1965 cb160 frame question

Kanook

New Member
I just picked up this cb160 and I'm in the process of tearing it down to restore. While working on the swing arm I saw this and it doesn't look right but I thought I'd ask some people who know more. The tube that the rear brake lever rides on has a slight bend to the rear like possibly the lever or tube struck something while the bike was moving.
Opinions?
ugy2e8up.jpg
ezeqyhab.jpg
 
That is definitely bent sir.

Is that how your CB160 is currently sitting in the bottom picture? I have one that I'm going to start putting back together soon.
 
coalnation said:
That is definitely bent sir.

Is that how your CB160 is currently sitting in the bottom picture? I have one that I'm going to start putting back together soon.
Thanks that's what I thought. I'll try to straighten it with some heat.
That's how the bike looked when I got it. Now it's completely stripped down
 
carnivorous chicken said:
I'll second that diagnosis. Good thing rear sets work really well with the stock rear pegs!
I've considered going that route. Can you point me towards some more info?
 
Kanook said:
I've considered going that route. Can you point me towards some more info?

That choice will depend on what you're doing with the bike, of course. But on mine, I decided to use the rear pegs and fabricate rear sets. For the shifter side, I used the left-hand side peg set up from a CB400F -- taking it apart, and making a longer shaft for the linkage. On the other side, I eliminated the brake cable and fabbed a lever and linkage to the rear drum. I bought better looking rear sets from someone on this website (search "rear sets" and you'll find 'im, and I have the ones for a CB350. They'll take a little adapting. But the set up I made got introduced to Boston weather when I moved here fro Phoenix, and immediately started showing rust.

The only tricky parts are making the rear brake work properly, and figuring out the kickstarter, which will likely come into contact with your brake lever, depending on how you do it. I actually have a CB or CL175 kicker on there that has enough of a bend to clear the lever.

If you are interested in more on the CB160 and café builds, there are a tone of guys in the Northwest who are building them and racing them in vintage under 250cc classes. There is a ton of online content about 160s, including people chiming in on rear sets and other mods. Check out: Lossa Engineering, Vicious Cycles, The Honda Twins forum, there is a great thread on ADV Rider, etc. Michael Bateman has a great build page here: http://www.groupwracing.com/160building.html and includes links to parts for purchase.

My bike is not a racer, but for me to zip around town. I kept the engine and internals stock, but I use pod filters and more free flowing exhaust, which needed a mild rejetting of the carbs. Here are a couple photos: http://wordsofwezdom.blogspot.com/2013/03/1969-honda-cb160-15k-milestone.html. Others, however, do all kinds of work to their 160s to get more out of them, including replacing the engine with the rare CB175 sloper engine (15 extra ccs and one more gear), boring, cams, pistons, ignition, etc. They are great little bikes and you can do a ton to them for relatively inexpensively.
 
carnivorous chicken said:
That choice will depend on what you're doing with the bike, of course. But on mine, I decided to use the rear pegs and fabricate rear sets. For the shifter side, I used the left-hand side peg set up from a CB400F -- taking it apart, and making a longer shaft for the linkage. On the other side, I eliminated the brake cable and fabbed a lever and linkage to the rear drum. I bought better looking rear sets from someone on this website (search "rear sets" and you'll find 'im, and I have the ones for a CB350. They'll take a little adapting. But the set up I made got introduced to Boston weather when I moved here fro Phoenix, and immediately started showing rust.

The only tricky parts are making the rear brake work properly, and figuring out the kickstarter, which will likely come into contact with your brake lever, depending on how you do it. I actually have a CB or CL175 kicker on there that has enough of a bend to clear the lever.

If you are interested in more on the CB160 and café builds, there are a tone of guys in the Northwest who are building them and racing them in vintage under 250cc classes. There is a ton of online content about 160s, including people chiming in on rear sets and other mods. Check out: Lossa Engineering, Vicious Cycles, The Honda Twins forum, there is a great thread on ADV Rider, etc. Michael Bateman has a great build page here: http://www.groupwracing.com/160building.html and includes links to parts for purchase.

My bike is not a racer, but for me to zip around town. I kept the engine and internals stock, but I use pod filters and more free flowing exhaust, which needed a mild rejetting of the carbs. Here are a couple photos: http://wordsofwezdom.blogspot.com/2013/03/1969-honda-cb160-15k-milestone.html. Others, however, do all kinds of work to their 160s to get more out of them, including replacing the engine with the rare CB175 sloper engine (15 extra ccs and one more gear), boring, cams, pistons, ignition, etc. They are great little bikes and you can do a ton to them for relatively inexpensively.
Thanks for the info. I plan on doing a custom build and would like to do rear sets. I thought the rear pegs looked like they could be adapted and look better than some new fancy aluminum ones at least for my plans for the bike.
My only plans for the motor are e-ignition, pods, and the exhaust I have doesn't look stock so I'll have to check more closely, it may be opened up already.
Right now I need to get the battery box out and fab up a plate under the seat for a battery and electronics and get the frame to powder coat.
 
Back
Top Bottom