Oh Hai! CB160 Build

561design

New Member
I got the bike in yesterday after waiting 27 days for it to be delivered since date of purchase. During those days, I spent them lurking on this forum and a few others. After a trip to Tokyo, Japan I fell for these small bikes. As soon as I got back I started the search for one and settled on a little cb160. This is my first build, so feel free to post up any suggestions you may have. I started to tear the bike down to get the frame ready for powdercoating. Apparently it has been painted alot. I believe the original color was red, then school bus yellow, green, two shades of blue and finally black. It looks like all the cables have to be replaced due to their age. The wiring in the headlight bucket was a mess and it took me awhile to sort that out. I'll have to figure out a better way to wire this thing when I build it back up. I'll try to keep this thread updated but I'm torn between work, my mba program and this lil project. But I'll do my best to take pics and keep this thread updated.

I'll be checking the compression and pulling the motor and start inspecting that next. :)

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This is a picture of the bike that the seller took when it was up in Michigan. It made the journey down to Woodstock, Ga after 27 days.

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No baffles and the bottom of the pipe is well rusted through. I have replacement pipes from a CL. So I have to mount the brackets from this set onto the new pipes.

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This is about as far as I got today. I'm considering relocating the battery, but I haven't figure out how to accomplish that yet. I may get a smaller dry cell and hide it under the seat.

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Tank is in pretty good condition as well as the pads. There is some rust in the tank, which I'll need to remove. Poco Bastardo in the background keeping me inspired.

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Mr.Sheeperz overseeing the work aloft his dank-o-licious cafe seat.

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The old air filters to be replaced with K&N goodness.
 
Welcome, I love the look of these bikes! my local parts supply has one and i eye it off every time i call in! pitty my wife would kill me if i came home with it LOL ;D good luck with your build, lookin forward to seeing your progress.. Cheers Andycafe..
 
Finally!!!! another CB160 build!!!! i thought i was all alone. lol. Its funny you have Poco Bastardo in the backround there, that is the bike that made me fall for CB160's and cafe racers in general. after seeing that bike online i got on craigslist and bought one ;D . havent seen one posted for sale in my area since. if you have any questions on the bike let me know, i will try and help with the little knowledge ive built up on them. check out this link for some pics of mine http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=8670.0. good luck with your build.
 
Thanks Rex! I'll be sure to do that. I actually spent a week over in Tokyo and that's what got me into these bikes. As soon as I got back I started looking for a CB160, CB77 Superhawk or a Black Bomber. After a couple weeks I settled in on the CB160 as a good first build. Here's some pics I took when I was in Japan. The bike culture over there is insane!

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Heres and update on the build. I didn't have much time to work on it tonight. So I was only able to pull off the rear shocks and rear wheel.

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Just noticed this bracket on the rear wheel was busted. The search begins to find a replacement. At the very least I suppose I can use this to practice my polishing skillz yo!

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Emma-Girl came out to keep me company in the garage tonight.

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For some reason that stupid lil bracket on the bottom right inside of the frame was giving me a stupid amount of trouble to remove.

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Rust on one of the exhausts. Right after this I found out the replacements I got do not fit the bike. I will need to ponder my next steps in regards to replacing this wonderful, seasoned piece of hardware.
 
This should be a great build. These bikes have a little engine but a whole lotta heart. Btw, great use of the camera on those pics. That macro you took is perfect.

Good luck
 
Thanks! I like to play around with the camera as much as I can. Like today, I attempted to capture the sparks flying off of the cutting wheel.

I got alot done tonight. Now, everything is nice and smoooovveee. Any recomendations on how to strip the paint? Should I use a chemical stripper or sand it down?

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Started the afternoon by grinding down the tabs on the top tubes of the frame.

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I decided I might as well play with the camera settings to capture some of the sparks.

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Goodbye Mr. Battery Tray!

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Mr.Battery Tray put up a good fight. But, alas... This was all that was left of him. :(

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The spot where Mr.BT's friend used to live. Miss Tabs

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This concludes the end of this chapter. :)
 
Cool build man. The Jasco brand "paint and epoxy stripper" at Home Depot works better than any other stuff I've tried. Make sure you wear gloves, pants, eye protection and long sleeves. That shit burns so bad.

I loved Japan. We lived in Japan for 3 years before I got out of the Air Force. Up north at Misawa AB.
It was a blast.
 
when i saw that last pic i thought to myself...

