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Frames, spines and backbones.
Written by Greg Schmitz.
This may not be new to anyone, but tracing the numbers of Nighthawk S manufactured,
I came across odd data (to me) that well before the 84 model year, they had cranked out close to 7,000 of them.
A couple of additional serial numbers from others seemed to confirm that they had to have started making them as
early as June or July of the 83 model year to get up to that many (looked to be about 1,000 a month at the peak
for the 84 model year).
I was at the Honda dealers today, looking over an RC38 frame (750 Nighthawk in the US), and while it is a 2002
model, mfg date was June of 2001.
While I could not see it clearly, the backbone seems to be a lot more inline with the RC17 frame bike, i.e. large
oval, certainly nothing like the Nighthawk S square tube.
So, while not a huge deal, its still of interest as to what it derived from, as the RC38 and RC42 have a different
gear box entirely, and that in turn makes the engine/trany longer, there may have been geometry reasons that an
RC17 derived frame would work, despite its mono shock heritage, than an RC18/20.
Now that taxes are done (and what a battle that was this year) I can get back to working on the write up.
My two stroke fanatic neighbor two houses down got one of his smoky treasures out today and was riding it up and
down the street (the ice went out the last two days) , I am not quite there yet, but will probably move the bikes
out to the front of the house where its warm in the afternoon and I can work on them.
My Uncle in law has also offered his garage for storage, so now I have to try to avoid acquiring any more, or the
shed will be full of more next winter (good thing I have inexpensive tastes in these things!
Greg in Anchorage AK where its 0 deg F at night, and a pleasant 43 deg F in the day.
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