Just browsed over to this part of the forum. Plenty of talk about newer/bigger bikes, but who spends much time on the older, smaller bikes?
I have a '72 Honda CL175 I bought last June from my BIL when he moved up to an '81 CM400. After about a month of tweaking and riding it all over the place I blew the head gasket so it's currently in the final stages of a partial rebuild - just top-end gaskets with a hone job, new pistons/rings, and replacing a couple bent valves. (To be clear, BIL bought it as a basket case and, while he did an honorable job of reassembling it to running condition, he never got it in real good tune or rode it very hard - when I got it one carb. stayed at idle 'til about 3,000 RPM and the jetting/needle height was off - so as I got it in better tune and took it on subsequent hard test drives to gauge what else it needed the HG succumbed to the game of "find the next weakest part". Reading 130 PSI compression immediately before that and finding some bad scuffing on the pistons it really needed more than just the gaskets before it went back together.) Of course I get laughed at by a lot of people including the guys from church I ride with (next smallest bike being a 750 Shadow, followed up by two new Triumphs) but the little 175 is just what I was looking for - nimble, forgiving, economical (never put more than $8 of gas in it per week) yet it can still, in a pinch, keep up on the 2-lane and run my wife and I around the backroads for some fair weather fun. Not to mention, all those other beauties are 1/4 the age and still mostly get taken to the shop for service and sit on a oil-spot-free floor the rest of the time. (By golly, mine may be old and slow, and need work, but I know it inside and out and can limp it home rather than have to ride double and call somebody to pick it up when it has a hiccup!) It's part of the experience for me, especially on a motorcycle - knowing the machine and being able to work with it if something goes wrong; a kind of shared responsibility for the success of the journey, I suppose. My brother-in-law and I talk to a lot of people who are amazed we ride bikes as old and small as ours are, but contrary to some friends' exaggerations we don't spend more time on the side of the road wrenching on it than we do riding. Who else prefers the little old ones?
Oh, and because this is BITOG - BIL ran mostly Castrol 4-stroke 10w40 in it but changed to Amsoil just before I got it. After the break-in with Hondalube I'll go back to Ams 10/30 or 10/40 Metric formula.
With BIL's '81 400:
I have a '72 Honda CL175 I bought last June from my BIL when he moved up to an '81 CM400. After about a month of tweaking and riding it all over the place I blew the head gasket so it's currently in the final stages of a partial rebuild - just top-end gaskets with a hone job, new pistons/rings, and replacing a couple bent valves. (To be clear, BIL bought it as a basket case and, while he did an honorable job of reassembling it to running condition, he never got it in real good tune or rode it very hard - when I got it one carb. stayed at idle 'til about 3,000 RPM and the jetting/needle height was off - so as I got it in better tune and took it on subsequent hard test drives to gauge what else it needed the HG succumbed to the game of "find the next weakest part". Reading 130 PSI compression immediately before that and finding some bad scuffing on the pistons it really needed more than just the gaskets before it went back together.) Of course I get laughed at by a lot of people including the guys from church I ride with (next smallest bike being a 750 Shadow, followed up by two new Triumphs) but the little 175 is just what I was looking for - nimble, forgiving, economical (never put more than $8 of gas in it per week) yet it can still, in a pinch, keep up on the 2-lane and run my wife and I around the backroads for some fair weather fun. Not to mention, all those other beauties are 1/4 the age and still mostly get taken to the shop for service and sit on a oil-spot-free floor the rest of the time. (By golly, mine may be old and slow, and need work, but I know it inside and out and can limp it home rather than have to ride double and call somebody to pick it up when it has a hiccup!) It's part of the experience for me, especially on a motorcycle - knowing the machine and being able to work with it if something goes wrong; a kind of shared responsibility for the success of the journey, I suppose. My brother-in-law and I talk to a lot of people who are amazed we ride bikes as old and small as ours are, but contrary to some friends' exaggerations we don't spend more time on the side of the road wrenching on it than we do riding. Who else prefers the little old ones?
Oh, and because this is BITOG - BIL ran mostly Castrol 4-stroke 10w40 in it but changed to Amsoil just before I got it. After the break-in with Hondalube I'll go back to Ams 10/30 or 10/40 Metric formula.
With BIL's '81 400:
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