'71 CB175 - Cafe Project

adriannarnold

Coast to Coast
Hey Guys,
Picked up a pretty nice 71' (incorrectly titled a '72) CB175 today. In okay running condition. Carbs need a bit of work (go figure) The left carb float was half full of gas, so anytime you revved it would flood badly and drip gas everywhere. Most of the electrical works. The chrome was is great shape, the front rim is nearly flawless. As I dug into it for awhile tonight I noticed a couple oddities from the previous owners' attempts at customizing etc. If you see anything odd in my pics feel free to throw in your 2 cents as I am not as familiar with the CB175's.


Some things I noticed:
Retarded stickers everywhere and hipster feather
Nice little mini turn signals
Dirt bike foot pegs
Rear fender and taillight are kind of a mess, and both fenders obviously chopped
Aftermarket rear shocks/springs (Hagon, I believe. Good/bad???)
3" rear tire. Seems really small, pretty sure its supposed to be a 3.5"


Im sure Ill find some more. Here are some pictures, she was really dirty, but cleaned up surprisingly well.
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QUESTIONS???


***Is it possible to repair a hole in your carb float? The hole is smaller than a pin head. Would a tiny drop of solder do?


***What is with the intake extension things?(the tubular lengthy metal mount for the carb) Are they necessary, I know I have seen some CB175's without them?
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***3.5" tire should have no problem fitting on the rear? I am pretty sure thats the stock size, just need to double check before I order one. (Just found a service manual and checked tire sizes. Apparently the front is 2.75 and the rear is 3) That's so small on the rear, I am sure a bigger size will fit. I'll try and get a better pic of the space.


***Fork tube diameter? I am thinking clip-ons may go on this bad boy If I can find any that don't cost an arm and a leg. Do any modern bikes have the same diameter? Will a metal shim on a larger diameter clip-on work, be safe?


More to come
 
Nice looking bike. I've never tried to repair a float, so I can't help ya there. But the carb mount (metal one to the engine) is needed. Or else the carbs would be cocked at a very odd angle. Check out Pirelli tires (if nothing else)- they have a 3" tire that I used on the front and rear of my 68 CL175. Or you could lace up another rear wheel to your front hub. And I'm almost positive the fork tubes are 31mm.
 
Those Hagons are complete junk, you should take them off and send them to me. Ha. They are much nicer than the stock shocks.

Nice little scoot, man.
 
Big Rich - Thanks for all the info. I'll look into those Pirelli's.


JustinLonghorn,HondaCBGuy - Thanks for the compliments.
 
Did a good amount of tinkering today. I reassembled the carb that had a hole in the float after I patched it with a very small amount of solder. Synched both carbs and got the idling set. Bike runs great now. Now I just have to clean this sucker up and get it looking snazzy.
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I am going to try and make this a drivable project. We'll see.
Anyone put rearsets on a cb175?
 
I believe Motobits makes them for the vertical 175's. You might have to do some work to clear the stock exhaust though. Or look for some CL pipes.
 
Cool, I'll look into that. Yeah I am not sure about the stock exhaust yet. I am pretty sure it will go at some point, just have to find a nice replacement. That being the case.


Anyone want to buy the stock mufflers?
 
Yeah it was quick. Haha. The CT got sold. I couldn't pass up this guy, and I can only have one bike at the moment. This one will hopefully hang around for a bit longer. I have coupe nice things planned for it, so we'll see
 
Got some work done the last couple days.
Lets see:
Disassembled both carbs and soaked overnight. Reassembled
Rerouting some wiring
Installed blade type fuse
Installed radio shack rectifier
Starting to work on seat ideas
Ordered some parts (drag bars, new air filters, new throttle)
Painted the gauge housings and headlight ring


Mostly just going over the bike and trying to decide what I want to do.


Any tips on what jet size I should bump up to for the pod filters and shorty mufflers. Jets are still stock at 90 and 35 at this point
 
Looks good...I'm at stock jetting with the scrambler setup + shorties. No issues.


That feather made me lol ;D
 
Alright got a little more work done today.


Made a little battery tray for my new smaller battery
Rewired for the new battery and started removal of the electric starter
Remounted the taillight that was on the bike
Installed a new headlight hi/low/off switch on the headlight bucket (in prep for removal of the stock controls)
Last light I beat the crap out of the rear mud guard and managed to rip it off the bike. Didn't have a grinder, so I used a flathead screw driver and a hammer. Came off pretty clean.
Put the stock seat back on for now. I just want to ride this sucker.


Tomorrow, Ill hopefully get the timing and valve clearances set. Should hopefully help out my idling issues. May get around to painting the wheels too.


Ill get some pictures tomorrow, although not much has changed cosmetically yet
 
Yeah, I am trying to stick to that. Since the weather is great right now. I usually get side tracked though and start beating, hacking, and painting stuff ;D
 
Well today should have been an easy reinstall the painted rear wheel and rear shocks, remove started motor and plug hole, check timing and valve clearances and then RIDE.
Not so much :( :mad: :(


The rear wheel and shocks turned out pretty good
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Also notice the lack of the rear mudguard thing. Really opened it up nicely
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Then I pulled the left engine cover to remove the start motor, gear, and chain. No problems. But I grabbed the wrong size plug DUUHHHPPP :mad:
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Next started on the valve clearances, both exhaust valve tappet covers were pretty snug but came off. Set both of them. Next the intake clearances, and all hell broke loose. These things were SNUG. The first one snapped off at the threads. What the heck!! :mad: Luckily the threads came out easily. The second one was even worse, got stripped then I busted out the vice grips, they stripped it even more. This thing will not move. Then the head snapped in half. The last picture is where the cover currently sits. What a frustrating day, I just wanted to ride. :mad: Now I am in need of two tappet covers. Done ranting! I love wrenching on these old terds.
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Oh, here is a picture of the new hi/lo/off switch for my headlights
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Damn, you really went at it with those vice grips haha, you should invest in an impact driver. I got cheap one for about 30 bucks at auto zone and haven't had any trouble getting any stubborn nut or bolt off.
 
Wow. I don't even know what to tell you about that cover........

You don't plan on running it without some kind of inner fender, do you? That will just throw crap directly at your carbs.
 
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