71 honda CL100/suzuki gn125 mash up

doorpz

New Member
Just copied this over from my introduction post.

The first bike I actually owned was a 1971 Honda CL100. It's pretty much a scooter but it worked great for riding back and forth to school in the city.

Here are some pics of when I first picked it up.
IMAG0635.jpg

IMAG1050.jpg

IMAG1051.jpg


I rode it for around 8 months and it never let me down. It smoked like crazy and leaked oil but it always started and ran well enough. I was coming back from school one night and I was 2 blocks away from my house when a teenage girl pulled out from a side street right as I was getting to the intersection. She had a stop sign and I had the right of way but she didn't see me and pretty much ran me down. I got off pretty lucky and only messed up my shoulder a little bit. The bike however took more damage. The exhaust and shock on the right side got smashed up and the frame was bent too. The tank was dented and the headlight housing broke. The transmission locked up and wouldn't shift anymore. I had to hold the clutch in when I pushed it home.

IMAG1218.jpg

IMAG1216.jpg


Her insurance company totalled it out and paid me more than twice what I paid for it so I wasn't complaining too much. I originally was just going to store it at my brother's house and use parts off it for other stuff but then I enrolled in a custom metal fab class at the community college I go to and decided to salvage it and put it back onto the road.

I stripped the frame down at first to get a look at the damage. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be after I got everything off. The exhaust and shock took the brunt of the impact.
IMAG1690.jpg

IMAG1697.jpg


I heated the bent section of frame and used a hydraulic spreader to straighten it back up. It worked pretty well but it's still not perfectly straight. I might end up tweaking it one more time.
IMAG1700.jpg

IMAG1701.jpg


Next I decided I was going to upgrade the motor to a 200cc honda clone motor. I used one they had laying around school to test fit in the frame. The engine bolted right up and looks pretty good. I'll have to fab a new top mount but that should be easy.
IMAG1711.jpg

IMAG1712.jpg


I wanted to swap the 27mm front forks out for something a little bigger. I also wanted to put a front disk on it so I started going through those steering stem and front fork diameter lists that are around online and tried to find a combo that I could just bolt up on the frame. I found that the early 80's honda CM200T's had the same steering stem and used 31mm forks so I found a triple tree on ebay for like $30. I couldn't find any bikes that had disk brakes with 31mm forks so I was just going to use a 250 nighthawk front end but when I was at a motorcycle salvage place I stumbled onto a suzuki GN125 parts bike that I liked. It had nice alloy wheels and a front disk brake. It had 32mm forks but I didn't care at that point and picked up the whole bike for $200.
IMAG1744.jpg


I was driving my jetta and hadn't been planning on buying a motorcycle so I had to strip it down so it would fit in the trunk and back seat. The mechanics at the shop thought it was hilarious and they timed me as I pulled it apart.
IMAG1745.jpg

IMAG1746.jpg


After doing some more research I decided to have the 31mm Honda triple tree bored out to 32mm. My teacher knew a guy that does machine work and he did it for $50. I also decided to swap the whole suzuki swing arm instead of just the back wheel. I got lucky and the swing arm just fit after I trimmed down the stock swing arm mount. After I trimmed the mount down I welded in an insert that fit inside the stock mount and was the right size for the suzuki swing arm bolt.
IMAG1844.jpg

IMAG1845.jpg

IMAG1846.jpg


With the front forks and wheels on.
IMAG1860.jpg


And with the tank and seat on.
IMAG1862.jpg


And next to a stock 71 CL100 that somebody else at school is working on.
IMAG1866.jpg


The suzuki swing arm stretches it out a few inches and is also a bit wider so I'm going to have to make some custom spacers for the rear axle and new shock mounts. The Honda triple tree is a little wider than the suzuki one was so I'll need to make some spacers for the front axle as well but better too wide than too narrow. I picked up the engine yesterday so I need to get that installed so I can start getting the rear end dialed in. I replaced the stock ball bearing steering stem bearings with some tapered roller bearings today so now I can get the forks installed and work out the spacing for the front axle as well. I'll probably get some longer shocks for the rear to raise it up some. I'm going to run the clip ons above the top triple tree so it won't look as crazy as it does now with the forks sticking up above the top triple tree.

