Honda Hawk GTZ 350 Hybrid (Hawkgt 650 RZ Engine)

[motoholic71]

The pipe work looks awesome ,you've obvious been busy Glyn,congrats.

I hope performance is good ,but IMO it might not be the best (comparing standard chambers) but looks rule right?

[seahorse]

hey Brian, any more progress, cant wait for the next pics

[Brianut]

I have started to reassemble things but have been very busy with work and home/family lately and havent had much time to mess with it.
Just not enough hours in the day.

I will try and get some pics of it semi assembled.
Still hoping to have it running before winter hits, but there are tons of small details yet to be worked out.

I will get some pics here soon.

[This old RZ]

Any progress, or completion on this project? This is one I was really kinda looking foreward to following. Looked like alot of fun,with something totally different.

[steveloomis]

I've been wondering myself. Looks like a great project.

[Brianut]

Any progress, or completion on this project? This is one I was really kinda looking foreward to following. Looked like alot of fun,with something totally different.

I have been very busy with work.
Not wanting to give 1/2 assed attention to it, I have not utilized the 5 minutes here and there I have had available.

I have a big work project that should be finishing up just before Xmas.
I will likely rest a bit between xmas and new years then the garage heater will get fired up and the push for the finish line will begin.

There are a ton of details to be worked out and very time consuming non visually inspiring tasks to be done. I will as progress picks up take some pics.

Color will be bright Honda/Ducati/Ferrari type red with white logo on tank and white name on tail. Maybe a white off center strip down the middle. not sure yet on that.

It has a carbon front fender, will have carbon heel plates on the rear sets and the carbon undertail Two Bros muffler.
I might try and find a carbon hugger for the rear as well but not sure yet, maybe just abs painted black.

here is the logo that will be on the tank.
It will be white on the red tank. and the only wording will be "GTZ350" on the tail.

[Smoker]

Awesome pipes, slinger!!

Wish you could make some for my motard, but I'd probably have to send you most of the bike.

[RuZty]

Cool job on the logo with the 3 tuning forks in the wing, very creative. Can't wait to see this one done.

[Brianut]

Wish you could make some for my motard, but I'd probably have to send you most of the bike.

And? Did you have a point there Had to do that as well, dismantled and boxed the thing up. It was a bit scary sending off 2/3 of my project like that but it all worked out

[Brianut]

Been awhile since I have been here and havent done much with the bike but am trying to push forward and get this thing running this summer, maybe fully done and pretty by next summer.

a few pictures were lost so I dont remember where you guys last were able to see progress.
This is kinda recent.




here is a bit of an update

A lot of these pics are a last minute with a phone, and some are with a 9 year old P&S. So bear with me


Some progress has been made and parts ordered.
I had to see about changing the rear msater cyclinder out and wasn't sure what to use.
I have a donor parts bike KX65 in the garage and started looking at that very closely, and started to measure and then I ripped that thing out of there.

The nice thing about this one vs the stocker is that it is threaded instead of having to use a nut on the back when mounted to the rearset, and most of all the reservoir port comes straight out of the front for better clearance for the reservoir hose.

The top hole lines up but the bottom wouldn't line up so I had to drill and tap a second hole, not much material to work with.


Then the rearset wouldn't sit flush as it was too close to the body of the Master cylinder so I got the air grinder and started working it flat being ever cautious to not go through the body, turns out I didn't have to remove too much.
It lines up,pushes straight and look pretty good.



next was finishing the details of mounting the tail light and exhaust.
I had to file the tail where I wanted the taillight and this was a slow process to not over remove material, I may do more later, but for now this is pretty good.

I epoxied bolts to the tail and then made some angled brackets out of 2" aluminum angle, and because the light has to be slid backwards to fit the contour instead of straight up I needed slotted brackets.
No machining equipment so I drilled multiple holes and cleaned up with a file and dremel.



There will be some small LED turn signals near the taillight but I am not sure how that is going to be done yet so it will brew in my head until its ready.




Light on


The exhaust needed an adapter welded, to go from the stinger into the muffler.
I picked up an adapter for muffler tubing from Autoparts store. 1 3/4- 2" I think it was, and cut it as short as I could where it slid into the existing stinger, held for tack welds, double checked and then welded it up.

