60's Honda CL 160 Rebuild as Racer

Carlo

Kickstart Enthusiast
Not legal since 1957 :twofinger But cool, yeah.

That's the old FIM rule for GP racing. I doubt that there's any rule that says you can't run a dustbin fairing in "modern" vintage class racing, unless the AHRMA rules state that a bike can only have equipment that was contemporary with the bike itself.
In which case, go find a 1956 Mondial or Moto Morini.
 

t.tinyo

Well-known member
Ah yes! Some bent and some broken (see pic). I've just finished unlacing the wheels and wire wheeling the rust from the inside of the hoops. I'm currently trying to figure out how to either remove the chrome of at least get ride of the rust that is beginning to show through it.

Is'nt this where it gets expensive?
 

Cereal KLR

Well-known member
175`s and 160`s run in same class. The 175 has more displacement but is a double cradle frame that weighs more so performance is roughly the same. The five speed box would make me go with the vertical 175 but if the price is right either way.
 

twitchmonitor

Well-known member
Dustbin

For all you dustbin fairing fans, here's a pic for you from the 160 yahoo group. And it does look hot.
 

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akathisia

Gait Plagiarist
Hey, thanks for all the info. The website link you gave is awesome! Tons of contacts and links. I will sign up for the yahoo group so that I get updates as I want to come see you guys race when you are down in the bay area. I was at an race at Infineon a couple years back and saw a handful of vintage riders and was intrigued then.

I gave up a working, good condition 350 for $100 two years ago because of limited space, time and money and I have kicked myself ever since.... over and over again. It would have been a perfect racebike.

Your posting up your project has got me all excited about 160 racing. I am going to start keeping my eyes peeled for a 160. However, from the looks of yours it's probably going to be difficult to locate one.

thanks again for all the info and i look forward to following your progress on your bike.

cheers
 

twitchmonitor

Well-known member
Progress is slow. A heat gun and tire iron helped me removed the crusty aged oil seals in my new forks yesterday. I also made it to the shop to cut the extra junk off the front sprocket cover.

Today I spent almost 3 hours dealing with customer care, phone menus, etc. When I was finished I needed to blow off some steam so I went downstairs and finished cleaning the engine cases and hubs. Just have the case left. Oh, and I wire wheeled the tank some more. It'll be ready for paint when the frame gets blasted. Might as well do them at the same time.

Forks, forks, forks. The CL160 forks I have are great; they have aluminum lowers, gaiters and actually have shorter tubes than the CB forks. The CB fork tubes in in pretty good shape but the lowers are steel and they're missing the part that protects the (apparently vulnerable) tubes from debris. I'll try to stick the CB forks in the CL lowers but it may take a bit of machining to get them to work together.
 

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McGrude

Experienced Noob
So... speaking of paint... What are you thoughts on frame and tank/side panel colors? I know it's too early really but I am curious.
 

twitchmonitor

Well-known member
Good question. Frame will be gloss black. I picked up some Rustoleum Auto-specific paint that's supposed to be extremely durable. We'll see about that.

I won't be running side covers, so that takes care of that. I was just the recipient of a generous gift of parts, including a race tail. The tail is black and I'll probably just leave it that way. Which leaves the tank. I think I'll probably paint it the same color as my other racebike, silver sparkle. You know, team livery :cool The color of my racebike is very close to that of the 900ss here, but my friend had to tweak the photo a lot to make it look decent so the colors got a bit off.

That paint, from Dupli-color, however, doesn't stand up to gas spillage very well at all, so I may try a silver from another company, or maybe just a non sparkle. If I'm feeling saucy I'll also add a yellow stripe. To match my yellow novice number plates :twofinger Might look something like this 900ss, but with the strip running along the top of the tank from triples to seat.
 

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twitchmonitor

Well-known member
Spent a while trying to mix and match fork components but I can't deny that fact that I still only have one good fork tube. :(

I did actually accomplish something today: I made up these tabs to mount the rearstand spuds and welded them on the swingarm. I'll turn those spuds tomorrow. :)
 

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twitchmonitor

Well-known member
Ok, here's today's progress so far. I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. The first photo shows the spools in front of the spool off my EX500 racer that I used as a template. Now all I need is a rearstand. I may have that finished by next week. Or the week after if I study for finals next week the way I'm supposed to.
 

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McGrude

Experienced Noob
Cool.

I wish I had a little project bike like this to wrench on. All I can do right now is have one vicariously through you.
 

Gabe

COVID-fefe
This is a great thread. I wish I had the garage/tools/skills/patience to do something like this myself...I am going to have Charlie O'Hanlon at Charlie's place put together a CB350 Cafe bike for me. This is my inspiration:

0023.JPG
 

twitchmonitor

Well-known member
Glad to oblige! I'm pretty limited in what I can do too. You'll notice that almost everything I've done up to this point has cost $0.00. :)

Cool.

I wish I had a little project bike like this to wrench on. All I can do right now is have one vicariously through you.
 

McGrude

Experienced Noob
Glad to oblige! I'm pretty limited in what I can do too. You'll notice that almost everything I've done up to this point has cost $0.00. :)

:thumbup You've gotta keep it in budget... let's see you started with $1000 budget, bought the bike for $200 and have spent $0. Looks like you're on track so far!

Edit: Oh wait... what did the forks cost you?
 

twitchmonitor

Well-known member
:thumbup You've gotta keep it in budget... let's see you started with $1000 budget, bought the bike for $200 and have spent $0. Looks like you're on track so far!

Edit: Oh wait... what did the forks cost you?

Bought the bike for $500, forks cost $40. Ok, $460 to go.
 
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