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Two VHT members conspiring

ballbearian

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2021
Total Posts
5,604
Total likes
1,392
Location
Hagerstown MD USA
A great 2nd ride, a new friend and a real honey of a Dream. Got to meet up with member 2Wheel at his garage and check out his herd and newest pony. He lives in a beautiful rural area and had an awesome day to ride there. My CB160 ran great and now has 40 miles on the rebuilt motor. He was working on his carb and fuel system so we talked about the unique petcocks and other stuff on Dreams. A great day.

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Rodney took a pic of me and a better shot of his herd. I can't wait to ride his CB200T one of these days.


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Great photos. Always good to see these bikes in a 'live' situation; a testament to their owners toil and dedication!(y)
 
^^^Absolutely agree with all above, a great example of the brotherhood of our vintage bikes and getting to ride together. (y)

Wish I had a few members local to me to ride with, we just don't have enough vintage-minded people in my area full of snowbird retirees.
 
ballbearian,Your blue/white CB160 is looking sharp;how's she running for you ? :cool:

So far, great. The first ride about 15 miles, I kept it around 40mph. The second ride, another 25 miles about 50 then 55mph. I did hit 60 briefly and it pulls strong, hard to not let her rip yet.

Another ride or two and it'll be time for an oil change, filter clean, cam chain adjustment, valves, compression test, plug check and maybe carb tweaking.

I'm pleased with the 6 disc clutch mod and the fork clean and refill, even the ancient rear shocks are tolerable but I may bump the tension up from lowest to middle setting.

It's such a light little thing, a perfect squirrelly road squirrel bike.
 
How do you like how the mufflers are performing on your CB160 ?

They're not mufflers. They are open megaphones with perforated baffle end caps. I have some stainless steel potscrubbers to put in the ends, probably 2 on each side, but I haven't done it yet. They are pretty loud even with the caps on.

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They're not mufflers. They are open megaphones with perforated baffle end caps. I have some stainless steel potscrubbers to put in the ends, probably 2 on each side, but I haven't done it yet. They are pretty loud even with the caps on.



Those pipes are the most 'Free Flowing' as you can get !
I hope your neighbors don't get too stressed :whistle:
 
I'd cross drill those muffler cap bolts for a cotter pin or hitch pin. The vibration will back them off and then you lose the cap somewhere on the road.

That's a darn good idea. They have split washers now and I've checked a few times. I'm sure I'd know the second they fell off though :biggrin:.
 
Do I spot a mid 70's XL250 in the back? I almost died on one of those in 1979, and didn't ride again for 40 years.
 
OK. I had one almost just like it when I was younger. Thing would go thru or over anything, so much fun to ride. It was my ticket to freedom and adventure when I was 19. Just barely street legal, and probably not all that safe at high speeds on the road, but I didn't care. Until I did.

I was on a typical adventure down a dirt country road in Maine, when I got turned around. I thought I knew the long winding driveway thru this particular piece of woods, because I dated the daughter of the house at the end of it. Except I thought I was heading into the property, but I really was going the other way. I came around a corner, kicked third gear, and hit a steel cable attached to two trees that the father had put there to keep vehicles out when they were away. No time to react.

Luckily, the cable hit right around the handlebars, flipping me and the bike end over end over the top. Had that cable been a couple of inches higher I would have taken it in the torso, and that would have been a very bad thing indeed.

It bent the handlebars and front end, and threw me quite a distance. I was hurt, but I was able to limp home on it. I parked it, scared as hell. I sold it and never wanted to get on another one until about a year ago. I was wearing a helmet.

Now for some reason I can't stay off the damn things again. I guess 40 years was enough time to get over it.
 
OK. I had one almost just like it when I was younger. Thing would go thru or over anything, so much fun to ride. It was my ticket to freedom and adventure when I was 19. Just barely street legal, and probably not all that safe at high speeds on the road, but I didn't care. Until I did.

I was on a typical adventure down a dirt country road in Maine, when I got turned around. I thought I knew the long winding driveway thru this particular piece of woods, because I dated the daughter of the house at the end of it. Except I thought I was heading into the property, but I really was going the other way. I came around a corner, kicked third gear, and hit a steel cable attached to two trees that the father had put there to keep vehicles out when they were away. No time to react.

Luckily, the cable hit right around the handlebars, flipping me and the bike end over end over the top. Had that cable been a couple of inches higher I would have taken it in the torso, and that would have been a very bad thing indeed.

It bent the handlebars and front end, and threw me quite a distance. I was hurt, but I was able to limp home on it. I parked it, scared as hell. I sold it and never wanted to get on another one until about a year ago. I was wearing a helmet.

Now for some reason I can't stay off the damn things again. I guess 40 years was enough time to get over it.

That's quite a story and getting blindsided, so to speak, is one of the worst things that can happen when dirt riding into the unknown. I'm amazed it never happened to me in some form, I rode trails (even at night) in our most popular riding area (Croom, off I-75 at the SR 50 exit north of Tampa) at speeds that would be scary under any conditions when I was 17 to 19 years old on my SL350K1s ad my XL250K0. We rode by our (weak) headlights at night back then and it's a wonder we didn't crash into each other or trees or other stuff, sometimes running well into 4th gear blasting down trails just following the guy in front who might decide to change trails in a second at any point. Crazy times, lots of fun but certainly pushing the envelope pretty hard.
 
I’ve hit lots of trees with my handlebars on my old SL125 riding at night. You go from riding along to flying thru the brush in an instant.
 
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