Titanbikesnz

[Titanbikesnz]

Hi all, my name is Carl and I run a small restoration shop from my home workshop here in New Zealand.
I've been restoring bikes for about 20 years, mainly British small bore two strokes. Recently I've started on 60's Japanese bikes. My first attempt is my 65 Suzuki s32-2, more of a preservation than restoration. I've restored everything except for the paint, which has great patina
My latest buy is a(what I think is a 1963) Honda CA95 Benly touring, which has been dry stored for 30 years or so.
Motor is locked up, but has great patina and is complete. I'll upload photos as things progress. Hope you enjoy
Cheers Carl

 

[teazer]

Hi Carl. Welcome. The Lil Suzi looks good.

The Honda is either a CA92 or CA95. In the US, they were often called a baby dream but the correct name is Benly as you mentioned. A slightly overweight sibling of the oddly beautiful CB92 Benly Sports. Lots of parts common to all three. Fortunately they are very simple to work on, if a little unconventional in some ways.

And is that a picture of the BSA MC1 250 on the wall by any chance?

 

[Titanbikesnz]

Good spotting teazer, that is a BSA MC1 prototype minus the fairing. I know the Honda benly is a early CA95 form my research, I was told it is a 60, but from what I can gather it's a 63. The frame and engine numbers start with a 3, not completely sure that's accurate, hopefully someone can enlighten me..
Engine no#3032329
Frame no# 3032632

 

[teazer]

Well that's interesting. According to the parts book compiled Feb 20th 1967, engine number C95E-300001 was the start number for 1965 for the C95 model with regular shift return arrangement. 63 started with 350001. And for the CA95, it looks like 63 started with C95E-3100001. They don't list "CA95E"- numbers. the list says all are C95 numbers. What are yours?

It isn't clear what the differences were between a C and CA models. I thought the C came before CA but the list of frame and engine numbers and parts make it look like they overlap. Maybe for different markets. Looks like Germany only got C models and US only had CAs but that's just my deductions from looking through the parts list.

edit: I looked at the Shop Manual and parts lists again and it's clear. C95 had a crank with two main bearings and the CA95 also had a center main bearing on the crank.

So I checked the Honda Identification book and it says the early style CA95 was sold 59-63 and late style CA95 from 63-66. Looking at the pictures, the tank on yours is the later type. Part numbers changed from model code 200 to 210 as the middle part of the part number and there's 202 and 205 as well. And your forks are the later type, so it's pretty safe to say that yours is around 1963 or possibly later.

I wonder if the Honda importer has any records that far back to date it. I would offer to scan the parts list but it's 360 pages. Maybe there's a copy on line already or check CMSNL and see what they have.

 

[Titanbikesnz]

Well that's interesting. According to the parts book compiled Feb 20th 1967, engine number C95E-300001 was the start number for 1965 for the C95 model with regular shift return arrangement. 63 started with 350001. And for the CA95, it looks like 63 started with C95E-3100001. They don't list "CA95E"- numbers. the list says all are C95 numbers. What are yours?

It isn't clear what the differences were between a C and CA models. I thought the C came before CA but the list of frame and engine numbers and parts make it look like they overlap. Maybe for different markets. Looks like Germany only got C models and US only had CAs but that's just my deductions from looking through the parts list.

edit: I looked at the Shop Manual and parts lists again and it's clear. C95 had a crank with two main bearings and the CA95 also had a center main bearing on the crank.

So I checked the Honda Identification book and it says the early style CA95 was sold 59-63 and late style CA95 from 63-66. Looking at the pictures, the tank on yours is the later type. Part numbers changed from model code 200 to 210 as the middle part of the part number and there's 202 and 205 as well. And your forks are the later type, so it's pretty safe to say that yours is around 1963 or possibly later.

I wonder if the Honda importer has any records that far back to date it. I would offer to scan the parts list but it's 360 pages. Maybe there's a copy on line already or check CMSNL and see what they have.

After some more research it seems mine is a early version 1963 Asia export model. USA models have a separate number system.
Late model 63' numbers start at 3100001