I ordered some clip ons off ebay but realized I ordered 31mm instead of 32mm. I was going to return them but I've been looking around and 32mm clip ons are alot harder to come by so I'm probably just going to open up the 31's because I like the 2 piece style.

IMAG1916.jpg
 
The 200cc ohv clone engine is the business. Enough power to push the frame beyond it's limits and buckets of torque. I'd suggest bracing the rear triangle to the main frame while you can and strengthen the bottom cradle to allow for the extra length on that wicket swinging arm.
 
Yeah I'm planning on doing some bracing but I wanted to do some research to find out the best places to do it. I'm still figuring out the mechanics of bikes and where the stress points are. These stamped frames don't seem like they were built to handle much more than what the stock motor could give. I know alot of people race them but after all the time I've spent on this one I'd be much more comfortable after adding some braces.
 
http://www.smproducts.co.uk/products/frames?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.pbv.v9.tpl&product_id=596&category_id=17
See how the rear triangle is braced in the middle back to the spine? This is what I need to do to mine at some point as well.

I think the fact that the Suzuki swinger required narrower lugs will have removed some flex.

I also in effect braced the bottom of the cradle with the sidecar mount:

P1040097.jpg


Also made the muther of a front engine mount to replace the wimpy front one.

P1040046.jpg


When the right piece of ally plate comes along I shall also make a bash plate effectively bracing the front engine mount to the rear cradle.

i think if you service those new forks well, and have a sturdy form of fork brace like a good strong mudguard, have have some rear shocks that actually damp as well as rebound, that you will end up with a nice handling little scoot.
 
Thanks for that link it's a good reference. I had thought about boxing in the lower section of the frame but I need to get the motor in first. A stronger front mount is probably a good idea, the stock one is definitely light gauge metal. I had planned on just flushing the fluid in the forks but apparently suzuki decided not to put drain plugs in these forks so the only way to get into them is from the top so I'll probably pull them apart and clean them out. Any recommendations for rear shocks would be cool. This is a budget build so I can't afford ohlins or anything like that.
 
I like these shocks ......... no frills, do what they say on the box. Made By MIDI FORSA but often rebranded and sold under different names at a wide variety of different price mark ups. i.e. the Dime City shocks are Midi's. Based on the classic proven Girling design.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/classic-motorcycle-bike-twin-shocks-absorbers-Honda-Suzuki-Yamaha-Kawasaki-/261013067164?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item3cc597559c

They come in different lengths and spring eye combinations .... I assume that with the longer swinging arm you'll be needing a bit more than the standard 320mm to get a good stance up front. Or just have a mooch around the local bike breakers for a second hand pair, but check for damping so you don't end up riding a pogo stick ;) Maybe try some thing off an enduro dirt bike. The suzi front end/disk brake will make a major improvement, just put in the right amount of standard weight oil to the manufacturers spec.

An alternative is to stick with the shocks you have for now, work out how much travel the front forks have and lower the trees even more so they don't hit the mudguard under full compression. Don't worry how much is sticking up out of the top until you've got in on the road and then can play with different settings and arrive at what's best by actually riding it. Too many people put too much effort into the finish of a bike and want it all perfect before they even know how it will ride. I prefer the 'work in progress route' - The builds I follow on here are the ones where they are not precious, get the build to prove itself first, then tear it back down and make it pretty. No point spending a fortune powder coating then finding the need to weld on extra lugs/bracing/mount points and ruining the finish.
 
Thanks I'll keep my eye out for those on ebay. I was planning on running the stock suzuki shocks at first just to make sure everything works and then go from there. There might be some shocks laying around at school that I might be able to use as well, there's a bunch of parts that people have left/donated. I don't really have to worry about the finish on it because I'm going to leave the frame bare metal, might run the tank bare too. I'll either clear coat it or have it clear powder coated depending on my budget at that time. I'll have to strip the tank to fix the dents so I'll see what it looks like once it bare. I'd thought about putting in some knee spaces on the tank but not sure on the idea yet.
 
Well I managed to get a little more work done on the bike.

