I saw it straight away, hidden under sacks of whatever builders keep in sacks. A red and rust Honda CB175. Ten seconds later the bike was uncovered. N reg, holes in the silencers, holes in the once chrome mudguards and copious amounts of rust everywhere. Much to my surprise the motor turned over on the kickstart.
I swapped a £10 socket set for the Honda. The next night I arrived to take the Honda home, armed with anorak, goggles taken from the grinder at work, a borrowed open face lid and a charged battery. It took me half a sweaty hour to start the Honda, even then it spluttered rather than ran cleanly. Perhaps all those holes in the silencers didn't help.
I spluttered off into the freezing gloom. Slipping on the goggles revealed that while the lenses were fine in daylight, in the dark they just showed loads of rainbows when I looked at oncoming headlights. The anorak let in the cold wind and I began to wonder if my gloveless hands could survive.
The bike only did 25mph flat out and I began to fear that I was being followed by the cops, both bike and rider making a fairly obvious target for bored police. But I managed to arrive home unmolested after a mere 17 miles and 2 hours. Standing in my living room, a frozen heap, the bike looked even worse than I had thought.
I set about dealing with the cosmetics first. Isopon and black paint for the mudguards, then paint the frame. While these were drying I changed the engine oil (or sludge to be more accurate), fitted new plugs, cleaned out the oil filter and discovered that the contact breakers were burnt out and the advance unit seized. The exhausts were removed and the silencers thrown over next doors wall. I had to Helicoil and fit new exhaust studs to the head (Helicoils and studs were free from work).
After visiting the local Honda dealer I found that for the cost of new silencers, points and clutch cable I could buy another bike. At work, I set the apprentice to cleaning up the down pipes, freed the advance unit and drilled and tapped the points back plate to take the points from a Transit van (only 50 pence).
My work bench is made from round tube, the cross tubes just happened to match up with the down pipes. I took a hacksaw to the bench and soon had a couple of silencers drilled for mounting brackets and baffles Araldited in position. One week later the bike had passed its first MOT in five years.
While a 13 year old CB175 may not be everyone's cup of tea, I get great pleasure from riding around on the Honda. The OHC vertical twin engine revs to 10000rpm and 80mph, but still averages around 70mpg running to work and back. It has always started first kick since I've had it for the past three years. The only failure has been the flasher unit, I didn't bother to find out the price from Honda but used one from a friend's Audi he had going spare.
The TLS front brake is quite good, the handling is death defying and it doesn't wallow like the CD175. When the chain became worn I took three links out and it's still usable. It only leaks and uses a tiny amount of oil. I use the bike for commuting to work most days and have ridden two up all over the country, it's happy to cruise at 60mph.
Total money spent on the bike so far has been less than £15. Pretty good value for money, eh?
William Gould