I don't have a tig welder so these welds looked very chunky compared to the art that is on the chambers, so I broke out the air grinder again and smoothed out the transition.
It will be unlikely that many will actually see this area but I wanted it to look seamless.
Turned out nice, took a lot of time going slow and it looked great but was shiny from the grinding and really stood out.
A little then it hit me.


The rest of the pipes are blued from heat, soooo I busted out the mapp gas torch and got that whole area good and hot and let it cool.
Whalla blends right in now.
Super stoked but bummed that all that work in that one tiny area will never be noticed.

The section between my fingers is where the transition took place.



For the rigidity of mounting of muffler and stinger I welded a nut on the top of the stinger and drilled a hole through the subframe. Then I ran a bolt through it with a rubber bushing to help keep the vibes as low as possible in the seat area. Really solid now.

I need to expand the muffler mid pipe just a bit for a tight fit and still make a hanger for the muffler but the exhaust is almost complete.

Intake side I have 2 90 degree turbo intercooler silicone hoses that will connect to the carbs then go into a K&N dual inlet air filter. no pics yet.

I ordered a new radiator and it finally showed up and was worth the wait,
really nice.

Old




New.
Thicker and prettier but uses all factory mounts so the mounts I already made will bolt up.


Electrical.
The original stuff was stored in the rear of the tail of course and has to be mounted under the tank so nobody will see it and because the tail has no room.
I used 2 new nutserts in the frame and one that was existing and bent up some aluminum sheet to form a mounting tray.
the coil and regulator/rectifier are on the underside and the turn signal relay, ecu, and power valve controller are on the top.
The fuse block may mount on the inside of the frame somewhere but that will be sorted when all the wiring is shortened and cleaned up.

I planned to use a capacitor to run the system instead of a battery but am concerned that it wont be enough to take care of the turn signals and lights properly, so i may buy a small battery to mount, and add second deck on the electrics under the tank. Not sure yet.

Here is the wiring I am dealing with



What a mess, this will be cleaned up.
Lots of cut, solder and heat shrinking time yet to be done.

This is gonna be an awsome hybrid as long as you can get some decent wheels

I aim to please so here ya go


The front 600rr wheel weighs about 8ish pounds, not bad considering the stock Hawk wheel on the front was 12ish.
Problem is the rear weighs in at 13lbs and that's a bit, plus it looks a bit dated although I do like it.
There is this whole formula for rotating mass, something like 1oz of rotating equals 4oz of non rotating blah blah etc etc what looks good

I decided to see what my options were.

VFR 750 looks better but still heavy

Ducati 916 original 3 spoke.
Looks.... Meh... and still heavy

Ducati 916 Marchesini, forged, looks much better but still not what I wanted.


All of these require wheel and spindle machining.
The good news is there is a guy on the Hawk forums that does this so I had the guy, just needed the materials.
But wait!

I found an even better wheel option.
The OEM rear wheel from a Ducati 848 EVO.
Forged Aluminum Marchesini, about 7.5 lbs and just flippin beautiful.


Found one on Ebay for a good price ( compared to some ) and bought it. It will be arriving to the machinist in Pennsylvania, today actually, and he will machine it and the stock Hawk spindle to make it all bolt up and I should have it by the end of next week.
Just beautiful as far as wheels go, not a cheap endeavor but that's what i wanted for this bike, things that just POP and make it what I envision it being when done.
The best part is whenever I am ready I can buy a matching front as they are available for the 600rr frontend, but that will come with time and more money.

hope everyone is well here and thanks to those who I have either purchased parts from or sucked knowledge from.

Hopefully I can keep on some sort of schedule and blow some smoke out of this thing soon.

[seahorse]

thankyou for an excellent update Brian, your rzhawk"griffin" is looking the goods.

[JonW]

Love this project! Great work :)

[nikfubar]

Same here it's so unusual, hope you gonna keep it naked to show off all the features.

[Brianut]

Same here it's so unusual, hope you gonna keep it naked to show off all the features.

yes it will remain naked, the challenge is getting all thats needed in there while keeping it hidden so it looks clean.

[nikfubar]

Yeah I know what you mean it's the pipes, cables & wiring that make it look messy. I was thinking of going premix to do away with oil tank, 3 pipes & a cable but then couldn't be bothered with the hassle I managed to hide the rear calliper brake line by installing it inside the swing arm & did away with the rear brake reservoir & hose by fitting a billet one directly to the master cylinder.