Snow hawk vs snow bike

The snow hawk didn't continue because it sucks.

Snowhawk needs lots of snow to work and speed. It want to wash out front end on hard snow or going slow. Feels heavy compared to snowbike but does accelerate well like a 440 snowcross sled. I would not buy one after riding one for where I live. Very awkward and heavy to pick up.

AD Boivin Co. in 2001 introduced the snowhawk. The snowhawk was far from a failure, was it perfect, short answer, no. The snowhawk was built as a purpose built single ski for snow only, based more on snowmobile technology of the day.
The geometry of the hawk was actually better than a dirt bike with a snow kit bolted on. Rider position, track placement, cv clutch, weight distribution etc. However the suspension was limited, both front and rear, it was heavy for its power to wt. Ratio. 503cc rotax fan cooled 2 stroke, claimed 60 hp. Wt. Wet was pushing 400lb. They did get the sport into the motorcycle riding position. By the end run in 2008 they had the Top Gun 800cc claimed 140hp and 410lb. dry. Now it was way more fun but nose heavy and the rest of the components where lacking, the recession hit and the rest is history. I can throw my TS MH around and go places I could only dream of on a sled. The hawk was somewhere in between the two.

mrsnaglepuss said:

AD Boivin Co. in 2001 introduced the snowhawk. The snowhawk was far from a failure, was it perfect, short answer, no. The snowhawk was built as a purpose built single ski for snow only, based more on snowmobile technology of the day.
The geometry of the hawk was actually better than a dirt bike with a snow kit bolted on. Rider position, track placement, cv clutch, weight distribution etc. However the suspension was limited, both front and rear, it was heavy for its power to wt. Ratio. 503cc rotax fan cooled 2 stroke, claimed 60 hp. Wt. Wet was pushing 400lb. They did get the sport into the motorcycle riding position. By the end run in 2008 they had the Top Gun 800cc claimed 140hp and 410lb. dry. Now it was way more fun but nose heavy and the rest of the components where lacking, the recession hit and the rest is history. I can throw my TS MH around and go places I could only dream of on a sled. The hawk was somewhere in between the two.

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+1….We had a 503F and a HO600, really enjoyed the Hawks when the conditions were right. The right conditions are fresh deep snow and a minimal amount of trail riding. The Hanks were great for boon docking and side hills and while they could not match a mountain sled for straight up hill climbing they did a respectable job.

Would like to try a snow bike, but I am pretty happy with the new mountains sleds we currently have.

The Hawks handle a lot better at high speed, but slow REALLY technical stuff is better on a mountain horse. On a Hawk you can ride the same terrain as a two ski sled and have a hoot doing it. I don't think it would be much fun to ride a Mountain Horse with two ski sleds.

The Snowhawk chassis hasn't changed much since they were introduced and sleds have come a long ways.

I've tried a 600 hawk. If you have the skills and strength to muscle them they can be fun, but I found it to be way to nose heavy and underwhelming in power for the weight. Always wanted to wash out the front.. once down I couldn't get it back up on a steep hill by myself. There are some people that have modded theirs to perform on here though.

My friend weighs 250lb and I was outclimbing him on my CR250 2moto, although I weight 150lb

HAWK'N BIKES

the issue with snow hawks is the old world snow mobile clutch's.

8" and 12" 8,000 rpm clutch's are a BIG GYROSCOPE spinning out of control, no human is tough enough to argue with them. So on a hawk your suposed to balance, it has no chance for balance when you gas the gyroscopic spinning twin that begins to spool up the two gyroscopic spinning clutches, makes a heavy unit feel like it weighs a ton.

The bikes feel far more agile because you have WAY LESS gyroscopic spinning mass, a crank and a few 3" gears.

The next step in sleds will be ditching the 1970's clutch's.
A sled with a 10 speed paddle shift transmission would stomp the current mt n sleds. The experiments have been done. The sled designers know this, just tough to change culture and start making more complicated engine transmission packages.

