Project 333 Honda C200

Posted on January 29, 2020 by motopsyco

It’s just a little evil.

In case you’re wondering dear reader, I have not stopped working on bikes but have been steadily cranking them out. Between my day job & a shop full of projects both mine & other peoples, there just hasn’t been time to sit down at the keyboard & document everything. That is about to change with this little Honda C200 . A lot of cool things have happened; including me purchasing the second brand new motorcycle I’ve ever owned a Moto Guzzi V9. On a sadder note the Suburban Assault Scrambler CB650 has gone on to its next owner but not before proving itself on the dyno by putting out the most horsepower per cc at a show last March. In case you’re wondering it cranked out an honest 50 rear wheel horsepower.

Sometime in all this there’s been a bare crankcases up rebuild on a CB400F Honda, a complete mechanical refurbishment of a Suzuki DR350 and a few others too numerous to write about. It’s all been a blast and there are plenty more on deck waiting for me to get started on them.

Honda CB400 jigsaw puzzle — 3d jigsaw puzzle

This particular Honda C200 is one that I acquired from a friend; it’s in fair condition with nothing but light surface rust & dings but is missing a few parts and hasn’t been run in several years. Most importantly of all it came with a title. I generally don’t have much trouble getting titles for old bikes without one but it is an extra bit of expense & time.

Restoration is not in the cards for this particular 1964 Honda C200. I’ve proven that I can do a show winning 100% stock restorations and I will do a few more later but this build is going to be about me getting back to my rat bike roots. The goal for this one is to have it done & ready in time to cruise around at the Barber Small Bore Festival organized by MNNTHBX the first weekend in June.

The stock 90cc Honda C200 engine has been placed into my parts stash to make room for a Piranha YX140 engine. In addition to being much more powerful than the original pushrod engine it also has an electric start and a semi-auto clutch on the 4 speed transmission. This engine is available with a manual clutch if you want it but I didn’t for this build. You can probably go faster with the manual but I know how to build up the revs and launch a semi-auto so I’m not too concerned with that. There’s a lot more to this little bikes new purpose in life than just blasting down the 1/32 mile drag strip.

Piranha 140cc engine — https://amzn.to/37z1jgZ click to get your own

I’ll tell you more about YX140 engine in my next post. The pushrod engines in the Honda C200, CA200, & CT200 engines have the same mounting bolt pattern as the later CT70s, Z50s, and other common pit bikes so you don’t need any special adapters & spacers to put them in like on a later overhead cam 90cc Honda. That being said you still have to modify your frame by grinding some clearance for the protrusions on the rear corners of the engine before it will bolt in.

Piranha 140 engine in 64 Honda C200 CA200

Goodbye for now, I’ve got to get my wiring run and fire this thing up. Once that is done I’ll come back and tell you all about it.

22mm Mikuni Carburetor — Pit bike Mikuni Carburehttps://amzn.to/37Ff7qator

Brotherly Hate Machine

Posted on June 10, 2018 by motopsyco

I got this old VF700 from the original owner. Hang out with me for a bit and let me tell you about my latest Junkyard Dog the Brotherly Hate Machine.

In the beginning there was a young gentleman from S.C. who loved motorcycles & drag racing. So he decided to combine the two using a machine that really was an odd choice for quarter mile sprints. A 1985 Honda Interceptor VF700. This bike was a true street & strip warrior, with just a few minor mods to perk it up so that it was equally at home on the street or the track.

This is how it looks now.

At one point this motorcycle was stolen, so the owner bought himself a new 1987 VFR700 to replace it. As fate would have it over a year later the police recovered this machine in wrecked non running condition and somehow it wound up back home with its owner. Who rebuilt it and got it running & looking fantastic again.

At some point he bought himself a parts bike, an 83 VF750 Interceptor, but apparently didn’t need too many parts off of it because it’s sitting in my shop right now with a struts replacing the rear shock and what looks like an old M&H Racemaster drag slick on the back.

Unfortunately life takes its toll on a working mans body sometimes & as the owner aged, work related back injuries forced him switch to easier riding cruiser motorcycles and then finally to a trike, the old Interceptors wound up sitting in the pole barn on the family property, un-ridden & rotting.

