I bought a Nighthawk exactly like yours and love it. I don’t have a manual for it and it has been impacted by being left outside too much. I can’t get the seat to release to gain access to the airbox to ensure it doesn’t need service. It looks like the mechanism by the helmet mount doubles as a seat release but the seat seems to hang up in the front and won’t lift open. The mechanism seems to release only the holder in the rear. Should the seat flip up from the rear or open sideways as most of them do? Is there an additional broken cable not releasing it in the front? Also, do you know if there is another fuse locaton other than what is under the side cover? I have lost tach and speedo lighting.
I conc ur with your “perfect commuter” statement. It will pin the speedometer, making it safe to operate on short hightway stints and smooth and easy to handle in city driving conditions. I really like it and I’ve had Harleys and big cruisers. This is so easy to handle.
The seat lifts from the side and is held down with the same latch you are referring to. It should be a keyed latch – twisting the key one way will open the helmet lock, twisting it the other way will unlatch the seat.
In some cases I’ve had damaged seat locks and ended up just taking a drill bit and drilling the lock out – that has always worked like a charm for me.
Additional Notes from a reader:
I too have an 82 Nighthawk and had problems with the seat. As it turns out the problem wasn’t with the seat, it was with me. On one side you have the “key’d” latch, but there is another lever on the opposite side of the bike that released the seat for me. I don’t know if that would solve your problem or not…but figured I’d check to be sure you were releasing BOTH SIDES.
wes