Ron Machette sent in some pics of his cool little Honda project.
Hi mate. I’ve been busy ,this is my Honda cub 70 I put Chaly wheels and handlebars st70 forks, seat off a Monkey bike, bates front light. It goes really nice and it just passe the MOT so I’ve been cruising round the streets. People are not sure what bike it is. It’s a 1975 and only cost a couple of hundred quid Still got the other one too cheers Ron!
From the days when supergikes were interesting! For quite a few years this was a wildly unappreciated bike. I remember them piling up at the dealerships as Ninja’s and VFR’s came out. It’s great to see such an excellent survivor that seems to have travelled a long way to it’s new owner!
Stéphane writes in:
Hi!!
My name’s Stéphane and I’m from south of France ( Nice ). I’ve bought this CB 900 f SuperSport ( Bol d’Or in Europe ) last October.
It came from NY City where it spent 25 years in a shop, just for decoration purpose… It had 3500 km ( 2174 miles ) when it arrived
in France, bought by a collector. Then he drove with it until 5000 km ( 3106 miles ).
And here I’m !! He decided to sale it for 2500 euros ( not much for this beauty ). I’ve just changed few things like carburator gaskets, etc…
Now, every morning, I take that fat mama for a daily ride , going to work or just riding it with friends.
Next project : a 350 CB ! but it will change a lot… Brat ? Dirt ? we will see… =)
I send you some picts of last sunday, in the old part of my city, and I hope you will find it cool ,thanx for the website, keep riding ;
Stéphane
Jim Meyer spotted this clean little scoot and sent her in.
Steve, I spotted this today and had no idea what it was, never saw one before. Very cool little bike. Where has all the simplicity gone?
Good Question Jim.
These engines had decent specs including 185 psi compression! And I’ve read that some US versions had top speeds in excess of 50 mph. Wow!
Engine
Type Air cooled 2-stroke, reed valve
Cylinder arrangement Single cylinder 40 degree incline
Bore and Stroke 39.0 x 41.4 mm (1.54 x 1.63 in)
Displacement 49cc (2.98 cu in)
Compression ratio 7.6:1
Max Horsepower 7.0 BHP @ 9000 rpm
Max Torque 4.05 ft-lb (5.6 N-m)
Oil Capacity, transmission
Oil tank 1.1 US qt (1.0 liters)
1.2 US qt (1.1 liters)
Lubrication system Forced (eng) and wet sump (tranny)
Air Filtration Oiled polyurethane foam
Cylinder compression 185 psi (1275 kPa)
Engine weight 38.6 lb (17.5 kg)
Idle Speed 1400 rpm
I didn’t get a name of the builder in the E-mail (drop me a line please) and the photo’s are a little small for what I usually like to post but this is so cool I posted it anyway. Really interesting hybrid with build pics in the gallery.
Sorry… had to mis a few days of posting… Got trapped at work on a big project. 36 out of 48 gets a bit rough… Anyway I did find some nice surprises in my inbox starting with this beauty. You know, if Honda were to build another modern retro they could do a lot worse than looking to their own past for inspiration.
Thanks Much to Shannon Hayes for these great shots.
I’ve got several more sweet bikes from JAY and I’m a bit too rushed to get to them all at the moment but I HAVE to post this sweet little Honda 350 Four cafe he sent in. Wow that’s nice. Gorgeous!
Edit:it’s an 88 (obviously) and not a 98.
This is a really excellent example of the potential that these bike came with. I still scratch my head how a bike like this went out of production in the US just a few years before the very similar SV650 took us by storm. And this one has been really well done up. I can in fact testify that 64HP in a bike this light is the sort of fun that’s hard to to explain to a 200 hp generation. But it’s real.
Hello. I have been following your web site for quite awhile now and own a few bikes myself. I have a friend that bought a 1988 Honda Hawk a few years ago and has done a ton of work on it making it into a very nice up to date ride for 2011. I think it would really make his year to have his bike and the work he has done shown on your website. It will also be a nice surprise seeing it on your web site. Here is several pics of his bike from where it started to where it is now. I will also list some of the changes he has made.