You may be wondering why I call this particular bike the Brotherly Hate Machine? Well I had known about & been interested in acquiring these bikes for a while. When I first saw pictures of it, this motorcycle was unmolested, undented & had a complete & unripped seat. But the owner and his younger brother had a falling out a few years ago, and I’m not getting into that here. Unfortunately it negatively affected my motorcycle.

After we made our deal the guy had went to the shed where the bikes were stored and began to pull them out and get them ready for me to load. Unfortunately his destructive psychopathic brother saw him messing with the bikes and came over before I got there and worked this poor bike over. We still don’t know what he did with the sidecovers. After some compromises were made I picked the bikes up anyway & brought them home. Now you know why I call it the brotherly hate machine. I’m afraid I just don’t understand the evil childish mentality of people who perform this kind of vandalism. Especially when it’s an old man that does it.

The original plan was to restore this bike & the 87 VFR700 that came with it. I’ve already started on the 87 but now I’m not sure what the fate of this one will be but I do have the paperwork for it & to be honest I’ve refurbished a lot worse motorcycles in the past.

But I do know one thing, if I restore it the Brotherly Hate Machine will be taken back to Rockingham Dragway to fly down the quarter mile another time or two.

Honda Ascot FT500 Junkyard Dog

Posted on April 22, 2018 by motopsyco

Honda Ascot FT500 coming home with me.

I had sworn that I wasn’t going to do this anymore. It’s been several months since I had a hit & experienced that euphoria. It’s tough being an addict but I was keeping clean and was even beginning to straighten out my life & get my act together. We all know the first rule to overcoming an addiction is to stay away from temptation.

Then yesterday I ran into my dealer, and he’s got the best stuff on the east coast. Next thing I know money & merchandise were exchanging places. If you’re a collector & restorer there is no better feeling than buying a new old pile of junk motorcycle. Especially when it’s a fairly desirable model like the Honda Ascot FT500 that you actually really wanted but couldn’t get when you were younger. Oh man it felt so good! I’m still riding that high today as I type this.

The price on this old Honda Ascot FT500 was righteous enough that the condition really didn’t matter. With dirt cheap motorcycles you just need to go ahead & assume that you need to replace or repair everything. That way you avoid the disappointment that comes with having high hopes.

I love it when they have fuzz growing in the cylinder fins.

Last night after supper I grabbed a beer, & removed the timing plugs so I could try to turn the engine and it’s seized but that’s okay as the plan is to strip it all the way down & build it back as a fire breathing hot rod.

This one is a 1982 model. One of the best things about the Honda Ascot FT500 is the funky flat track styling, it’s the closest thing ever built to a factory street tracker. I’m not a fan of the rectangular headlight that instantly dates what is an otherwise timeless design. Beside it’s rusted out & will be tossed in garbage anyway.

One of the best things about this bike is that it has cast aluminum wheels that are not Comstars. All of my other bikes except for my Helix scooter have wire wheels and quite frankly they are a pain in the rear to restore & maintain

it’s so 1980s

So how did a motorcycle with less than 3500 miles wind up in such horrible condition? My guess is the the original owner thought that it needed a new starter, so he took the old one off & went to his local dealer for a replacement. Once they learned the price of a new starter they either swore off motorcycles altogether or went & bought another bike, leaving this poor old thing to die out behind the barn.

If the engine had not been seized I’d go ahead & start working on it but since it needs a full overhaul it will wind up in the corner of the shop with the other “ladies in waiting” where I’ll walk by occasionally and marinade it with penetrating oil until I complete my 2 current restorations. This one definitely will not be restored but will end up being a fairly nice restomod instead.

<1982 Honda Ascot FT500 >

Until next time

Peace Y’all

UPDATE 2023 I never finished this one and passed it on to someone else who wanted it.

1970 Honda CT90 Junkyard Dog

Posted on March 11, 2017 by motopsyco

It all started like so many bad ideas with an Ebay auction, followed by a six hour car ride the day after the auction ended. I had been sort of casually looking for a Honda CT90 or CT110, not to restore but just to get running and ride it around on the farm and at bike shows. At last years AMCA Southern National swap meet in Denton N.C. I missed 2 of them that were in my price range by just a matter of minutes. In fact when I spotted one of them and started walking towards it another gentleman had who was much closer walked up and handed the seller cash and they were filling out the paperwork by the time I got there. Since I’m always scanning online sales sites, backyards, junkyards, and trash piles for interesting stuff, I knew sooner or later a Honda CT90 or 110 would cross my path for the right dollar amount.

