WHEN HONDA'S-VTR SUPER HAWK MADE ITS DEBUT
WHEN HONDA'S-VTR SUPER HAWK MADE ITS DEBUT
last year, many sportbike freaks were eagerly anticipating a Japanese 916-killer; a bike possessing Honda's usual overall polished refinement while still providing serious, all-out performance when it came time to put the hammer down-on the street or on the track..
And for the most part, the bike didn't disappoint. The VTR possessed power equivalent to the benchmark Ducati, yet had more of that power in the low- to midrange area, where the average rider could use it most. The chassis was much more agile than the desmo, while the Honda's seating position was much easier to deal with during extended straight-line droning. When viewed as an all-around street- bike, the Super Hawk was far better adapted to everyday requirements. When the pace heated up, how ever, a few chinks began to show in the Super Hawk's armor. The suspension rates are on the soft side, and dialing up the preload only results in overpowering the rebound damping. Plus, the VTR's pipes drag on both sides during extremely hard cornering, making for a few tense moments. And when some brands of ultra-sticky sport tires are mounted, the Super Hawk reacts negatively; suffering a slight case of wobbliness in the fast, bumpy stuff while occasionally prone to tankslappers when accelerating hard out of turns.
Pam Rogers and her husband Ken (no, not that Kenny Rogers) are both. avid sportbike enthusiasts, owning a pair of CBRs between them; Ken rides a CBR9OORR, while Pam settled on a CBR6OOF3. When the Super Hawk made its debut, however, Pam took one look and was smitten. It seemed to be just the bike for her tastes-fairly-low seat height, user-friendly handling and power-the ideal combination. The F3 was sold, and a VER soon took its place in their garage. But like most of the bikes they've owned, they wanted to personalize the Super Hawk to Pam's liking. That meant not only improving the VTR's looks, but its performance as well.
There was only one problem: When they visited the local dealer, they were surprised to find that aftermarket parts and accessories for the Super Hawk were in short supply. The only components the dealer could come up with were slip- on canisters and a few other minor cosmetic items. Not exactly the complete set of modifications they had in mind.
While perusing some European magazines, they happened upon an article dealing with VTR aftermarket parts. One of the companies listed was Erion Racing (714/630-8850), located right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. One quick call to Kevin Erion revealed that his company had already done some R&D on the Super Hawk, and they had a large number of options available for improving the bike. (In fact, we'd spotted a hopped-up Erion Racing VTR at Las Vegas Raceway during a tire introduction last year. Kevin told us he wasn't satisfied with the way the bike was running and needed more time to develop it.) After several conversations with Erion, the Rogers decided to turn Pam's Super Hawk over to him, authorizing free rein for major performance surgery.
Starting with the engine, Erion left the stock carburetors and airbox untouched for driveability reasons, but the cylinder head underwent extensive modifications. First, over size stainless steel valves (1mm larger for intake and 0.Smm larger for exhaust) were installed. Then, a full porting and polish job was done on both the intake and exhaust ports. A set of Moriwaki Racing Stage One cams straight from Japan deal with the valve actuation duty, while a pair of Moriwaki pistons force a compression ratio of 12.7:1 inside the combustion chamber.
The VTR chassis' original philosophy was one of "tuned flex," meaning a small amount of flexure was built into it to allow various chassis loads to be damped out. With the installation of sticky production racing tires in mind, the chassis was beefed-up extensively, beginning with ample bracing welded onto the interior portion of the steering head, frame spar, and lower engine mount areas. A CBR9OORR swingarm brace was grafted onto the stock VTR swingarm, further reinforcing the bike's overall framework. Suspension modifications consisted of an Ohlins
fully adjustable race shock out back (with remote preload adjuster), while the stock forks were revalved. Lightweight Marchesini mag wheels take the place of the stockers, with the rubber-to-pavement interface handled by Dunlop's
D207 GP radials. Were all these modifications
successful in transforming the VTR1OOOF into a true "Super" Hawk? We'd have to say yes. Although top-end power didn't jump tremendously (Erion claims a peak of 112 horsepower at 8500 rpm), the midrange torque improvement was substantial, with the Super Hawk literally leaping off the exit of low and midspeed corners. Although we'd heard horror stories of trying to use D207 GPs on the VTR, this one displayed no handling maladies. The bike tracked straight and true through Willow Springs' notorious flat-out turn eight, with the only limiting factor being the accessory lower fairing's grinding on the pavement. Tire traction, naturally, was superb. Our only complaint was slightly excessive front end dive while on the brakes, some-thing that can be easily remedied with different valving in the forks. The one word that comes to mind when riding Honda's VTRlOOOF is: fun. Erion Racing succeeded in bolstering the VTR's outright performance with-out diminishing the fun factor in any way. Instead of building a peaky, harsh-riding repli racer, Erion added to and refined the Super Hawk's attributes to produce a motorcycle that made us smile every time we twisted the throttle.
