Topic: Black Friday - a red 1965 CB160 build.

[jgger]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VintageHondaMotorcycle/permalink/1515291282182769/?app=fbl

Saw this on Facebook this morning.

[Alan F.]

Thanks but I won't Facebook, I'm sure it may help others though.

[RAFster122s]

It is a private Facebook page so, unless you join that group you won't see anything they post or others whom are members will share.

[RAFster122s]

One note of caution, just don't fill so full you hydrolock the motor...that can break things if you try to force it through a stroke...

[Alan F.]

Ok, I'll keep it on the stick then.

[Alan F.]

No progress to speak of today but I did Krazy glue a milk jug cap over the drain hole on my 21" plastic water heater pan. A few more layers of Krazy glue and baking soda and it's solid as well as liquid tight.

I also went out & picked up a gallon of Evaporust and a couple of cheap wire brushes. Tomorrow I'm hoping to start cleaning up those rusty wheels and clean the spokes up.

[Alan F.]

I'm looking at tires.
Stock tire sizes are both 18" 2.5 front and 2.75 rear.

I've found a deal I like for two 2.5's with good load ratings (150-200lbs higher than the bike & me)
& good speed ratings, P rating is 93mph.

Does anyone think it would be detrimental to drop the rear width from the stock 2.75 to a 2.5?

I calculate it as a 9.5% difference.

[RAFster122s]

Load rating possible suffers but contact patch isn't huge on small tires. The cb160 on the track can be quite entertaining when pushed and I would want to be able to have a good large contact patch on the rear.

I went looking for a new front for my Vstrom 650 and the 100/80r19 is hard to find and the supply chain and covid impacts to manufacturing really has put a dent in ability to find tires and many other things.
The pandemic really has cost us far more than people realize yet. It broke things we took for granted and it will take years for things to recover, if they do.
Thanks China...
 I still am not convinced that it wasn't an intentional release. We probably will never really know given China disappearing peopleand unwilling to tell the truth... typical behavior.

[Alan F.]

Yes, you're not wrong and I share your suspicions but we'll get through it.
If we can reverse every song John Mellencamp ever wrote about economic change, well all right!

But we're talking about tires. 9.5% reduction in cross sectional height and width if I'm understanding correctly. I'm probably never taking this bike to a track, and to be honest I'll probably only ride it to the edge of its envelope on very rare occasions. In fact I'll be 51 in February, full days of spirited back road exploration are probably about as hard as I'm ever going to ride. So I think I'm probably going to go with these Sava (Mitas) MC11's front and rear. Treatland.tv has a package with rim strips and quality tubes for $97.99 and I'll pick up a set of their Honda tank emblems to put the order over the free shipping amount. These are soft compound sticky tires and I'll be very happy to wear them out before they're too old to ride on.

Good luck finding a front you like for your Vstrom.

[Stev-o]

Alan - sounds like you've already made up your mind to buy those tires, so just do it.  It's a lightweight, low speed bike that wont put G forces like a CB 750.   And seems like I never wear out the tires on my 'little" bikes, guess they never get a lot of miles put on them.

[Alan F.]

Good advice from the gentleman from Texas.
Thanks for pushing me over that edge.

[grcamna2]

Alan - sounds like you've already made up your mind to buy those tires, so just do it.  It's a lightweight, low speed bike that wont put G forces like a CB 750.   And seems like I never wear out the tires on my 'little" bikes, guess they never get a lot of miles put on them.

I think it will handle great with those tires Alan.I've gotten tires from that company here in San Fran before;I like dealing with them 

[Alan F.]

Thanks Bill.

Made another modification to my Evaporust soak pan for the rims, I bought a cheap dollar store oil drain pan with a 16" OD and stuck it down inside the 20" ID water heater drain pan. This should dramatically decrease the amount of Evaporust needed. Unfortunately I don't think the pan is deep enough to completely submerge the rim, I'll have to flip it over at halftime.

My 2 NOS replacement spokes arrived, and so did the 16 oz trigger bottle of CorrosionX, I purposefully avoided their aerosol cans because you can ship a trigger bottle on an airplane... The stuff looks like blue/green 2-stroke oil but smells like solvents and has some tough warnings on the label.

Edit: I'm also pretty stoked, just put in the order for the tires & stuff and a set of tank badges.

[Alan F.]

Holy crap, I put my tire order in an hour ago and it's going out with FedEx tonight!