I bolted up a motor to see how the sprockets were going to line up and it looks like I got lucky. I didn't have the axle completely straight but I think it's going to work without modifications.
IMAG1924.jpg

IMAG1925.jpg

IMAG1927.jpg


My clip ons came in and I went to install them and found out they sent me two right side clamps, awesome.
IMAG1929.jpg

IMAG1930.jpg


Bolted up the front caliper and it looks like its going to work fine. I'll have to space the wheel and caliper to get the wheel centered but that should an easy fix.
IMAG1932.jpg

IMAG1933.jpg


Mocked up the suzuki exhaust to see if it would fit. It's close but it will need some modifications to make it work.
IMAG1936.jpg


I found a 13" shock laying around at school that I used for mock up. I think it looked it pretty good so I might start looking around for something similar.
IMAG1938.jpg


Found a front fender off a bigger bike that I might hack up and use for my rear fender. The fender lip is a pretty close match to the one the front fender.
IMAG1939.jpg
 
Nice job on the project. That Suzuki turned out to be a good donor. I like the looks with those wheels and disc up front will be nice. I don't know that you will need too much bracing and beefy brackets even with the extra 100cc's. I think you will be fine and in my opinion lighter is better. Nice low buck project that will be fun to ride.
 
I'm still in the process of looking for a new house with a garage so no real updates but I did figure out what I'm going to use for a headlight. My dad had given me a old headlight off some motorcycle he used to have when he was younger and I turned it into a fog light for my bug. I swapped the stock light bulb for a bulb out of a BMW foglight and it's super bright. I might end up swapping it back to regular high/low setup but we'll see.

100_3855.jpg

100_3859.jpg
 
Some cool ideas. Nice VW I have a 74 Super that looks like it's probably about the same green color as yours.
 
Nice, mine is a 74 standard. It was my project car when I was in the military and I spent many hours and paychecks putting it together. It was already painted when I got the car so I'm not sure what the exact color is but I'm assuming it is some kind of british racing green. It's not a very good paint job, it chips very easily and they missed all kinds of spots. I'm assuming it was Maaco or something equivalent. If I ever end up painting the body I will probably try to get the color matched because it has grown on me over the years.

This was what it looked like when I got it.
stockbug-1.jpg

bugengine.jpg


And some relatively recent pictures. I'm always tweaking something on it, I can't stand stock vehicles.
clean.jpg

motor.jpg
 
Wow you've done some pretty nice work on that engine. I redid a bunch of mine myself too. Body off for some of it. Redid all the interior, new paint, new front suspension, new front tie rods and arms. It looks like this these days
 

Attachments

  • 1948_42449783659_563848659_1270312_2394_n.jpg
    1948_42449783659_563848659_1270312_2394_n.jpg
    64 KB · Views: 1,758
  • 1023001813c.jpg
    1023001813c.jpg
    370.8 KB · Views: 445
I love me some old VW's especially the 63 and older bugs. They look killer low as a vacuum cleaner and with a little bit of camber in the rear. Or all Hot Rodded out like this one. That's a dream car.
 

Attachments

  • 308398_133650080073532_1317570293_n.jpg
    308398_133650080073532_1317570293_n.jpg
    62.3 KB · Views: 553
looking good Cafe, you're body looks much cleaner than mine. Mine is orginally from Kansas so there is a little body rot. The motor is a bored and stroked 2026, heads, cam, h beam rods and weber 44's. It made 120 hp & 135 ft/lb torque on an engine dyno and I run mid to low 15's in the quarter mile. It's not the most practical car but it's sure fun to drive.

Von Kirk - if you you're interested in hot rod VW's you should check out
http://volksrods.com/forum/

Lots of cool stuff on there. I had plans for a 64 roadster with an extended front end but I just didn't have the time and money to get it done.
 
Wow that engine would make you're car have some serious get up and go. The next thing I want to do to mine is some engine mods.
 
Progress has been slow due to not having a garage and some health issues but I've made a little progress lately. I bored out the other clip on clamp and roughly hacked off the handle bar risers off the top clamp. Didn't get any pictures of them though because it wasn't very exciting. I may have a line on a new house with a garage so hopefully I can get some more work done soon.
 
Back
Top Bottom