Tag Archives: piranha engine

Project 333 Epilogue

Posted on by motopsyco

I apologize that I never came back with the finished pictures of Project 333 but I did finish it along with a few others that I haven’t told you about yet. When I started that project at the beginning of 2020 I had no clue of the craziness that was about to overtake the world in a few months.

Custom 1964 Honda C200

Let me say if you need an engine for a custom project like this I highly recommend the Piranha 140cc engines they’re powerful and reliable. It was very easy to install and wire up. The single biggest issue I had was that I wanted to feed the carburetor from the stock air intake so I had to purchase the correct adapter to orient the carburetor to reach the stock Honda C200 air intake. It wasn’t a perfect fit but it was good.

carburetor location

Here you can see how much I had to move the carb.

Some cheap control switches and a reasonably priced reproduction seat from Ebay worked out great. I just built a complete custom wiring harness and made the whole thing 12 volts dc so that I could run a lithium battery and LED lighting.

A drag pipe was sourced from Beatrice Cycle for a mean and meaty sound!

At the rear I added a hot rod “Model A” taillight.

custom 64 Honda C200

Hot Rod style taillight on 64 Honda Project 333

In the end this build ended up being a ton of fun to ride, and with it’s clean vintage looks really turned heads too. It was a great little neighborhood blaster that accelerated quickly up to it’s maximum speed of 45 mph. Some motorcycles just really do become more than the sum of their parts and this was one of them.

c200 & ct70

Project 333 next to a pure stock CT70 that I finished,

Too bad that the 2020 Barber Small Bore Festival was canceled. I was just going to save it for 2021 but wound up trading it for a 1998 Triumph Adventurer 900. More on that later.

Triumph Adventurer 900

1998 Triumph Adventurer future custom project.

The whole corona virus episode really threw everyone’s plans for everything for a loop. Unlike a lot of people my employment situation did not change, being employed in an essential industry I never missed a single day of work and was never told to work from home. Between that and working on other peoples motorcycles I’ve been busier than ever before.

Motopsyco World HQ

One great blessing is that we finally sold our previous home and moved into a new place that has a much bigger house and shop. So I’m writing my first blog post of 2022 from my new office in Hartsville, S.C. and look forward to the coming year.

Project 333 Honda C200

Posted on by motopsyco

It’s just a little evil.

1964 Honda C200 Junkyard Dog
as found

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.

CB650

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.

Honda c200 ca200

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