump hard enough to bend the pegs and almost ate dirt in the process. ~3000 total miles on mine only 900 of which are mine but they’re 99% off road. it’s really too slow for me to be comfortable doing much on it in my area besides cruising backroads and playing in the dirt, but that’s what the Dyna is for. I’ll watch the video in a little bit then follow up with a reply if anyone is interested.
Cheap beater trail bikes like this are super fun, and super under-rated. They are plenty capable for most people who just want to start out in off-road, explore, and have some fun. If you want something like this from a known brand, a Yamaha XT250 or Kawasaki KLX230 is the way to go. FYI they also make great city commuters being so small, nimble, fuel efficient, and are great for hopping up curbs etc.
My wife and I both have hawk 250's.. Mine is a 2017 with a big bore kit, Nibbi carb and fmf pipe.. hers is a 2022 with a nibbi carb and digital cluster. we love them Great bikes for the cost.. not gonna lie I BEAT THE HELL OUT OF MINE!!!
Never go off-road without zip ties. I had Chinese bikes for my kids and the motors are usually good but you are correct that all the nuts and bolts will come loose and disappear if you don't check them after each ride
A loose battery could be a bad situation. If there's any movement while riding a hole could very likely be worn into the battery, which would let the electrolyte solution leak out.
Taotao(yes the scooter company) makes the same exact bike called the tbr7 minus a couple different color options, an analog dash, and different rim sizes and they have their own us-based parts Warehouse you can order from and it's dirt cheap partskit is what its called, a new front end is 80 bucks, and the headlight housings 20, literally minus the rims and dash every other part is compatible, the left and right fairings $20 each as well
i bought a hawk dlx 250 in 2016. only problems i had were not enough power, and the rims like to bend. easy fixes. i ported and polished the head, intake port and exhaust port myself. 34mm carb, dont remember the jetting. made an ugly ass 2 inch header, leading to a 3 inch pipe under the bike, then a amazon muffler. i rode it 32 miles back and forth to work on the highway, sometimes hitting 80mph. put almost 11k miles on the little thing.
It would be cool to see you compare the budget Chinese dual sport Hawk to a budget Japanese dual sport, like the XT250 or KLX300. Then ride a budget purpose built Japanese trail bike like the CRF250F or KLX230R, then a premium purpose built enduro from someone like KTM or Beta. Do it all on the same day, riding the same trails. That would be the ultimate test and comparison.
Is that Marble Falls? That’s a gnarly trail… kinda like the idea of having a cheap as bike to beat the snot out of it. Watching you let that Chinese bike kick you in the cojones was fun 😂
so the pack i ride with theres a klx 300sm, crf 250l, crf 300l, and drz 400. the drz 400 guys wife has a fuel injected hawk 250. and honestly after getting a chance to ride it. for the money its really not a bad bike. i wouldnt mind one as a farmbike or spare trail bike.
I think you did great for a beginner, way less of a pansy than some of these guys on here. Can't review a bike without ripping it good, and dropping it a few times.
I think the most impressive part of this video is the bike actually sounds pretty good. I didn't expect that. Otherwise it's about what you'd expect from a 1600 bike.
Pull the plug now that you have ridden it a bit. It will tell how the new carb needs adjusted. Do avoid motorcycles to the family jewels, tends to not be fun. :P
Spite.. the other chinese "Dual Sport drawing attention is the Lifan KXP250.. Seen it for $2800 shipped.. amazon wants $3600. The Lifan is SOHC, EFI, Air Cooled, 9:1 CR.. heard it also has a balance shaft. 20HP. 6 Spd. Might be a good comparison. Would do a KLX300, but too much $$ at $7K out the door.. some deals, but still.
hey spite my buddy's got the same bike and i was wondering if you had issues with getting the clutch to engage into first gear from a stop? We have been having issues with stalling it and having to rev close to 5k rpm to get it to catch and not stall.
Mine does not behave like that. Perhaps your clutch cable is too tight and the is never fully disengaging, just slipping once you reach high enough revs?
The bars that come on those chinese bikes are crap. I bought DITR's Brozz last year and when he was loading it up for the last time he had a little mishap with a wet ramp and the bars did the same thing. Do yourself a favor and get some nice bars and good grips. Every part failure is an opportunity for an upgrade!
I have a hawk and have spent a fair amount of time playing in the dirt and on backroads on a rebel 250. Rebel is the better bike in general and will run 70 if you need it to on the street. On dirt trails it was fine but the tires were a problem if things were wet. The hawk cruises 55 tops so it can be questionable on road but is a lot more comfortable in the dirt
I want a Hawk. It's a bike you can beat around with a wet squirrel and it will want more. It is what Gen X would be if Gen X were a motorcycle. I've seen them abused to the extreme and with minimum repair start and run with no issues.
we have 3 to teach the family how to ride. great because if ya crash it its not a $5000 bike..lol been some mods but have almost 3000 miles on all 3 and been over 3yrs
7 месяцев назад
If the crash doesn't get you, the hit in the nards WILL.😂
I have zero off road experience but I would like to get into it for shits and giggles it'll be hard to learn I guess. But fun! And in the end that's what matters. The amount of fun you have, and the experience you gain while doing so. Preferably without auwchies with for example on the sack slap. 😆 But yeah also part of the learning curve. In addition if you would put more money into the Hawk I think the total amount might come close to getting a used dirtbike or dual sport I guess? Ah well, all in good fun of course cause the Hawk did it and though maybe not perfect but more then plenty to have fun on.