[HondaMan]

This is a fun thread, Alan: I rebuilt (and ran) a CB160 engine for a rider about 2 years ago (or maybe 3 now?). It was a trip down Memory Lane, reminding me of the innards of the little twin(s). At startup I had to take quite some care with the spark advancer as a little rust went a long way in it, making it impossible to set the timing on both cylinders with the one set of points and a lopsided points cam, due to crud. Just a heads-up: take that all apart and clean well, as it's probably like that.

[Alan F.]

Thank you, I'll definitely post some photos when I get in there. I hope this thread is fun, I'm enjoying this project quite a bit and hope everyone else can too.

If there are any photo requests please speak up.

And if anyone happens to have a correct horn for this bike in similar condition and operational please let me know. There are a few on eBay but they're either crap or gold!

[grcamna2]

I'm curious if anyone has ever re-phased a crankshaft on one of these to 180 degrees compared to it's stock 360 degrees? then installed a double point system similar to the Superhawk 305?

[Alan F.]

Yes I was thinking something like that too but I was wondering about 270 degrees! I'm sure the answers are here if I ask the right guy. But I'm honestly not sure my wallet is ready to go down that rabbit hole. I suppose that's a question for the same man.

[grcamna2]

Yes I was thinking something like that too but I was wondering about 270 degrees! I'm sure the answers are here if I ask the right guy. But I'm honestly not sure my wallet is ready to go down that rabbit hole. I suppose that's a question for the same man.

I'm sure it would take away some of the CB160's low and mid-range torque which it has now but the change to a 180 crankshaft would make it a high revving engine;maybe a 'Mini Superhawk' with a different performance powerband?

[Alan F.]

I believe our own Mr. Sam Green is the man to speak with about making one of these into a real monster.
I understand it starts with a 175 sloper head.

But it's not in the cards for me right now.

[Alan F.]

More mods to the wheel soak pan tonight after reading some Evaporust experiences. The directions say to immerse the part completely. In my reading it seems that parts which were only partially submerged are experiencing some pitting near the (liquid) surface line on the part, while parts that were completely submerged are not experiencing this issue. I'm gonna need a deeper pan. To deepen the pan I have I've bought 6 feet of 1/2"ID x 5/8" OD clear tubing and made a "hula hoop" that I've affixed to the top edge of the pan with strips of painters tape. I'll add some white silicone caulking between the strips of tape, later I'll remove the tape and fill the gaps.

This will increase the pan depth enough to comfortably immerce/submerge these wheels with plenty of extra depth.

[HondaMan]

Yes I was thinking something like that too but I was wondering about 270 degrees! I'm sure the answers are here if I ask the right guy. But I'm honestly not sure my wallet is ready to go down that rabbit hole. I suppose that's a question for the same man.

I'm sure it would take away some of the CB160's low and mid-range torque which it has now but the change to a 180 crankshaft would make it a high revving engine;maybe a 'Mini Superhawk' with a different performance powerband?

I'm still (stinging from) remembering one day when a guy with his girl on his (nice and young) 305 Dream whipped me and my girl on my first SuperHawk, not long after I got it in 1969. That pushed me to [re]enter being a Honda mechanic at the local shop in the college town where I was, staying there over that summer instead of going home.

Of course, that also became the Summer of the CB750, while I was boring my SuperHawk to 337cc with 10.5:1 pistons and new pipes.

But, by the time I saw that Dream again, I was riding my 750K1, so I just waved and smiled...

[Alan F.]

I've seen fuel tanks filled with golf balls. Or was it ping pong balls to take up the majority of internal space during de-rusting, easy to get them all out too with an unsharpened pencil with a 'glue dot' at one end. For open containers I'd recommend the golf balls though, they sink. (ask me how I know)

I'm setting up now to soak the rims, deal is I do the dishes before washing the rims and spokes in the kitchen sink. I've got a glass topped table in the attic with an electric heater with thermostat set at 70F beneath it and a blue tarp above, I want that piece of glass warm before I begin and I'll soak the jug of Evaporust in a sink of hot water for 15 minutes too. I'll wire brush the inside of the rims, but the visible side is only getting soap and water with a gentle sponge, same with the spokes and nipples.

I'll update with photos and start a stopwatch before anything goes into the Evaporust.

[Alan F.]

Ok, had to run out for a second gallon of Evaporust but one rim and all of the spokes are soaking. In fact I had to toss in some other items to raise the liquid level enough to submerge the rim. I've got the heater under the table set at 73 for the overnight, I'll check it all in the morning. Start time was ~9pm

[grcamna2]

How's the pan working out Alan:can you get the full width of the rim down into it?