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New Member from Chicago

3392 Views 17 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  alx099, 
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New Member from

Hello all,

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H
All those bikes look quite clean and tidy - I'd be hesitant to modify any of them to be honest.

Sometimes you have to respect the fact that your 40 year old bikes are still the same as they left the factory. It's becoming increasingly rare to see.
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knappyfeet
I have to agree. I hate to see nice old bikes get cut up. If you could.....maybe you could source one that would be a better candidate. One that is dilapidated or is in disrepair. The collection you have now looks really nice.
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Witworth
Those three bikes are too good to generally butcher-up. Leave them stock.

You have the Honda bug, so I think you should go find a later model, disc brake CB350 twin. Or even a CB360 or a bigger bike like a CB550. Personally I'd avoid CB350F's and CB400F's.

Go find a stock bike that is a bit tatty looking, but starting and running fine, as a café base. You would be changing just about everything anyway, so a ripped seat and faded paint doesn't really matter much.

Danger, is my business."
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Thank you all for the input! I would have to agree that I was torn about messing with any of them. I'll work on finding a later 70s model with a disc brake instead of messing with these. Hopefully my fiancé puts up with an additional bike haha.

I only need the exhaust for my Cb160 but those are quite hard to find. Hopefully I'll find one in the near future.
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With regards to the fiancé, it's best to sort out the motorcycle and toy rules prior to the actual ceremony. A prenup may be in order if there is any indication that she plans on carrying your balls around in her purse once the license is inked. It may be worth starting your M/C project in the bedroom and negotiating from there. Moving it to the living room will make you appear benevolent and caring.
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OldTwin
I agree wholeheartedly with the consensus to not destroy nice original vintage bikes, with one caveat, tasteful mods that in no way permanently alter the original bike. I think minor mods that only involve swapping out some parts that can be easily reinstalled at a later date would not be overly offensive to most on this site.

My personal approach to mods is to attempt to fabricate/adapt parts to fit an original design rather than alter the original design to allow installation of non-original parts. Not always possible I know, but that's usually my initial preference.
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Ichiban Moto
Welcome ALX, I sent you a PM about a friends CB that's for sale.
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8ball
The trick is to get your project bike in blue, chrome, or red. That way the missus, won't be aware of an additional bike. You just have to make sure the matching whole bike is hidden at all times when she is around.


...After 21 years of marriage, I think my wife gave up a long time ago trying to keep track of the current garage toy type inventory....
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Haha, nice to see that there is some humor in the forum :). Thanks everyone for all the input, I continue to restore these to have the collection looking nice.

8ball, I think she is definitely realizing not to look in the garage haha.
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T
Of those three, which one do you have most fun riding and which one would make the best cafe racer - For You?

That may help you to decide what size bike to get next. By some strange coincidence, I have a CB160 cafe racer project here that needs a good home. Others have other size bikes they need to shift - I mean may be persuaded to let go....
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thechief86
'Historic production' cb350 class with ahrma won't allow a disc brake, fyi.
And the cb350 only came with a disc in 73. Great bike, just not eligible to actually race in that circuit.
Maybe there's a loophole, or maybe it won't ever see the track...
Just my $.02
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Update: I found a 1967 Honda CB160 about 2 hours from Chicago. This is a true barn find in pretty rough shape. The engine is seized and needs a complete restoration/rebuild. Should be a fun project. Let me know if you have any parts you're trying to get rid of. Thanks!

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knappyfeet
Now that's a better candidate for your project than one of your other fine machines. That will be a fun project. What's the plan for it?
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K
The first thing to do is gather up a couple more CB160s for parts bikes. Since you have a fiance, get them broken down and into tubs, crates and boxes as soon as you can and she might not notice them. You are doing it right in that you have a nice running stock 160 that you can use in conjunction with your project. The first thing I would do is pull the forks off the blue bike and strip them down and make them perfect. Then I would paint the triples to stock and swap out that front end with your street bike and put in some tapered rollers. That improves your street bike and gives you a good set to work on for your project. That is the pattern I would follow throughout, with rear shocks, brakes, cables, electricals, tires, etc... At the end you will have a nice clean stock bike with period improvements and a project bike that is starting from known usable components.

I had a racer buddy that was getting married and he made it clear with his fiance that if the choice came down to new furniture of new race tires, they were getting tires. He raced for another 30 years and 20 some national titles even a bit of AMA Pro 250 GP. They are still married.
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CaTacL1sm
alx099 said:
Haha, nice to see that there is some humor in the forum :). Thanks everyone for all the input, I continue to restore these to have the collection looking nice.

8ball, I think she is definitely realizing not to look in the garage haha.
Click to expand...
Of course there's nothing wrong with upgrading bearings or fork springs (possibly shocks...) as part of a restoration...
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8ball
There you go. It's blue AND chrome! Now you have a choice of bikes you can hide when the wife is around! Brilliant!!
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I'm trying to get it running for now and then will decide. The engine is seized and I have never opened one up before so it should be interesting. I doubt there's any decent motors out there for sale so I'll try to rebuild this one.
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