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Black Friday - a red 1965 CB160

Alan F.

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Total Posts
1,871
Total likes
185
Location
Haverhill, MA, USA
12ozPBR named it, Black Friday. A curious name for a red bike. I spotted the CL listing and posted it here on VHT, from the response I was persuaded into calling the seller. I offered $1/cc thanks to 66Sprint instead of the $200 asking price and got a yes right away. I'm not sure if it was Bob's first bike, but he bought it from a friend in 66. His friend had some trouble with it and had it overbored, no other info on that. Bob had a KZ650 later on, that's what the chrome fender in the photo was from. He bought this house in 1990 and disassembled the 160 just enough to get it downstairs into the surprisingly warm and dry basement. The bike appears to be 100% complete. I'll be meeting up with Bob later to pick up the Owner's manual and keys, he hasn't located a title yet, I'm optimistic but I can mail away to Vermont for a plate and valid registration. Bikes under 300cc don't require law enforcement vin# verification so one less step.
I'm about to unload it at storage and get some photos of the condition.

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Nice, and with a story like that about its background you're probably going to come out really well on this one.
 
He's selling the house for about a half million dollars, so finding a good home for it was probably more important to him than getting $200 for the bike, he'd have taken less I'm sure.


But on to the fun part, let's see what I've got here.
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Hooray for you and Black Friday! :dancing:
 
great work bro! that is a really nice pile of CB160 you have there, a diamond in the rough i would say. it looks like a sweet little bike!
 
The tank covers may clean up with a product to wash that surface? rust off.

Those pipes look good Alan;you may be able to get fresh baffles also.
 
A little rough, but with some cleanup and paint it could look decent. The chrome toaster panels on the tank should clean up with Evaporust but there might be some remaining pits, though hard to tell for sure from the pics
 
Yes, I'm wondering about which product to use. Evaporust, MetalRescue or even Phosphoric Acid. Different members on a few forums swear by each of these.

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Nice project bike !
Good to see the baffles too.
I used vinegar,but it flash-rusted.
Evaporust was great and seemed to flash-rust the least,imo.
I learned when I used it that if I removed the parts as soon as the surface(only?)rust was removed,that was best.I found if I left the parts in for an extended period with heat,it would get deeper to cause more pitting,which I didn't prefer on some parts.
 
Thank you. Yes I've use vinegar before too but followed it with a quick DIY zinc electroplate to keep rust away for good. I'm not going that route with this bike though, I'm just hoping to treat the existing rust, buff the existing paint, and replace as little as possible otherwise.

My goal is to have a Super Sport as Mr. Honda intended, no personal vision with this one.

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Starting to look like you got pretty lucky, lots of parts seem to be in more than serviceable shape.
 
Rims are a little pitted but might clean up, I'll know more when the (probably 2nd set) tires are removed. Spokes are in great shape with just a few spots to clean up. Everything else has some scratches, fading and spots of rust here and there, but pretty good shape in general. Looks like someone swapped out to Scrambler bars way back when, I prefer them.
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I've been fooled by clean oil before, so be careful. Oil that's been standing still, undisturbed for a long time, lets all the crud in it settle to the bottom of the crankcase. Most of that crap is pretty stuck together, but it is there and can get moving again. And the oil itself may have a fair amount of water under it. Dump it all.
 
12ozPBR named it, Black Friday. A curious name for a red bike. I spotted the CL listing and posted it here on VHT, from the response I was persuaded into calling the seller. I offered $1/cc thanks to 66Sprint instead of the $200 asking price and got a yes right away. I'm not sure if it was Bob's first bike, but he bought it from a friend in 66. His friend had some trouble with it and had it overbored, no other info on that. Bob had a KZ650 later on, that's what the chrome fender in the photo was from. He bought this house in 1990 and disassembled the 160 just enough to get it downstairs into the surprisingly warm and dry basement. The bike appears to be 100% complete. I'll be meeting up with Bob later to pick up the Owner's manual and keys, he hasn't located a title yet, I'm optimistic but I can mail away to Vermont for a plate and valid registration. Bikes under 300cc don't require law enforcement vin# verification.
I'm about to unload it at storage and get some photos of the condition.

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That chrome rear fender looks to be from a ‘71 or later CB/CL350, not a Kawasaki.
 
I asked him directly if it was from a Honda 350, it even had the same tire pressure label Honda uses.

But it had a dent, so I left it for him to get rid of.

Edit: I just googled both fenders, you're right. I wonder what else he told me was wrong?
 
That's what I thought about that fender, I mentioned it in your other thread about the find. He was probably just mistaken, from the looks of what you got as the bike itself it doesn't look like there are many other falsehoods
 
Rims are a little pitted but might clean up, I'll know more when the (probably 2nd set) tires are removed. Spokes are in great shape with just a few spots to clean up. Everything else has some scratches, fading and spots of rust here and there, but pretty good shape in general. Looks like someone swapped out to Scrambler bars way back when, I prefer them.

This is a great score, congrats. Here's to hoping a little clean up and assembly and it'll fire up.

Re the bars: I've had two CB160s that had this type of bars. I always wondered if it was an option on the CBs or if POs actually did swap them out. Anyone know for certain?
 