This one popped up on Ebay down in Ladson S.C., it was not running and missing a lot of parts, but I bid what I thought it was worth and was pleasantly surprised when it actually sold for what it was worth and didn’t run up to a stupid price like things do on Ebay sometimes.

I’m going to confess that I staged the rest of these pictures the next day after work, but the surroundings seem to work really well and you really can almost imagine stumbling across something like this abandoned in the woods.

She hasn’t traveled far in 47 years, only 3,353 mile on the odometer.

The muffler and battery box are gone, and the wiring harness is a bit of a mess, but the engine still turns free.

One of the coolest features of the early Honda Trail bikes like the CT90 was the rotating handlebar mounts designed to make them easier to transport on bumper mounted motorcycle carriers. You pulled up on the big lever in the center of the bars and then you could turn the bars sideways for more room.

Another great feature that was introduced in the middle of the 1967 model year was a dual range transmission giving you a total of 8 forward gears. Low range was for serious off road work and the high range was for normal trail and road use. A lot of people swap Lifan engines into them for more power and reliability but my plan is to keep the original engine just so that it will still have the dual range transmission.

Honda CT90 in the woods!

That’s it for now, I’m going to check it out further and will keep you informed on the progress as it happens. I also have another antique motorcycle project going that I haven’t shown on this blog yet but it has been all over my Facebook page & Instagram if you want to check those out.

Peace Y’all

’77 Honda CT70 A Junkyard Puppy!

Posted on August 27, 2015 by motopsyco

This ones a little bit too small to be a dawg

That’s why I’m calling it a puppy. I’ve been searching for a Honda ST or CT motorcycle to restore for a while now, so when this 77 Honda CT70 popped up on the local Craigslist for a bargain basement price I jumped on it asap. When searching for gems like this, if you find one going (relatively) cheap you should be prepared to go see it immediately.

It’s got a lot of neglect but still it should be a very cool project. The person I bought it from had started to restore it somewhat with some fresh Chevy engine orange spray paint & new decals. Then they painted all of the chrome black. Unfortunately, they could never get the engine to run so they just gave up & lost interest in it.

I have no clue how the left handlebar was broken, but that’s okay, it will replaced with a N.O.S. or authentic reproduction. The plans for this one are very simple, it will be as close to a concours quality restoration as I can get it. There will be some internal upgrades to the engine, steering, & suspension but the outward appearance will be 100% box stock.

Mini Trails Rule!

Thankfully there’s still plenty of new old stock parts left out there along with tons of reproduction stuff

If you drink a beer or two, and squint at this picture long enough you can almost see a restored 77 Honda CT70. Can’t wait to get started on it.

Peace Y’all

BTW, if you don’t have time money & space for the real thing, why don’t you try one of these little gems below.

1957 Zundapp Junkyard Dog

Posted on July 12, 2015 by motopsyco

Here’s some real motor archeology for you, a 1957 Zundapp. I am fairly certain that it is a Super Sabre, feel free to let me know if I’m wrong.

Zundapp Motorcycles were built in Germany beginning in 1919. The KS750 sidecar motorcycle produced for military use was probably their most well known product, but they also made sporting two stroke singles like this one and a wide variety of scooters as well. They had a reputation for being solid well built machines.

1957 Zundapp

Shame I couldn’t have gotten hold of it 20 or 30 years ago.

Got Rust?

The cylinder head doesn’t have any broken fins, wonder what it looks like on the inside?

It’s a shame to see such a fine piece of German engineering in this condition.

The original ID tag is still in place behind the headlamp.

At this point it is highly unlikely that I will attempt to restore this motorcycle. The plan is to carefully dissect the cadaver to see if there are still any parts that would be of any use to anyone who has one of these rare old motorcycles.

1957 Zundapp Super Sabre

If this were a typical Craigslist ad here is where it would say, “tires still have plenty of tread left.”

If you would like to find out more about these motorcycles, or if you are just curious to see what this pile of junk used to look like visit the Zundapp Fool website by clicking here.

Peace Y’all

Oops I Did It Again. A Junkyard Dog Double Feature. (updated w/ video)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by motopsyco

I went prospecting for rusty gold again. Brought home a couple of early 80’s Suzukis.

One is an RM 80 condition unknown, some parts missing, in fact I am not even sure what year it is. This one is truly a junkyard dog and it is for sale right now as is where is, to the first person willing to give me $50

The second one is a 1980 Suzuki TS185. It’s rough but will start and idle.