"i think he got a little to happy with that grinder"


and then i realised that the CB160s frame doesnt have downtubes

xP
 
lol, I'm actually debating if I should remove and fill the hole for the tool box. I think in the end it'll give a much cleaner look.
 
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Today I finished smoothing off the remaining top section of the battery tray.

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I finally decided to grind off the remaining supports for the tool box.

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Old vs. New

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Working on polishing/buffing for the first time evar.

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msimm43 said:
Good Lord, put a shirt on! Sparks are hot ;D

Keep up the good work.

It's darn hot down here! Plus it's a little Dremel so the sparks are not that bad. No where near as bad as when I was getting my tats. :D
 
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The past couple days I've been polishing some parts. I have about three more pieces on the motor I would like to polish. But this is what I've done so far. That large casing was very difficult for me to polish. The irregular shapes were just hard to navigate around. Overall, I'm happy with the results although one piece (top right) still has a LITTLE milky look to it. I'm not sure what that's about. But, I did redo it from the picture posted previously and there is significant improvement. I have been sanding the pieces with 600 grit and then 1000, and then buffed with ebony, white and then rogue.

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Found this wedged in the alternator. It looks like it's already cut a groove in the magnets. I'm glad I decided to tear the motor down.

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Current state
 
I've been insanely busy the past couple days. I did manage a few hours today to polish this piece. As I get further into the motor I'm encountering a large number of stripped philips head screws. A few of them I had to drill out and use a screw extractor. Maybe I'll replace this with some allen head bolts. I also had some company from a little butterfly, who hungout right next to me the whole time.

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Cool project. Really nice photos too! Nice lighting and such. Are you a photographer by trade? Keep us posted on the build. Will enjoy following this one along.
Good for nothing the Iron Butterfly,hahah.
 
Who's behind the cam? How long was the exposure on that shot from the opposite side when you were on grindin'? Feeling the flow, man...doing the bull dance.
 
Bringing this back from the dead. After 2 years and some big changes in my life, I have my workspace and tools up and running here in Milwaukee. After not touching this bike for that long and looking at all those parts in boxes, I think I’m getting a little overwhelmed. There’s so much I want to get done with this bike that I’m thinking about everything at once. I went to a local shop to help with the rebuild portion of the motor. I just want them to make sure everything is in proper working order with new parts if needed. Considering this is my first build, I rather have someone experienced taking care of those details for now. I wouldn't mind doing it myself, but I haven't found local enthusiasts to help build my knowledge. I already have new contacts, points, bolt kit and gasket kit which I would provide them.

Aesthetically, I will be spraying the top and bottom end of the motor bright silver and mounting the polished sides back on.

I was debating on going with a big bore kit, but the complexity is a little over my head. Not to mention, I will not be racing it; only commuting to work on a nice day. So I may just go with larger carbs and call it a day.

On the frame front, I think I’m going to disassemble the front end and take the parts/frame I’d like painted and blast it with plastic media in order to get it ready for paint. I did find this pretty neat shop locally that let’s you media blast your parts yourself. For the color I’d like to use Audi's Nimbus Grey and get a satin/matte finish on it. The cafe seat pan will have some rich brown leather wrapped cushioning.

For the wheels, I would like to get them powder coated black. I have not figured out what I want to do about the damn muffler. Any ideas?

I'll be posting pics of this project again shortly. ;D

sxecafe said:
Who's behind the cam? How long was the exposure on that shot from the opposite side when you were on grindin'? Feeling the flow, man...doing the bull dance.

Sorry for the SUPER late reply sxecafe. I setup the camera on a tripod and used a delayed timer. I don't remember how long the exposure was. I'm guessing it was prolly a few seconds and I just kept really still.
 
Sooo, back too it! I keep changing direction as to how I'm going to finish this project. For now, I plan to strip down the motor and bead blast it myself at a local shop. I was looking to soda blast it, but no luck finding a shop locally to do that. So for now, I'll hafta seal it up real good and use the beads.

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Started the night off pouring out all the fluids.

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I ended up using a 12 point socket and knocking out the tappet covers with a rubber mallet. All of them opened up smoothly except for one.

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Liquid Wrench to the rescue! I had to let it soak for about 10 minutes and some work. I got a little nervous because these covers are pretty soft.

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MMmmm, tappet covers! Seals look to be worn out and will need to be replaced.

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I spy a tappet!... Also quite a bit of surface rust.
 
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