- The ex Hawk GT

Here's the Hawk when I bought it... bone stock, with a few scuffs and dings, with 16K miles.I hate the Hawk handlebars as they're really high up, so I originally fitted some from an old GSXR... more or less any 41mm clipons will do. I also converted the bike over so I could ride it. It was at this stage that I fitted some Race Tech cartridge emulators and CBR600F2 preload adjustable fork caps to sort of the weak front end. I found that it had been worked over by somebody at some point, as the damper rod holes had been welded up and redrilled. That's all well and good, but I had no idea who they'd been set up for.

I finally got around to fitting a Two Brothers Racing exhaust system, with a Factory jet kit and a K&N air filter from the UK. I've also junked the emissions crap, as after 9 years, I'm sure it was full of carbon, and doing very little.I also fitted a set of CBR600F2 handlebars (less of a downward angle than the GSX-R ones, but they make the bike feel like a hooligan flat-tracker), and some shorty rear indicator stalks (as the old ones were a bit droopy). The CBR handlebars meant I needed to change the clutch cable routing to stop the thing snagging. This has tidied up the bike immensely. I later took off the number plate light and moved the plate up, with the rear reflectors mounted on the rear mudguard. I have some space under the number plate that I've put another reflector on - after all, you can't be too careful.

I fitted a CBR600F2 front wheel (with the standard Hawk disc), so I can run 120 section, sticky tyres, a VFR750 rear wheel, modified to fit the Hawk with a centre bolt to match the front. You can modify any of the VFR wheels, but the early 8 spoke rims are 5.5" wide, and look like the RC30 wheels, matching the front wheel better. I removed the chain guard (as it hit the rear tyre), and this necessitated running the rear brake line through the swingarm, so I fitted Speedbleeders at the same time. A Fox racing rear shock was fitted, to finish off the suspension.