I really like the headlight assembly.

There are plenty of interesting crusty bits on this one.

Overall this old cycle is not the worst I I have ever tried to restore. At this point my plan is for a basic restomod as a woods bike, but if too many of the parts needed for that are not available, it may become a “brat style” custom scrambler.

Peace Y’all

1985 Kawasaki 454 LTD Another Junkyard Dog.

Posted on February 2, 2014 by motopsyco

This one had been leaning up behind the fence in some guy’s back yard for a while…

the droopy turnsignals are kind of sad looking

Back in 1985 Cycle Guide raced on of these against a 454 Corvette and spanked it good. But time has not treated this little Kawasaki well.

Somebodies kids tried to fill the tank up with dirt.

Notice the relatively low miles on the odometer, like so many motorcycles this was ridden for a while until the owner got bored with it or scared of it and it was left to rot. It no doubt switched hands a few times and had the same sequence of events happen over and over until finally something broke or the carbs finally gummed up and no one cared to fix it.

This side view below shows that these bikes had a fairly good looking profile but even then the writing was on the wall for the fast, good handling, and comfortable 2 and 4 cylinder Japanese cruisers. Lighter & faster was no longer fashionable, so the big four answered the demands of their American customers, who really wanted a 1960s-70s Harley but with Japanese reliability & no oil leaks. It’s a pity because I think it would’ve been interesting to see where these designs went if they had continued to combine cruiser styling with super bike technology.

Here’s a little bonus picture, not really big enough be a dog, we’ll call this one a junkyard puppy. It got thrown in on the deal with the Kawasaki 454 LTD above. It’s a little Baja MB165 mini-bike. A friend of mine has one & I really enjoyed riding it, and wanted one of my own, but never could quite convince my self to buy one. This one was left to rot after mommy & daddy got tired of replacing clutches on it. Most people don’t realize when they buy these mini-bikes (or go-karts either) that the clutches are expensive consumables that have to be replaced on a regular basis. I going to put a torque converter on it, a bigger rear sprocket & some ATV luggage racks to make it into a modern version of the old Tote Gote.

The Organic Rat! Honda CM400 Junkyard Dog!

Posted on December 7, 2013 by motopsyco

This one has a kind of an interesting story to it. I had stopped at lunchtime a couple of weeks ago to fill the Suburban Assault Scrambler up up with ethanol free premium at my favorite gas station, when a local folk artist named Frank Cooper rolled up next to me in his mural covered Roadmaster. He comes over & tells me that he has an old Honda 400 in a storage unit that he might like to sell.

super cool acrylic painted sled

I really didn’t think anything more of it for a week or two and then this morning I gave him a call and met him at the rented storage unit where he stored this bike & apparently the rest of his worldly possessions also. After moving piles of junk (aka art supplies) this little bobber came into view. My immediate reaction was oh no I don’t want anything to do with that one. but after we got it outside he hooked up a battery & poured some gas in the tank and within a minute or so it fired right up and the engine sounded pretty good.

After negotiating a price I loaded it into my van & let it ride along to lunch with my beautiful wife & I. She didn’t even roll her eyes at me for buying it, I wish every man were as lucky as me. Here it is tucked into the back of my old Astro van. A normal sized motorcycle will not fit without removing the mirrors & maybe folding down the handlebars, but this one is so low it fits with plenty of headroom to spare.

loaded up and ready to haul

After getting it home I snapped a few pics of it to share with you. Lets start with the details first. I have no idea where this hardtail came from or what that silver thing is that is hose clamped to the frame.

It kind of sketchy and dangerous looking….

The bottle opener is a nice touch.

I might trade the bottle opener for one that says Guinness

I have no doubt this was the license plate he rode around with. 😉

The seat is literally a junkyard dog.

woof woof!

How ’bout a top view?

I hope any passengers don’t mind the comfy looking rear fender.

Come on you have to admit it has a mean looking stance!

“The Gunn”

The design and fabrication look as dangerous as a gunfight but all I plan to do to this one is to get it as functional & dependable as possible without changing anything about the way it looks or worrying about safety beyond making sure that it is not too likely to break in half if it hits a bump in the road. All motorcycles are dangerous, but some are more dangerous than others.

