I needed to establish a baseline of what my little future racebike was going to need, so I figured I should take it out for the usual Iconic Sunday Ride out to the Rock Store (roughly 60 miles). The morning started off wonderfully and things were glorious…until they weren’t.
Did you miss Part 1? Let me introduce the foolishness that’s about to happen.
I was joined by my employee Gray (who I sold my old R1150GS to) and a wonderful client named Ted. Ted actually almost bought this CB160 from us before I thought about racing it because he wants to own a bike from the year when he was born. Problem is, it’s a ’65 model and Ted’s a ’64 model. So he let it go, and that’s enabled this madness. The bike started up fine and the fueling was good, if not perfect. But the shifting was definitely subpar, and I’ll have to figure out if it’s the clutch, the chain, or something else. All I know for now is that it’s not sustainable.
Quick stop at the usual gas station.
We rode up PCH and at one point I saw 64 miles per hour on the dash, though I figured the number wasn’t accurate. But Ted was pacing me on his Yamaha MT-10 and he had the same number. He then hopped in front of me and I tucked in behind his draft, I got up to 70 before I decided it wasn’t a great idea to be this close to my buddy on the street with horrible old brakes.
Some of our friends kept going on PCH to get coffee, but I don’t drink coffee and I wanted to just keep riding the CB. Ted, Gray, and I instead went up Las Flores Canyon/Schueren Road.
Here’s some onboard video if you’re interested – including a cameo from a coyote that probably could have chased me down if he wanted to:
Eventually, I pulled into the Rock Store. I got off my bike and was immediately greeted by several people who wanted to discuss it. I later had a friend tell me that it got more attention than the RC213V-S I rode a week prior, but I’m pretty sure he was just being nice. It’s definitely louder, though!
I ended up having some great conversations with people who either currently own a CB160 or wanted to reminisce about when they had one back in the day, then I pulled out my phone to see a text from my buddy Chris: “That 160 makes so much noise everybody looks when you turn the corner.” Here’s a quick acceleration run/audio clip that Gray kindly recorded:
After a breakfast burrito (one of the surprisingly-tasty things on the Rock Store menu) and some general shit-talking with buddies, I geared up to head back to the hangar…but I couldn’t get the bike to start. I figured it was just the stereotypical cruel joke of failing in front a big crowd, but the ol’ girl just wouldn’t do it. This might have been a small dose of karma as in the morning, Ted was joking that if my bike broke down we could strap it to the back of Gray’s GS, and I responded that it wouldn’t be necessary because of “Honda reliability, baby!” Oops.
Smiling before I knew what was about to happen (or not happen, really).
I also tried bump starting it with similar success, sometimes using gravity and sometimes using the sweat of my friends. Still no luck.
My riding buddies took a look at it and we noticed some wax coming out of the coil. Looks like I’ve got a new part to order!
A quick call to the fine fellows at Motorcycle Mover LA meant I had a ride back to the hangar.
Once back at the shop, I didn’t have time to investigate the bike as I had to get ready for a flight the next morning to Idaho for the launch of the 2024 Yamaha Tracer 9 GT + (update: here’s that review). But after a post on social media, a few friends had suggestions for me. One buddy with a lot of CB160 experience says that stock ignitions “are a horror show”, so that’s getting replaced with a new unit from Charlie’s Place as a precaution. The new ignition requires a new regulator/rectifier, and while I was shopping I figured I’d upgrade the coil to a Dyna.
After the first ride, there’s good news and not good news:
Not Good News:
And you know what? Despite having to go home in a tow truck, I was still in a good mood. Old bikes are awesome, this one makes me happy, and I need to get all the bad parts broken and out of the way before race day!
Now I’ve got to wait a few days (if not a couple of weeks) to get some parts in to fix this bike…and take it on the next shakedown run!
On to Part 3 – it ends up being a short ownership experience!