I bought an 87 Hurricane 600 last fall. I'm just now getting to the point of riding it frequently because of the weather. Other than an carb issue that is (mostly) sorted out, it's been working great. I've been getting about 40mpg with carbs that are out of sync.

I do have a couple of questions about the bike's controls.

1. I bought the bike with one bar end... It's chrome and knurled, presumably aftermarket. The other still has the insert on the inside. I assume it's probably stuck but I haven't messed with it. Could anybody tell me how these are installed, and some good cheap ones to replace them with? After an hour of cruising my right hand gets a little tingly.

2. The bike has been dropped a couple times in it's lifetime so the clutch/brake handles are a little bent. I re-curved the clutch handle but I have sausage fingers and it's a little hard to reach. Are there any good shorty handles available? After 40 minutes of hard riding my left hand gets a little sore, I probably have to build up some strength but a shorter reach would make it easier for me.

3. Has anyone swapped hand controls from a a newer model onto a Hurricane? Mine work fine but they are getting worn. I'd be swapping the headlight/turn signal control and the throttle tube/start switch control.

4. Anybody done a tail swap to a newer model? I have all of the tail fairings but they look kind of dated. I think a modern tail/headlight fairing would give a much more modern look. I have read the 600RR conversion thread, but I'm open to other options as well. I have done a lot of fabrication, so I'm not afraid to do a little cutting and welding.

5. Has anybody fitted an aftermarket front fender to their Hurricane? The fenders are the only plastics I don't have. I've got a mile of gravel before my house and pavement so if it's wet mud gets thrown everywhere and up into the radiator.... It'd be nice if I could keep that to a minimum.

All of the cosmetic mods would probably happen next winter when it's not being used. I just want to ride the crap out of the bike this season as-is. Once I buy a new front tire I am gonna paint the wheels black with yellow rim tape, and put the side fairings on. Currently everything is painted gloss black (it's a nice paint job) and I put yellow decals on it.. It's looks good when it's together for such an old bike. I've got the side fairings in my closet. Being a new rider I'm afraid I'll drop it and bust them to pieces.

 

You can pick up bar ends on ebay. They are everywhere. They may not be as good as oem, but I don't find them that bad.

I got these levers and they work great. They don't say F1, but they fit.

 

Thanks for the advise. I've been reading your rebuild thread and am gonna do a HID upgrade later also. Your write-up is a big help.

The short levers are ordered. They look like a pretty good upgrade from the bent ones I've got now.

 

There are plenty of other tails and fairings that could fit on the Hurricane. If you do a search on tail mods you will find them. I chose the 2003-04 CBR600RR because the lines work with the Hurricane. Many of the other options will not fit as neatly as the RR. Any mod like this will require you to do your own brackets and changes to the bike. I put the RR How To together because there just isn't much info out there on how to do it. I tired to do a quality job because too many just hang the parts on, some very poorly I might add.


The 2005-06 fairing are very similar to the 2003-04 but the tail is different and thus the mounting will be different. The other thing to consider is that as the bikes evolved they got smaller. Engine height and width was reduced as they developed better ways to do things...the bikes themselves got smaller and thus so did the fairings. This makes it very difficult to fit them to the Hurricane. Even the 2003-04 fairings require quite a bit of playing to get everything to work as I point out in the conversion thread. I have seen many that did not consider this and if you start at the top and work down something won't fit...you have to fit and adjust and trim the parts together before ever actually mounting them to the bike. It is more complicated than it looks.


My point here is...there is a reason to look at the early RR plastics for the Hurricane if you want full fairings. If you just want to change the tail there are other choices. If you want a newer front fairing it may look funny without the bottom fairings and you might be better off with one of the aftermarket street fighter front fairings with a newer style tail...then there are a few more options in terms of the tail.


I really like the early RR tail on the Hurricane...it's looks like it belongs...most of the other's don't look as good in my opinion.


Not sure about aftermarket fenders unless specifically designed to fit the Hurricane...the mounting points are a little weird compared to other bikes...even within the CBR range.


There are a lot of fender choices. You can cut back the original Hurricane fender and remove some of the bulk and it looks pretty good. F2 and F3 fenders can fit with a little bit of work...they also can be cut back to look a little more "stealthy".


Since I wrote the conversion thread I modded an RR fender to fit by cutting out the area were the fork tubes go through. I am working on a Playboy Moto GP paint scheme and the fender is part of the look so I took the time to figure it out.


Hopefully this helps a little. The thing to remember it really is up to you what you want it to look like. If you decide to do mods you really have to figure it out yourself, because unless there is good "How To" info out there it becomes your baby to figure out.

 

I bought these bar ends last summer, and they fit and function very well. They come with bolts that attach to the rod in the center of the handlebar. They also have a good amount of weight to them which should help to minimize vibrations.
Weighted bar ends

The controls I don't have any helpful knowledge about, and I think everything else has been covered by the other posts. Good luck with the project!

 

Thank you for that. It helps a lot.

Really what I want out of the tail is a more modern look and a better functioning seat... My current seat looks to be redone, the shape is quite a bit different than stock ones. It's shaped more like a pillow. Having a removable seat and a small storage space would be great, if the RR tail offers that. It may come down to what tail/seat combo I can find a good deal on.

I really dig the "bug eye" headlight style that modern bikes have compared to the cyclops Hurricane headlight. I don't know if there are many mods to make it look a little better. I want to smoke the turn signal covers but I can't smoke the headlight. I don't really think there is much that can be done.


I also have one more question about the ignition switch. It's sticky and sometimes doesn't like to turn to the "ON" position, and it doesn't go back into the lock position. If I remove the key to put gas in or whatever, it takes a several tries (pulling the key out and flipping it over) before I can get it to turn. It always works eventually but I'm afraid someday it won't.. I have shot some graphite lube down the cylinder and it helped a little but it still sticks sometimes. They key looks like it's original and worn pretty good. Can I go to a Honda dealer and get a new key cut? I had to do that for my car when the key was getting worn with the same problem.

 

There should be a letter and two numbers stamped into your key which is the code to make a new key from. The dealer might be able to help, but I prefer to use a locksmith. Any locksmith familiar with motorcycles should be able to cut keys from that code.

If you don't have anyone local like me, I used Motorcycycle Keys a couple years ago to make a pair of keys for my bike. They were great to deal with at the time and the keys were perfect.

 

Tahoe is right. Save yourself some money and head to a locksmith. The key should have a number like this:


If you don't have an oem key, it's also printed under the fuel cap.

 

Did you guys have the same problem as me? Did a new key solve it?

My key looks exactly like the one in the pic. I'm pretty sure it has the code on it, but if not hopefully my cap is original to the bike.

 

My keys work fine, but yours might be so worn that it doesn't work very well. If the key opens the fuel cap, then you know the code on the cap will work.