Black Friday - a red 1965 CB160

And before dark I dried of the tank sides and took them outside for a few pics:

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And then I put them back in to soak more.
 
Just before noon I took a look at the tank sides, I'd call it substantial pitting, but they still are shiny. I turned them so that their points are now submerged and removed the gas cap that I'd put in last night. It only had a few dots of rust and a little on the underside, it's beautiful now. Then I cleaned the old chain lube from the rear sprocket and put it into the evaporust, it's in pretty nice shape and should clean up well.
 
Looking forward to assembly time Alan, the way this is going I'm thinking it's going to look pretty amazing for the low budget you're working with.
 
I read that the original Dealer price was $530, I wonder what I can put this together for?

Can anyone tell me about how to recover one of these spring type seats? There isn't much info out there. I'd suppose covering the springs with a sheet of rubber, then a thin sheet of nylon batting or foam, followed by a quality seat cover, but what have the experts done? Mine looks like this right now:

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I just gave a very hot water rinse to spokes, nipples & rims then placed them in a 250F oven to dry for 30 minutes.


The rinse water was pretty ugly, what exactly is the point of water soluble corrosion protection anyway?
 
I think the seat rebuild question is best handled by asking the pro's like a antique restoration upholstery business. I know on furniture there's a special jute type material over springs before any padding/foam is used.
 
I've got a 305 Dream seat (trampoline?) that needs the same. My plan is to use a slab of 1/2" foam back commercial gymnasium flooring that I have a roll of. It is heavy duty and free!. Those springs and that middle bar (right where one would sit) need to be well insulated from the top foam. I'll try to get a pic of the flooring and would be happy to cut and send you a slab but at the light speed you're moving, I'd hate to slow you down. :)
 
Thanks I'll take you up on that offer. Pm me sometime and we can deal with postage. Right now my wheels and spokes have cooled, I should go get set up to lace them back to their hubs.
 
Thanks Ballbearian, that size should work well I'll PM you and we can take care of postage.

I clicked buy on a pair of bead buddies, a valve stem fishing tool, and a knockoff of the Baja No Pinch Tire Tool from eBay. It'll work with every bike I own and just might pay for itself in tubes I don't pinch...

The Baja no-pinch:


A guy on YouTube who made his own and nailed it!


And the knock-off I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/313618981128?hash=item490525e108:g:gJoAAOSwuP1hPp8 N
 
This afternoon I laced the wheels back to their hubs, all of the spokes passed my visual inspection after they came out of the evaporust, and there are two new spokes in the mix too. I shuffled front and rear spokes and made sure only one new spoke went on each wheel. It took a few tries but they're both correct.
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And I took the tank sides out of the Evaporust, they look ok from a few feet away, here are some closeups:

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Moto dudes knows stuff. Key = baby powder, easy install, no wrinkles (yes, causes weak spots and balance issues) also prevent tube to tyre self vulcanizing over time.
 
I used to change bicycle tyres with one hand back in the day. Now I use Irwin quick clamps to squeeze the beads together and down the center of the rim trough opposite where I need the slack to roll the bead over the rim..
 
On my recent tire changes, I used a pair of body work vise grips my father left behind in his load of tools. Like these, only not clean and shiny. There was a line in a Chuck Norris movie, right after his cohort used a '70s desk phone to knock out a bad guy - "the warrior uses the weapons at hand" :)

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Lethal Mechanic. When I go thru hospital security, I tell the guard, "I don't need any weapons". They smile and nod. No marks or evidence on the rim or tire beads = good technique.
 
I just put an order in to Scrambler Cycle that should take care of quite a few things, but where am I going to find modern brake shoes for this bike?

What are the race riders using? I'd really like to take every advantage toward better than stock braking.
 
I'd send an email, but really? If I were in the business of making money it'd be in my catalog. I'm not sure I actually want to do business with people that think otherwise. I mean really folks, if I had a 1927 Ford or a 1957 Chevy it'd be in a catalog.

I'm thinking this bike will be my Red Barchetta, uncle or no.

 
Paul F said:
i'm seeing both front and rear on ebay... not cheap tho at $50 / set.
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I agree, and I'd pay my dues but not for the early brown brake compounds. The sintered metallic EBC shoes I put on my CM400C in 2014? ....Would lock the rear wheel so easily I had to adjust the linkage against it.

That 400+lb. bike with its twin piston caliper and 11mm (91-03 750 Nighthawk) master cylinder would lock the front wheel and rear wheels even with a rubber brake line (91-03 NH) at a 35mph surprise stop sign, oops.

I'm hoping for good braking performance with this bike.

I can't help but think of the 200hp 2-Liter Honda Preludes of my youth that everyone was soiling themselves over...and how my 81 vintage 395cc CM400C put those to shame, I had no idea then that 16 years earlier this 161cc bike was putting out 16.5hp adding to that shame, in fact it's like having a 584HP small block Chevy. (620hp small block compared to a CM400 unless I'm wrong)
 
Alan F. said:
I'm thinking this bike will be my Red Barchetta, uncle or no.
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So you're saying you'll keep this bike covered in a garage until internal combustion engines are outlawed, and take it out on one final blast? I guess it would be a memorable way to go out. :)
 
Maybe not quite that, I'm sure we'll all have a bike we can't ride eventually.