The old wives tale is the CVT transmissions are efficient and state of the art.
Ok they tried them on bikes and you could'nt lean that bike into a corner or turn it, makes a 250 bike feel like it weighted 400 lbs. Good bye.

and good by hawk

??????????? They are still making the Hawk , you can even get them with a 900 .

Why is there such a desire to kill them ?

Your absolutely correct about the clutching issue but what is it that everyone wants to put on the snowbikes so they don't stall ? I would be more than happy to see a change in the CVT's but that might still be a while since Poo is now running the same CVT in their pro fanners that the fanner Snow Hawks came with in 2003 , now you have to admit that's funny .

The machines today are becoming even more specialized for a particular purpose .

The Hawk was introduced as an arena machine . Just like the sleds it drifted over to mountain versions but still has the handling characteristics of what it was designed for , just like the sleds .

The fanners are capable of 80 mpg , the 600 top 100 mph just by changing the gearing because their geared down like a freight train one can only imagine what an 8 or 900 is capable of .

The original Snow Hawk ski in moderate to deep snow was like driving with a front break on but with the proper ski that is made by T/S is almost a perfect fit . Only complaint there is that it is to thick and no longer takes some of the feed back out of the handle bars that the simmonds flexi skis do . There is very little dragging resistance , washouts are pilot era and they do not push what so ever like the bike kits .

The Snow Hawks are ahead of their time , what other single ski do you know of that is built from the ground up ? but like so many other things they are misunderstood or slammed for another purpose . They can be more difficult to ride compared to a snow bike or snowmobile and rider set up is extremely important .

They have their place , I have no problem moving on and forking out the cash , snow checked my Hawk without ever riding one , and so far there isn't a machine made that does what I want that has 150 plus two stroke ponies , takes a beating like a moto cross bike and can run no less than 2000 miles before taking a compression check . Fanners are a completely different story , those things will run at least 10,000 miles and are known for 20,000 as long as you maintain them , not bad for a two stroke .

snow hawk

nothing wrong with the snowhawk concept. Kudo's to them for getting one ski riding off the ground. Its just unfortunate that the design was never upgraded to ditch the two spinning gyroscopes.

They could still be the the go to company in making a purpose built snowbike.
Their chassis worked ok, ski........they just need an engine package. A 75hp two stroke 8 speed engine, they could own the market.

I don't think any one riding a kit is in love with having to turn a motorcycle into some other vehicle and put 40% of the bikes value into storage.

CATSLEDMAN1 said:

nothing wrong with the snowhawk concept. Kudo's to them for getting one ski riding off the ground. Its just unfortunate that the design was never upgraded to ditch the two spinning gyroscopes.

They could still be the the go to company in making a purpose built snowbike.
Their chassis worked ok, ski........they just need an engine package. A 75hp two stroke 8 speed engine, they could own the market.

I don't think any one riding a kit is in love with having to turn a motorcycle into some other vehicle and put 40% of the bikes value into storage.

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I found my hawk a PIA to move around. unfriendly when working on her and loading. , Heavy on the nose.

skidoomt said:

Found the owners new website:
http://www.motosportsthibeault.com/
http://www.motosportsthibeault.com/

They need to update their website for the current year.

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Pretty much a joke at this point!


I'm not a bank, wanna sell me something build it and i'll pay COD for it.

LOL , and what are you comparing the pricing to ? Doesn't really help what the OP is asking .

So seriously , what's the price to take a new four stroke ? add a track kit ? Fix the over fueling ? intake ? icing up issues ? Finish it off with a turbo ? Since that seems to be what is being pushed ?

Honest questions that need to be addressed to have a a turn key machine for varying conditions .

byeatts , yes they are front end heavy just like a super bike . How do you move a bike kit ? This is how I move mine around in the garage .

If your pricing remark is refering to my post, you're missing the point.

My point is that if they lack the coin to build a Hawk without me paying for it first, then i want nothing to do with them.

capulin overdrive said:

If your pricing remark is refering to my post, you're missing the point.

My point is that if they lack the coin to build a Hawk without me paying for it first, then i want nothing to do with them.

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There's different ways of doing business .

There is also a custom snowmobile manufacture that also takes orders .