Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 In the late 1960's my Dad brought home a Honda 50 motorcycle.

I really didn't want to be THAT nice!

It was a C110, not a Super Cub, it was the scrambler version. It was also a real motorcycle. Hand clutch, four speed foot shift, tank between the knees, motorcycle. It might have been small and low powered, but it was an actual motorcycle. That was important. 

It also set me on the path that I followed for the next twenty years. Motorcycles became my main focus and the focus of my motoring enthusiasm.  

I never owned a car during my high school years. I had access to one of my Dad's cars whenever I needed it, but I rode my motorcycle to school every day. 

That 50 was a lot of fun for a 7th. grader. My Dad would take us, ( my older brother and I ) with the 50 crammed into the back of the '64 Tempest wagon, to a big, abandoned parking lot where my brother and I learned to ride, and spent many hours doing laps around the lot. Eventually we lost interest, and the bike sat in a shed for years afterwards. Eventually I got my learner's permit, and I even rode it to high school once as a sophomore, but really only once. It was kind of an embarrassment, and it's lack of power and unsuitability was really apparent. I ended up buying a larger motorcycle of my own several months later.

That was what set the template, and it was what young motorcycle enthusiasts did. We'd start out with whatever was available or we could afford, and then trade up to bigger machines as the means became available.

There was no point sticking with a small under powered bike and trying to "soup it up"  to go faster. It just didn't make sense. The entire bike was designed around the engine. It was small, lightweight, and would have been unsuitable for traveling at speeds higher than it was built for. Besides it was just too cramped, as I had grown, and didn't like looking like a circus bear riding a tricycle!

My first step up was to a Honda CB160, only 110ccs larger, which was three times as large, but it made a huge difference in real world performance. The 160 was rated at 16.5 hp. which made it Calif. freeway legal. The operative word is legal, not ideal. Still, it could cruise at 60 mph. and hit a top speed of 70+ mph. No suited for Interstate highway touring but it was enough for county highways and back roads, and it could handle a short freeway hop to tie together my off freeway excursions. Even more importantly, it could climb the Oakland/ East Bay foothills. It was capable enough to give me some real exploring capabilities, and was my first taste of open road freedom. 

Not to say that I didn't play around with that 160. I did some bodywork after I damaged it trying to do some off roading. I bobbed the front and rear fenders, ( The rear smashed after a failed attempt at hill climbing) and had my first success (?) with a spray bomb paint job. I  also replaced the worn seat upholstery. High performance tuning consisted of removing the air filters and adding a set of shorty mufflers. The original mufflers were rusting out at the tips and mounting brackets. The shorty mufflers were cheap and loud, what more could a teen age kid want? 

More power and speed of course.

During his junior year my brother bought himself a used (every bike we bought was used in those days) Kawasaki Mach Three triple. This was one of the first of the Japanese Superbikes of the late 70's. It was as quick as the new Honda 750cc four cylinder. Magazine tests recorded quarter mile ETs in the high 12 second range, 12.77. That  is seriously fast, even Today! Good thing that my folks didn't read those magazines. 

My brother had been riding a '65 305cc Honda Superhawk, 28 hp. and a top speed of between 95-100 mph. This was a real motorcycle, much bigger and heavier than my 160, and monstrous compared to the old 50. Performance was almost equivalent to the Triumph 500cc twins. This is what killed off the British bike market, equivalent performance from smaller, cheaper, more reliable, and oil tight machines.  All with electric starting!

The fruits of my efforts. I rode this quite a bit.
All the way to the Coast Highway!

I bought the 305 from him and my plan was to build it up as a chopper which I ultimately did. That was accomplished in the Summer between Sophomore and Junior year. By the end of Junior year I'd traded up to a Kawasaki/ Meguro 650 twin. 

By the beginning of my Senior year I moved up to a Kawasaki Mach One of my own. While this was usually considered to be a short haul dragster, it was well suited to long distance traveling. Which I did. This was the machine that I started long distance touring with. Fuel economy was not too good, but with a light throttle hand it could return 30 mpg. on the freeway.

I would ride to a destination like Sacramento, turn around and drive back home. It was all about day trips, lot's of times I would leave early in the morning and return well into the night. I really spread my wings with this bike, I rode up the coast all the way to Mendocino, I rode down to Paso Robles, I finally made it up to Lake Tahoe. My crowning achievement was participating in, and finishing, the first California 1000 road rally. It was quite the adventure for a high school senior. I cut school with my Mom's permission, for the Friday night start in Los Angeles. That was an all nighter, after the rally I spent my first night at a motel by myself away from home. I got called on the carpet by the Dean of Boys on Monday back at school. I was honest with him, I told him that my Mom knew all about it, and as I had told her, this was the opportunity of a lifetime, I might never get a chance to do this again. He respected my honesty and I didn't even get into any trouble!

An action shot taken on the MacArthur freeway in my Senior year. 
I rode this bike EVERYWHERE!

I ended my last year of high school with the Kawasaki. I had begun to really want a Harley Davidson, but that wouldn't be for a few more years. I'd gone all the way from a Super Cub to a Super Bike. 

No hopping up, just trading up.

It made sense to me.