1972 CL-175 mild build. Brat Tracker? Who even knows...

[buzzword]

Hello, Folks -

After a long hiatus, I am back in the Honda Twin game. By long, I mean I haven't had one since about 1998. I restored a CL-350 in high school from a frame and 6 or 7 five-gallon buckets of parts, but I stupidly sold it to pay for college. 14+ years later, a good friend of mine whose CL-175 with ~4,000 original miles has been sitting under the stairway outside his flat for 3 years finally decided to sell it. He told me it just stopped running one day, so he parked it with the best intentions of fixing and riding it someday. I suspected dead battery or no gas right away, so I offered him $500 - he took it - and I started ordering parts.

Here it is the day I picked it up. I would have ridden it home, but it's not registered or insured yet and since I'm a safety ranger I decided to not take any chances.

After a new Shorai battery, new NGK plugs, an oil change, fresh gas, and some starter fluid, this was the result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbNntviWOLU


I know I overspent on the battery when compared to the rest of the bike, but I really don't want to deal with the hassle of lead-acid batteries. My car (see below) has a yellow top Optima, and I figured it's worth spending a few extra bucks for reliability on this little guy as well. It runs very well, even considering there are no air filters on it at the moment. No smoke, no smells, no weird hesitations or stumbles. It shifted through all gears in my cursory test-ride up and down the block, but it does need a clutch adjustment. There are a couple of small oil leaks, and the carbs/petcock are leaking down into the crankcase so despite running great it does need some maintenance. I've ordered the following items to kick start that process:

• New OEM points and condenser - just for the sake of posterity
• Engine oil seal kit
• Engine gasket kit
• Carburetor rebuild kits + new jets to match planned pod filters and open pipes
• Petcock rebuild kit
• Shinko SR241 tires F/R in the 3.00-18 variety - I'll be removing both fenders for the time being

For performance and looks, I've ordered the following:

• Stainless engine bolt kit
• Black drag bars - the originals aren't there anyway, so I'm going to try these for the time being
• CL-200 triple trees - better adjustability for height when using...
• CM-200 fork legs - more modern design that fits the CL-200 trees
• New OEM gas cap

I'm going to the Vintage Japanese MC swap meet in Auburn, CA this weekend, so I hope to grab a CB350F tank, an extra exhaust to chop up, and a new seat pan that I can modify since the plan is to eventually have a low profile Bratstyle seat. At some point I'll think about perhaps adding clipons, lower profile signals and rear light, rearsets, and perhaps some black 18" excel rims but for now I am focused on reliability and driveability.

So - the bike is now languishing behind my 2006 STi in the garage. Once I have it registered and insured, I'll probably lock it up in front of my flat, but until then it will live where it is currently situated.

I'm super stoked about having a motorcycle project. I was a bicycle mechanic for almost 10 years, but following my BS degree I am a Health and Safety professional in the semiconductor industry. What that means is that I don't get to tinker very often. Tapping away on a keyboard all day and trying to keep engineers from killing themselves with chemicals or mechanical hazards just doesn't fill that void. I aim to keep current on this, but please bear with me - I work 50+ hours a week and commute another 10 or so. Thanks for reading this novel!

 

[buzzword]

Much has happened since I first started messing around with this thing, and unfortunately I haven't done much to record the progress visually, so here's a quick (terrible) iphone snapshot from this morning. As previously noted, this thing now lives in front of my flat. It's chained to a parking sign and sits underneath a tree. I should probably buy a cover.

Since starting this project, it has become more and more involved. Despite my best efforts I have purchased a huge amount of stuff, and am hoping to do a full repaint in the near future once all of the fabrication, installation, and tuning is complete.

To date, I've removed the following stuff for one reason or another:

• Front fender
• Rear fender
• Stock original tires
• Stock speedometer + cable + light wiring
• Stock tachometer + cable + light wiring
• Stock turn indicators
• Stock thermal flasher
• Stock muffler section
• Stock air filters
• Stock sidecovers

The following items have been installed:

• Shorai battery
• Lucas-style oval taillight/plate holder
• Solid state flasher relay
• NGK spark plugs
• NGK spark plug boots
• OEM condenser
• OEM gas cap
• 32mm 45 degree pod filters
• Silver 3" round mirrors
• VW exhaust tip baffles
• Shinko SR244 (3.00-18) tires (front and rear)
• Black 335mm rear shocks

The following items have been purchased, but have yet to make their way onto the bike:

• Engine oil seal kit
• Engine gasket kit
• Carb rebuild kit
• Petcock rebuild kit
• Stainless engine bolt kit - partially installed
• CL200 triple trees
• CM200 fork legs
• CM200 front brake
• CM200 regulator/rectifier
• Gold Volar chain
• Black tachometer cable
• Shinko SR244 (3.50-18) rear tire - 3.00 rear looks kinda mopedy
• Black supermoto bars
• Black waffle grips
• Small tachometer

Things I'd still like to purchase and install:

• New carburetor main jets
• Compatible disc brake front wheel in the 18" variety
• Electronic ignition - maybe

I am also planning to - or in the process of - fabricating and re-coloring some stuff too. Most of it is still in mockup phase or perhaps not even that far:

• Slim "dashboard" plate that will hold tach, neutral light, and keyed ignition - mount to upper triple tree
• Slim battery tray - should also house reg/rec + starter solenoid
• Flat seat pan with slight lip to hang over edge of frame - hopefully thin, brat-esque diamond stitching over distressed tan vinyl
• Strip stock tank, clearcoat, re-apply badges
• Strip frame, powdercoat white
• Strip swingarm, chrome plate
• Polish hubs and associated parts, powdercoat rims, rebuild wheels with stainless spokes

Anyhow, hopefully I can keep up with this stuff as it continues to unfold.