The changes he has made and additions include. Stock front forks with Racetech springs, Race Tech Gold Valve Emulators, All Balls steering head bearings kit, K & L fork seals, and All balls front wheel bearings kit, Steve Lenac Brake kit (bracket/6 pot caliper/Pro Lite floating race rotor), EBC HH brake pads, Stainless steel brake lines front and rear through the swingarm, Motion pro throttle and clutch cables, Penske 8983 Triple shock, 3.0 Jet kit, Pod Filters, Polished heads, New carb boots, rebuilt carbs and dyno’d at 64hp., Mikuni vacuum fuel pump with custom mikuni mount above the rear valve cover, Full M4 Titanium High Race Exhaust system, KOSO RX2N Gauge, Aztec8 5 3/4″ dual headlights, Eastern Beaver wiring harness, Vortex Clipons and bars, CRG Lane splitting mirrors and levers, VLED Red 92 Brakelight bulbs, Buell Traction Grips, Buell Blinkers, F3 front rim, vfr 5 spoke 5 1/2inch rear wheel, lightened rear rotor, many parts powdercoated, body work custom painted, and many other custom made parts he had made.
Here is a few when he first got it.
And a few during the build process.
He had set it up this way about 6 months ago with the low mount m4 exhaust and quite a few less parts than he has now…Here is some of the latest photos after all the work has been done. He told me he is going to do more things to it, but here it is now.
Here we have a fe of the finished product:
A few from the build process:
And here’s the Before Pic. Not bad really:
Another great build from Jason Moore who’s e-mail message was again trapped in my spam filter. This time a 1974 Honda Cl 125 Sorry about that Jason. It’s happening so often that I may just start a sub category for it. Oh and be sure to check out his blog. Good stuff.
Hey, Just finished my CB125 for my wife. 1974, converted to 12 volts. Internally sprung forks, custom fiberglass seat, clip-ons with internal throttle cable, scrambler pipe with internal baffle. Sweat paint job with matching retro helmet. Check out my blog to see my past and future builds. http://flyingjcustoms.blogspot.com/
I see from your blog that you’ve since sold it but that “find” you had on the bad side of town looks like it has possibilities.
Simon Tay from Singapore writes in with his second custom build. This time it’s a really trick sidecar rig that wouldn’t break your bank.
It’s me again! The above link was the first bike I built, so this is my second. It’s a 1995 Honda CM125 I did at the car park area outside my office. I did it with a very limited budget, a lot of the parts were either reshaped from the original parts on the bike or scarp materials I found.
The handlebars are the stock bars, cut reshaped and welded. I run the wires internally to make it look cleaner. I couldn’t afford those expensive “bobber” tail light, so I used the stock turn signal light and turned it into a tail light. The rear fender was shaped from the original fender. The tank was from a Suzuki GN125 I picked up from the scrapyard, I cut off the seam and welded it to have a smoother look. I used the rubber grommets that protects the wires left from my Honda Steed to mount the tank. The seat was made from aluminium pan. I had a friend’s mom to help me sew the lines on the cover. I made the passenger seat with wood and foam from and old sofa, however the upholstery was done by a professional sofa restorer(that’s the only part done by a professional on this bike). I did the paint job as well as the (poorly done) pinstripe. I added a steering damper to reduce the wobble. I couldn’t find a nice headlight within my budget, so I flipped the headlight mounts and the lowered headlight blended with the bike pretty well.
I wanted to get a matching wheel on the sidecar, but I had to give up that idea to stay within budget. So it might look a little odd with spoke wheel on that side. And was about to get a photographer to do a photo shoot of it, but I figured if I had done 95% of this bike on my own I might as well take pictures of it using my iPhone!
Regards,
Simon
Singapore
Thanks Simon! I really like your ingenuity on this build. Sometimes when your first impulse is too expensive or not available, the solution turns out to be better than you intended.
Motorcycle Photo Of The Day 