I rode to Bellaire to take some higher resolution pictures of the bike by Mom’s shed, then decided to ride into Alden.  I stopped at local landmarks along the way to take pictures, worried that the high winds would knock the bike over.  While I stopped for pictures at the Dockside restaurant, a woman got out of her car and started taking pictures of the little motorbike with her cell phone.  After taking some pictures in Alden, I returned to the house.

The odometer now reads 6201 – 52 miles since it’s been restored.  It’ll be fun riding it around town when I get it home.

The project took 11 months and 2 weeks of weekend work.  64 parts orders were placed, 34 from within the USA, 27 from Thailand, 2 from Canada and one from England.  Within the USA, I ordered parts from 19 different states.

It’s a tiny little machine, but it’s fun to ride.  I’ll bring it down state next weekend where it will be more at ease on the slower surface streets.

I reassembled the front suspension and anything connected to the forks, which includes the big fender and the headlight nacelle.  The front fork uses ancient ball bearings, which are still in excellent condition.  The bearings were well packed with grease when the fork was assembled.

The rear swing arm suspension installed quickly.  I reassembled the rear shocks then hung them from the rear fender to support the rear swing arm.  The wiring harness was routed through the frame as illustrated in the parts manual, connected only to the ignition key switch at this point.

I’ll be busy the next 2 weekends so the project will have to wait until August for additional work.  Stay tuned!

The original rims were just too rusty to use, and the ancient tires were so hard that I couldn’t remove them from the rims anyway.  Using a carbide blade on the reciprocating saw, I simply cut away the spokes to free the aluminum hub.  I cleaned the 5 decades of grime and oxidation from the hub with steel wool pads, then used 3 different buffing grits to polish the hub to give it a bit of shine.  As you can imagine, it’s much easier to polish the hub with the spokes off.

I separated the spokes into 2 groups, since there are both ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ spokes, distinguishable by the angle of the bend at the top of the spoke.  The inner spokes were installed first, followed by the outer spokes.  Each spoke received a new chrome nipple to hold it in place.  The spokes have only been hand tightened at this point.  I still have to ‘true’ the wheels to ensure that they spin perfectly, with no wobble.  I now have both wheel hubs laced to new rims and ready for truing.

The parts should be back from the paint shop in 2 days, and I’ll start assembling the bike next weekend.

Otherwise, I have only a few tasks left to complete before reassembly can begin in July.  I still have one more wheel to lace with new spokes.  I’m still waiting for the wide white wall tires to arrive.  I also have to clean some front suspension parts.  I did manage to paint and reassemble the front foot bar and side stand assembly, pictured below.  The rubber foot rests are new, replacing the original cracked and crumbled pieces.  The foot bar and side stand were caked with decades of dirt and grease, hardened to a thick crust that I had to break away with a hammer before I could scrub the parts clean with steel wool.

Just more baby steps toward restoring this interesting little motorcycle.

The rear shocks on these old Honda models often had square-shaped housings, which is quite unusual compared with today’s motorcycle shocks.  The shocks completely hide a large spring to support the rear suspension, and an internal hydraulic damper.  It took a few hours to disassemble, clean and lubricate the parts.  The black plastic housings will be painted when the frame gets painted, so I’ll have to defer the reassembly of the shocks until that work is done.

My “unofficial” method of disassembling the old Honda shock is illustrated below, along with a guide to the special tools required for the job.

The sole gauge on this bike is a speedometer, but it appeared to be in pretty rough shape.  There was lots of aluminum oxide corrosion on the face plate, so I feared that I’d need to get a reproduction plate.  I disassembled the speedometer and found the worm drive mechanism to be frozen.  Perhaps that’s why the original speedometer cable was broken, and it certainly would have broke any new cable.  After some lubrication, I was able to get the gears to move freely.  Fortunately, the paint on the face plate was not pitted, and the corrosion cleaned off rather easily.  Over the decades, the speedometer needle had faded to a pale orange, so I used a red Sharpie Paint Marker to give the needle back its color.  I’m pleased with the results.

The project will slow down a bit now as I turn my attention to rebuilding the engine and transmission.  Over the Winter months, I’ll gather a few parts each week until I have what I need.  In the Spring, the frame and most black parts will be sand blasted, primed and painted.