In which I go from too nice to too…not nice.
Did you miss Part 3? I develop too much guilt about racing a nice CB160 so I sell it and buy a different one.
My original Honda CB160 now has a new home, and my new-to-me-and-already-converted-to-a-race-bike 160 has settled in. Time to get acquainted!
Photo from the seller.
It’s been way too long since my last update on the CB160, so here’s a quick recap:
– last year I checked out AHRMA racing at Laguna Seca and Barber and I got the bug.
– I bought a Honda CB160 from a friend, but eventually decided it was too nice to hack up for racing.
– I found a replacement on Facebook Marketplace. We left off the last post with me being in Boston, waiting to come back home to LA and see what the new bike needed. Let’s take a look!
On paper, the nice thing about this bike is that it had already been converted into a race bike (per the seller, it’s set up to be legal in the Formula 160 class), though I don’t really have much history on it. I’m sure there will be some issues as well, but I’ll hopefully find all of them soon-ish so that we can make this thing dependable enough to go racing.
Obvious modifications include the seat/tail unit, a belly pan with an integrated catch can, the higher exhaust, pod filters, rearsets, bars, speedometer delete, number plates and the additional of some “speed holes.”
The one change that spooks me a little bit is an extended swingarm, though the sale includes the original unit.
The bike was dropped off at Iconic before I flew back home, so I was more excited than usual to show up to work on my first day back. After said first day, I took a look at the bike with our shop manager Daniel. I tried to kick it over and discovered that the kickstarter hits the right rear set so I had to temporarily render the latter useless. Come race day I’ll presumably just bump start it, but this seemed a little silly.
Regardless, I had no success getting the motor to show any signs of life. A quick check with a battery tester revealed that I would need to buy a new one and Daniel chimed in with, “well I told you it was total loss…it’s totally lost!”
Poor start, but not a surprising one.
I wasn’t really expecting it to start but I couldn’t help myself and had to try. The seller had mentioned that he had ridden the bike a couple of times but that it had been sitting for a few months. He mentioned it had been used in Formula 160 racing and it wouldn’t need much to get going again, so I figured it’d at least need a battery and some carb work. Knowing that the battery had to be replaced, we hooked up a battery booster and checked to make sure that the spark plugs were working. They seemed to be fine, so if the engine was getting air and spark, then it’s time to get it some fuel.
So I popped the carbs off and threw them in the ultrasonic cleaner.
They weren’t that dirty but there were plenty of signs of decades of neglect use.
Always nice to see jets that are mismatched in origin and in size.
I also couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the bodywork was secured in dubious ways. The front fender was attached with hose clamps and the belly pan was only connected with safety wire.
This was one of the cleaner “installations”
There were obviously some mechanical issues to be sorted, but I also wasn’t a huge fan of the light blue color. I did a quick survey of some Iconic employees and Gray had my favorite initial idea – re-do it in black like the stock bike but with the addition of some Jackson Pollock-style splatter in the Iconic Motorbikes colors of red/blue/green:
We put the carbs back together and before I tried to start it, Daniel went to check the oil level. It was at this point that he discovered a crack in the case that the seller never bothered to disclose. Bummer.
Dealing with this little bike has been such a frustrating experience that it admittedly put me off from updating you all, but crunch time is approaching: the AHRMA season started two weeks ago and the first California race is April 15th. So I’ve been refocusing my efforts over the last couple of weeks and I promise I’ll have more updates for you soon!
I’m missing the old days with my CB160 that was too nice to race!
On to Part 5 – let’s take a break from my bike and look at 160 racing in general.