A member over on SOHC4 reminded me that the early brake compounds were full of asbestos and worked very well. It was only when asbestos was on its way out that braking performance began to suffer until they finally started producing good compounds for braking materials. So the brown NOS shoes may still have some merit.
Another member reminded me that racing one of these doesn't involve much braking. Oops.
 
Alan F. said:
Another member reminded me that racing one of these doesn't involve much braking. Oops.
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Well, I've never road raced but I do know that one way to move up during a race and beat a slightly faster opponent is to brake later and harder into a corner. Now, drag racing doesn't use much braking power since most tracks have more tan adequate slowdown room for bikes due to the lighter weight, but cars are a different story.
 
I've never road raced either and I don't suppose I ever will. My point in asking racers what they're using is centered around the fact that they're finding them somewhere, I just need a pointer where. His reply felt more like a tangent than an answer and I think I concentrated more on the humorous part than the advisory part which named a racing member I might be able to reach.
 
I hear you, and you'd hope that a racer would be of the ilk to offer help. I'm guessing the reason Ferodo doesn't list them is such limited requests but an email to them might be fruitful.
 
My Vevor (no pinch knockoff) tire tool arrived just now, so less than 2 days order to delivery, very nice.
The box was beaten up to the point that I took a dozen pictures before opening it.

The tool looks ok, finish is zinc plate with some oxidization, it probably spent lots of time in an unheated warehouse. It includes axle adaptors for 25, 20, 17 & 15mm. The pinion gear assembles simply and the one pivot bolt screws in without binding. I'll post pictures of it after truing these wheels.
 
Alan F. said:
My Vevor (no pinch knockoff) tire tool arrived just now, so less than 2 days order to delivery, very nice.
The box was beaten up to the point that I took a dozen pictures before opening it.

The tool looks ok, finish is zinc plate with some oxidization, it probably spent lots of time in an unheated warehouse. It includes axle adaptors for 25, 20, 17 & 15mm. The pinion gear assembles simply and the one pivot bolt screws in without binding. I'll post pictures of it after truing these wheels.
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Cool, I'm looking forward to seeing one in someone's hands instead of an ad. As much pain as changing both of my tubed tires was recently I'd be interested in getting something to help alleviate that hassle.
 
Thank you, yes I spotted those too. I'd love to buy a set from one vendor but might wind up splitting the order up. Deep Sigh.
 
Rear wheel is trued, I'll have a better look at it tomorrow to make sure, and I'll give the back of each nipple a sharp tap with a hammer and brass drift the way 754 (recently deceased SOHC4) told us to do to help bed the nipples to the rim. Thanks again Frank!

Front wheel spoke nipples are finger tight, I'll true it up tomorrow.

Harbor Freight truing stand, beer can with a cardboard coaster and the tab pointing up for an indicator. Spec is 1mm axial and radial with no offset. The weld on these rims is pretty bumpy but I can probably get them as good or better than the factory did when they were new. Spokes are all tight and all ring the same note when struck.

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I just put a batch of parts into the remaining evaporust, some will come out after 6-8 hours and some will stay until tomorrow.
 
Front and rear wheels are trued up. You can only expect so much precision from an abused set of 56 year old wheels but I think I did alright. Setting each nipple with a brass drift seemed to simplify the fine tuning. I wasn't able to do this with the rear wheel last night (neighbors) and I was amazed at the amount of correction it needed just after sitting overnight on the stand. After setting each nipple with the brass, the smaller adjustments just had more effect.


Thanks Frank, still teaching. I'll stamp 754 on my little $6 (shipped) brass rod from eBay, I didn't think he'd approve spending twice that on a cheap brass drift that I wouldn't use for anything else.
 
And I've been reminded that it's time to spray CorrosionX on these wheels before too much time passes. There's just a little daylight left!

So I took the wheels outside where overspray shouldn't matter and gave the wheels a spritz of this miracle goo (trying to keep it off the braking surfaces) a few initial lessons: a little goes a long way, the trigger bottle has settings for stream and spray, but you may not be able to tell the difference on this one right away. If you intend to move parts after spraying, wear gloves. I recommend putting down cardboard in a well ventilated place where you can leave parts after spraying, I don't have that luxury. I put down a few paper towels and stood up one rim at a time, wiped down the surfaces with a wad of folded paper towels and carried them back up through the apartment into the attic space that I'm using. I set them down on some boxes and will check on them in a few hours.

CorrosionX goes on like thin green oil, directions say to spray or wipe on a thin layer, I think the stuff will flow to cover a surface after contact.
I'm not sad to have over applied it to my wheels, they really need the protection. I'll keep my used paper towels to use again later on.

Sorry no pics, the flash on my phone is useless, I'll set up a lamp later and get some pics.
 
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