FYI - if any of you are looking for a viable baffle solution for chopped pipes on the low displacement twins, I was able to tap the baffles out of these aircooled 9" VW exhaust tips as listed above and shown below. They are a direct press fit for the stock CL pipes, and really make the exhaust note manageable. This little bike was louder than my buddy's straight piped Ducati Monster S2R 1000 once I cut the muffler off. Too loud. So, I ordered these VW tips hoping they'd slip right over the stock pipes behind the heat shield, but since they were the exact same outer diameter they wouldn't fit over. The tips I bought are available from VW Wagen Werks here:

http://www.vw-wagenwerks.com/servlet/the-10264/MUFFLER-TIP--dsh--/Detail

...and they look like this:

The baffles were super easy to remove from the VW pipes and re-install in the cut off CL pipes. Just had to hold the edge of the unfinished end of the tip pipe against a solid surface and tap the baffle out using a big screwdriver from the rolled end. Then, I pushed them into the CL pipes and tapped them further in with the same screwdriver. If I cared about the edge of the pipe or keeping the baffles looking pristine, I suppose I could have used a strap wrench and a wooden dowel to perform these same tasks, but no matter.

I've seen some sketchy DIY baffle "systems" for open piped small bikes on this site and others, so hopefully folks will get some mileage out of this solution. I thought about wrapping the baffles with fiberglass or steel wool prior to installation, but figured I'd just try it first before trying to cram more stuff in that tiny tailpipe. Good thing, because it lowered the volume to an acceptable level without any packing.

With the open pipes, it was stumbling quite a bit off of idle, but now it's falling on its face around 5k rpms in any given gear. Still good enough to get up to speed at a decent rate, but I hope rejetting will help this.

 

[buzzword]

I've actually gotten quite a bit done in the last couple of months, but I have taken very few photos. This is the most recent stuff:

• Installed solid state regulator/rectifier purchased from Charlie's Place SF. Very nice piece, and very helpful folks.
• Fabricated new low profile battery tray to hold Shorai battery, starter solenoid, and solid state flasher relay
• Simplified and re-wrapped entire wiring harness, adding 4-pole molex plugs to replace factory bullet connectors
• Replaced LED taillight and signals with an all-in-one LED unit found here: http://ow.ly/hnYDy
• Mounted small DCC tachometer temporarily. Still plan to make "dash plate" as previously described.

I'll try to get pics of all this stuff the next time I head down to the garage I share with some friends. So - I felt like there was not much left to do mechanically, but then it started running poorly. I suspect the carbs need to be cleaned out and rebuilt/rejetted, so it is parked for now. I bought 95, 98, and 102 main jets after moving the needles all the way up to compensate for the pod filters and relatively open exhaust.

To answer a question posted in this thread, I have not rebuilt the engine as the bike only had a few thousand miles on it when I picked it up. However, I did buy a full gasket set and engine seal kit as well which I will probably tackle when I get a break from grad school.

I made the battery tray out of light gauge sheet metal and riveted it together as a proof of concept. I plan to make a better one out of stainless and TIG it together, perhaps modifying the mounting method slightly. Also, I have a new chain to install. Below is a picture which shows basically how it sits now. Once I get everything fit and finalized mechanically and aesthetically, I still plan to tear it all down and powdercoat the frame + all its parts, fork legs, and perhaps the rims. At some point I realize I will be hitting diminishing returns, but it'll be kinda cool I suppose. Probably the biggest polished turd around.

In keeping with the theme of small displacement coolness, I am considering purchasing this FTR223 from a friend.

We'll see - more later!

 

[sancho]

keep it up man, are you planning on rebuilding the motor? I just got the same bike and in the planning stages. I wasn't running when I got it. But after a quick carb rebuild and battery replacement, it fired right up. Kind of debating whether I should do a motor rebuild or not, since I've heard people say that if its not leaking and running don't open it... lol

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on your thread. Keep up the good work.

 

[patrickshofner]

Any updates on this? i'm working on the same bike and would love to see what you've done.

 

[whynot]

I'm interested..................................

 

[buzzword]

I'm interested..................................

So, I ended up selling this one in the interest of a larger bike. I did the following since the most recent update:

• Re-jetted to 98
• Updated entire electrical system
• Rebuilt fork + new seals
• All-in-one rear taillight w/integrated signals
• New chain
• Replaced points - it was burning through them somewhat regularly, so I always kept a new condenser and set of points on hand. This particular failure left me stranded between SF and Santa Cruz on Hwy 1, so I was always prepared.

If any of you have questions about these bikes, I'm happy to discuss - feel free to send me PM's.