Honda Nighthawk
Honda Nighthawk
Low in price, height, weight and tech
LOOKING FOR A SMALL FIRST BIKE BUT CAN’T SEEM TO find anything that fits your...well, your you? You consider little cruisers kinda dorky, scooters dorkier yet, sporty bikes someone else’s cup of two-wheel tea, and small dual-purpose bikes just a little too, you know, fourwheel-drive pickup.
Sounds like you need a Honda Nighthawk. It’s a 234cc Twin tuned for ease of use, has a seat that’s just 29 inches high, and it only weighs a smidgen more than 300 pounds. Plus-here’s the part you’ll probably like best-its styling is middle-of-the-road standard that isn’t trying to make a statement about its rider’s tastes or lifestyles. It’s just a motorcycle, pure and simple.
A pretty good one, at that. It can zip along the highway at legal speeds without its tongue hanging out, putt-putt through traffic like it was tailor-made for the job (which isn’t far from the truth) and doesn’t require you to be a contortionist to get on, stay on and get off. The styling is more retro than anything else, a scaled-down version of the pinched-midriff “waisted” look popular in the 1970s and ’80s. It still holds up, though, enough so that people aren’t likely to ask why you’re riding such an old bike.
But if they do, just tell them that for your purposes, “old” is the new “new”-or at least the new “good.” When you buy a motorcycle for basic transportation or entry into the sport, you want durability and reliability rather than cutting-edge technology that might not have all the bugs worked out. And the Nighthawk gives you plenty of the former for its $3699 asking price. The sohc twin-cylinder engine has been around since Billy Gibbons bought his last razor, and the chassis isn’t far behind. It’s proven, in other words.
And easy to ride. It fires up with a pull of the choke knob and push of the starter button, and it can zip away after a minute or so of warm-up. Unless you make an errant turn onto a NASCAR track, keeping up with traffic is no prob-
lem, either. Clutch engagement is smooth and predictable, so takeoffs are a piece of cake, and the five-speed transmission has a ratio for any riding situation, slow, fast or in between.
Neither is comfort a cause for concern. Obviously, the ’Hawk is a smallish machine not intended for the Yao Mings of the world, yet it isn’t tiny, either. Six-footers fit surprisingly well, and smaller folk are an ideal match for the Honda’s ergos, which include a seat comfortable enough to spend a few hours on at a time.
But this isn’t a days-on-end tourer, obviously. The Nighthawk is a short-haul, E-Z rider that’s perfect for newbies, small folk and people looking to squeeze every last mile from today’s four-and-a-half-buck-a-gallon gasoline. Dorkiness not included. Paul Dean
HONDA NIGHTHAWK
$3699
A E-Z to operate and handle A One-size-fits-all ergos A Not fake retro; it's real retro
VDowns v Costs $200 more than zootier Kawasaki Ninja 250 v Spindly fork v Drum brakes maybe a little too retro