This is a great score, congrats. Here's to hoping a little clean up and assembly and it'll fire up.

Re the bars: I've had two CB160s that had this type of bars. I always wondered if it was an option on the CBs or if POs actually did swap them out. Anyone know for certain?

I don't know for certain, but I can tell you that every CB (that had a CL brother) that I assembled out of the crate back in the day (CB100/125/175/200/350/360/450) came with CB bars and Honda wasn't in the habit of offering options when bikes were ordered AFAIK
 
I guess I'll start bookmarking control cable sources as I find them. I'm thinking that I should go with the gray cables since its the first thing people see. Grips, peg rubbers, kick and shift rubbers too should all be replaced too.

But I'm going with modern tires.
 
Nice find! You'll be busy for a month or two with this and I'm thinking it will be solid. Are you going to try to run it or just take the engine apart and do a light overhaul?
 
Awesome find...I'll bet you were awake 1/2 the night with excitement thinking about your new toy. (I haven't had a good nights sleep since I scored my Black Bomber over a month ago!!)
 
This is a great score, congrats. Here's to hoping a little clean up and assembly and it'll fire up.

Re the bars: I've had two CB160s that had this type of bars. I always wondered if it was an option on the CBs or if POs actually did swap them out. Anyone know for certain?

They always came out of the crate with the same bars, you could bolt on what you liked, it not Honda parts there was the aftermarket with literally dozens of choices from $12.95 on up.
 
100% agree with Tom and Mike....
However, the slightly higher CL style bars seem to have been an ergonomic choice for the "average" US owner's height, preferred riding position, and style,
so not surprising it might have been a common swap......Just in case, I would obtain CL cables rather than CB ones if you're keeping those bars.....
 
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Thank you Mr.66! Good advice!

I'm not thinking about tearing down this engine if I don't have to. Everything seems to have been stored carefully enough that apart from consumables, I'm hoping for just a little rust remediation, some rubbing compound and several coats of wax. Before reassembly with 6-point sockets and JIS screwdrivers only.

I met the owner this afternoon to pick up the owners manual, ignition switch with bracket and key (matches fork lock) and a second ignition, they weren't sure what it's from but it has a Honda key, win.

AND...... They offered me Her CL200 that hasn't been listed for sale yet. Stay tuned for that later.
 
I spent some time this afternoon cutting the old hard tires from the rims to determine rim and spoke condition. I wasn't horrified for a change.

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Dude, you really should go buy a lottery ticket. Those rims look a little better than my 450 rims did and it's 8 years older. Hell of a find you got, brother.
 
Thanks LDR, I asked what shape it's in, she said the tank was off but it's otherwise complete and nice.
And it was HER'S so I suspect it's been taken good care of.

Rear wheel was not as nice as the front, more scratches on the rim and more rust inside.
It had two lead weights wired around two spokes, I could see some axial run out with the wheel spinning, bearings seemed really good just like the front ones. Then I found two broken spokes, crap.

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Thanks AD. My first experience was cutting the tires from the rims on my CB750K3 back in 2005? I was just horrified at the amount of rust I found and lacing wheels seemed too complicated and expensive, that's when I bought the forks and wheels that are on my Basket Case 250 Nighthawk, they're much more appropriate on the NH though.

So I'm of the opinion that I should first disassemble these wheels, clean the inside of these rims with a wire wheel followed by self-etching primer. Then I'm thinking the chrome side and spokes will clean up with soap and water followed by a couple of rounds with a spray bottle of CLR (saw it on youtube, I'll be using this a lot if it works like it did in the video)
Followed by another soap & water wash & a couple coats of old fashioned car wax.

I'll relace the wheels after shuffling the spokes around at random and true them myself.

For the rear I'm thinking of simply replacing the two missing spokes if the rest of them pass a close visual inspection. After lacing and truing I'll spray on some sort of modern type car polish to "seal" them up.

Wheel bearings seemed really tight, no wobbles or rough spots, and they'd spin for several minutes before slowing down, much longer than I'd have imagined.

The less I absolutely need to put in the better, and the more I can use things I've already got the better imho.


Thoughts?
 
A quick trip to CMSNL revealed that these bikes use the same A and B spokes for both front and rear wheels. CL models too. I'm surprised.

I've pulled the trigger on a pair of NOS A spokes and nipples, by the time I'm ready for them they should be here.
 
Looks like a great bike for an easier restoration to survivor status. Back in the day, having the CB bars switched for CL ones at the dealership was fairly common around here. They were “cooler” with the crossbar.
 
Thank you.
I agree, I'd thought about them for my 250 Nighthawk basket case in the beginning, but that build has gone in a different direction now.
 
I'm thinking the chrome side and spokes will clean up with soap and water followed by a couple of rounds with a spray bottle of CLR (saw it on youtube, I'll be using this a lot if it works like it did in the video)

I have used CLR one time to clean up all the bolts on a CB450 motor. Several years later and plenty of time for moisture get on those bolts, I realize the CLR cleans the bolts amazingly well and also removes the zinc coating. Now I have to remove that motor and replace all those severely rusting bolts. I wouldn’t use CLR anywhere near those rims if they were mine.
 
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