<wicked evil dangerous chopper motorcycle>

“The Bullet”

I am more than willing to entertain reasonable offers on this machine, as long as you understand that it is being sold as folk art with no warranty that you would ever be able to ride it at all and that it was fabricated by an unknown amateur of questionable talent & that I am not responsible for anything that happens to you as a result of attempting to ride this motorcycle. Of course the longer I keep it & the more I do to it, the better your offers must be.

Peace Y’all

Motopsyco.

QUICK UPDATE! A friend of mine saw this bike on Facebook & has purchased it from me. It is still parked in my shop because I have been commissioned to rebuild it to his specifications. Though I hate to see a real vintage rat disappear it will be a gritty down & dirty bobber, just right for him to tool around on down here in the dirty south! STAY TUNED!

Revenge of a Junkyard Dog! (Suburban Assault Scrambler Finished!)

Posted on August 30, 2013 by motopsyco

It seems hard to believe that it has already been six months since I dragged home a rusty non running 1980 Honda CB650 Custom that I bought sight unseen at a local junk auction for the princely sum of 150 bucks. If you didn’t see it back then click on this link to see the before pictures. Of course along the way there were various challenges & fun but I had a blast getting this one going and as unlikely a candidate as it was for a scrambler conversion it really did turn out that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts!

Normally I am a man of way too many words so how about if this time I just show you some pictures interspersed with a few tidbits of technical information?

1980 Honda CB650 with 1974 Honda CB750 gas tank & a set of 1979 CB650 standard wheels.

1980 Honda CB650 Custom Scrambler

The handlebars are courtesy of a 1970 Honda CL450 I just happen to have lying around. The tires are Shinko 705 adventure touring tires.

<Vintage Honda with vintage plasma cutter>

I wish I had a plasma cutter like this at home!

The green paint is a mixture of gloss green & flat black tractor enamel, & the exhaust is from Mac.

they don’t make machines like this vintage Lincoln welder anymore.

Don’t let the nasty looking lowers fool you, the forks have new seals, Progressive Suspension springs & fresh 10w fork oil. I decided to keep the 650 Custom fork legs for the scrambler conversion since they are longer than the 650 standard forks. When I raised the rear by switching to the 17 inch wheel & taller tire it helped to compensate for the extra rake of the custom and gave more ground clearance.

At this time I would like to give thanks to the wonderful folks who provide me with my day job that makes all of this possible.

Safe Harbor Access Systems for allowing me use of the old warehouse and some production areas for this photo shoot. Click here to see the stuff I spend all day drawing blueprints for! And if you see anything you need let them know where you got the information.

Here’s some more of that headlight bracket drillium that I showed you in my last post.

speed holes make it faster right?

I couldn’t stand the 85 m.p.h. speedometer that came on this bike, plus it was making a horrible squeaking sound, so on went the 140 m.p.h. speedo & tach from a 1976 CB750F, with green faces of course.

Do you have any idea how hard it was for me not to attack this with the polisher?

K&N air filters hang off the back of the original carburetors, to learn what I did to them just click here. Other than a re-jetting

& a Mac pipe the engine is bone stock in all of it’s 11,000 original mile glory.

Slug & liquids? Sounds like the results of cheap beer & too many hot wings…

I put a lot of speed holes in this one ’cause I wanted it to be really fast 🙂

Holding up the rear is a set of Progressive Suspension 412 shocks with the heavy duty springs. I have been very pleased with this suspension, it gives a nice cushy ride over some pretty rough bumps but is still firm enough to rock out on a set of curves. Well at least as much as you can with a bike like this.

Sometimes you just find the perfect graffiti to really set a picture off.

Beware of the Dog

Peace Y’all

‘Psyco

Welcome to the Asylum

Crazy About Motorcycles!

Category Archives: Junkyard Dogs

Project 333 Honda C200

It’s just a little evil.

Brotherly Hate Machine

Honda Ascot FT500 Junkyard Dog

1970 Honda CT90 Junkyard Dog

’77 Honda CT70 A Junkyard Puppy!

1957 Zundapp Junkyard Dog

Oops I Did It Again. A Junkyard Dog Double Feature. (updated w/ video)

1985 Kawasaki 454 LTD Another Junkyard Dog.

The Organic Rat! Honda CM400 Junkyard Dog!

Revenge of a Junkyard Dog! (Suburban Assault Scrambler Finished!)

It’s just a little evil.

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