Street Hawk was originally planned to premiere in fall 1984 on Mondays, but ABC pushed it to mid-season after the summer series Call to Glory performed well.

The show's theme was composed by Tangerine Dream and produced by Christopher Franke; a modified version used in the pilot later appeared on their album Le Parc under the title 'Le Parc (L.A. - Streethawk)'.

The pilot motorcycle was built by Motorcyclist Magazine staffers Jeff Karr and Dexter Ford in a Hancock Park garage, combining an electric-start Honda Ascot 500 engine with the chassis of a Honda XL500 dual-sport bike.

The series motorcycles were based on 1984 Honda XR500s fitted with the electric-start Ascot engine, making them the first-known electric-start Honda dual-sport motorcycles.

While the stunt coordinator wanted to use a turbocharged Honda CX500 street bike for performance sequences, the actual stunt jump shots used motorcycles based on Honda CR250 racing dirt bikes.

The pilot bike's bodywork was designed by Andrew Probert, while the series bikes were later redesigned by Ron Cobb.

During filming, fiberglass bike parts constantly flew off during stunt work, so the second unit crew kept six backup bikes on standby for jump and maneuver scenes, with stunt bikes regularly repaired at Universal Studios' effects shop and a motorcycle shop on Lankershim Boulevard.

Winfield Special Projects in Canoga Park produced all the body panels and special effects for the bikes, with Eric Thaler from Austria overseeing the project there.

The two official VHS releases of the pilot differ in details: the Canadian MCA version features a 'blue lightning'-style weapon and matted-in fake jumps, while the shorter U.S. release shows the red laser beam weapon and real stunt jumps.

The series was a major hit in India when aired by Doordarshan, particularly among adolescent males, inspiring an MTB-style bicycle called 'Streetcat' aimed at that audience.