74 cb200 - Mistakes have been and will be made

I thought I would contain my motorcycle-related idiocy to one thread instead of scattering it all over the place. Based on reading the board over the last month, I'm fairly confident that I am the least knowledgeable person on here. So thanks in advance for any help and feel free to have a laugh at my expense and maybe remember the good old days when you didn't know shit either.

Anyway since getting this thing home a couple of months ago I have confirmed my theory that a motorcycle is similar to a bicycle but with a combustion engine attached. Other than that I have torn everything except the engine apart, prepped and painted the frame, arm and a few other pieces, cleaned the exhaust up as best I could and try to keep cleaning whatever I can a couple of hours a night.

At this point my vision is basically limited to aesthetics since I don't know what half the parts are contained inside the frame. Just want to get it running reliably w/ the stock parts, get the basic look I am after and save the rest for later. Not looking to spend much money outside of the seat, bars, tires, and a bunch of tools I need to buy, but here's the current basic plan:

-Clean up everything (lot's of rust removal and repainting)
-Paint Wheels Black
-Clubman bars
-Delete signals (or maybe just run mini ones)
-Delete fenders
-Pre-made Box Seat (maybe the Airtech Ducati 250 or the Clubman Racing version)
-UNI filters
-Maybe set some of the cables off w/ shrink wrap?
-New tires
-Maybe a belly pan?
-Go through carbs, new fuel lines, clean out and coat tank, etc
-Then everything else to get it going (I have never seen it running)

This will be a slow project. Here's what it looked like day 0:

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

Nice find. A little advice as far as cleaning up goes. I prefer engine degreaser because I'm a lazy bastard and at 2 bucks a can you can't really go wrong. As far as rusty chrome bits, if you've got a little patience, a 2 dollar box of Brillo pads goes a long way. Definitely spend some time cleaning carbs and gas tanks, maybe coat the tank too. Start with the easy cheap stuff to make it run right. You'll find that a fresh battery and clean gas will go a long way as far as starting is concerned. And make sure to post any problems you have, chances are someone here has done or knows how to do anything you may encounter. Good luck, it's tough finding parts for some of the older smaller CB's but if you keep your eyes peeled you'll find them.

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

Nice find! Instead of a brillo pad, I would use soft steel wool with Mothers Polish. So, you don't scratch up the chrome.

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

rawfish said:

Nice find! Instead of a brillo pad, I would use soft steel wool with Mothers Polish. So, you don't scratch up the chrome.

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steel wool works great on the chrome... as fine as you can get though.

for all the other rusted parts... the finest wire wheel attatchment for a drill you can find. it's been my savior on my cb200.

oh, and before you do any tuning or try to get it running strong... check your compression! i wasted several weeks and many a spark plug trying to tune a motor that in the end had really low compression.

good luck, looking forward to yet another cb200 on the site

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

Yep - for non-show chrome you can use #0000 steel wool, and some WD40 helps too with the wool. Will clean off tons of the surface rust.

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

For the frame, I mainly used an angle grinder and 80 grit pads to hit the bad spots. Dipped the stands and other smaller parts in a 5-gallon bucket filled w/ Zep.
For the wheels I've been using steel wool dipped in Zep. And various wire brushes for the tougher stuff, but I'm going to paint them anyway.
For the exhaust I used aluminum foil dipped in Zep followed by polish. The pipes came out good but the mufflers were really rough to begin with.

Also been experimenting with electrolytic rust removal but it seems dipping stuff in Zep is easier and faster.

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

Well obviously I am not exactly ripping through the project given my updates. Still doing cleanup and rust removal. But I did tear down the forks - the service manual says to use ATF, so should I stick with that or should I go with fork oil since I assume there have been some advancements in petroleum products during the past 30 years?

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

I remember the days when my 200 was that color!!! That was the very first thing to go! I never understood why Honda thought that Baby Poop green was a good color for a bike!

Nice find, and good luck with your project! The 200 is a really nice platform for someone with not alot of knowledge of bikes, they are very simple machines but can be bothersome at times!

Have fun with your build, look forward to seeing more!

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

Checking in to confirm that I don't have much more done. Lots more parts cleaned up and ready for paint but now that Spring is here and the humidity is rising a few things are starting to re-rust so I'll need to go over them again before painting. Been going over the wheels and rear hub, getting them ready for paint. Hopefully I can get everything that needs painted prepped soon so I can have one big painting day and then be done with the majority of de-rusting/cleaning. Should then be ready to get tires mounted and put a rolling chasis together. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, by my progress you can see that I am lazy.

Still need to get a tool to remove the bearing retainer in the front wheel so I can get the last bearing out, then put in new bearings. Probably should get the wheels trued before I paint, but I think I'll paint first and hope for the best/hope a truing wrench fits around the painted spokes.

I have a better picture of where I want to go now...slightly wider tires than stock, high-rise clips ons, lowered in front and back about half an inch, mini speedo and tach, new minimalist headlight brackets, semi-brat-style seat that integrates with the rear fender hump in the frame, lucas-style tail light, maybe mount mini turn signals on swing arm.

A couple of my friends both bought running bikes in the past couple of weeks that needed minimal work....I'm beginning to think they are on to something.

my basement workshop. the frame and fork have been painted since fall, now that spring is here I can do a couple of small touch ups


a bunch of stuff I have yet to go through


new shocks, bearings and engine bolt kit

Re: 74 cb200 - Project "Super Confused"

As I learned....
Tape your NIPPLES! I did this when I painted my wheels and Truing will be a lot easier for whoever is going to do it for me .

If you paint them, the wrench won't be able to fit, from what I've heard. Might as well save you from getting a headache. I actually like that stock green color.

Re: 74 cb200 - Mistakes have and will be made

Still plugging along!



Cut some ebay fork ears down to something more acceptable and got the rear wheel on after cutting down the sprocket cover to clear the fatter shocks.

Shit... Dont know how I missed this one way back when... Looks good so far. Really dig the blacked out wheels. Keep us up to date man... No more lags!

Yay progress! That lil 200 is looking pretty sweet man. What size are your wheels/tires? Original?

They are stock 18 wheels. 3 in tire front and 3.5 rear, a little bit bigger than stock. They just look big in that pic because of how low it is sitting in the front.

How much lower can you slam the front than the rear without totally screwing the handling. Keep in mind this is just an around town cruiser so it really doesn't need to handle too well.

cool bike!

I love the 200's. thats the best tank from any cb/cl imo! and disk brake? awesomeness. thatll be the next chickenn hawk for me

LL said:

How much lower can you slam the front than the rear without totally screwing the handling. Keep in mind this is just an around town cruiser so it really doesn't need to handle too well.

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http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/rakeandtrail.html
http://www.jeris-springer.com/raketrail.html
http://www.partsmag.com/0311/perse-0311/perse-0311.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_geometry

Hope this helps!

I was thinking of getting this battery (http://www.atbatt.com/product/22501/sla/power-sonic/12v-3-4ah/battery)...small enough to jam it into the the center of the frame. I think 3.4Ah is enough to run the headlight/taillight. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know...also wondering if there are any concerns about the alternator having too much recharge for that little battery's capacity and burning it up or at least shortening its life.

That would be fine.

Made some hidden exhaust brackets with hoseclamps and Plasti-Dip. I think the cheapie Emgo shorties look pretty good. Not too much else done but I got a fuse box in the mail the other day along with a sealed battery that's the same footprint as the original but about 1/3rd as tall. Still need to pick up the metal for the pan and then I think I'm going to attach most of the electrical to its underside.