In the beginning...

1974 Honda CB200T Rebuild

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog. I will be using this space to document and share my experiences during the process of rebuilding a 1974 Honda CB200T motorcycle. This is my first time tearing a bike down to the frame and rebuilding it, so it should be a lot of fun. The point is not to restore the bike to its original factory condition, but to transform it into a nice little cafe racer. Its been on my to-do list for a while now, so I'm excited to get started!

A Little History

There's really not much to tell about the history of the bike. I purchased it from a woman in Hampton, NH  a few weeks ago. She had rescued it from a barn somewhere and gotten it running again. It was her first bike, and she used it mainly to run around town with it. 

Condition

The bike is in pretty good condition to start with. It has it's share of rust and corrosion, but has good bones. The main areas of concern are the gas tank, the exhaust, and the wheels. 

Aside from the cosmetic condition of the tank, it has some rust in it. Not a huge deal, but something that needs to be taken care of. Since I have not yet had the pleasure of de-rusting the interior of a tank, I wanted to try and find one that was already in good shape that I could get to work with immediately. That would allow me to take my time with the original one, do it right, and just sell it later. I was able to find a beautiful, rust-free tank on eBay for $165.

My plan is to replace the mufflers with a set of up swept megaphones, so the fact that both of the pipes have holes in the bottoms really doesn't matter too much. The difficulty will be adapting a set of universal mufflers to work properly. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a decent set for about $100. 

The wheels aren't bent, which is a good place to start. They do have a good amount of rust and corrosion, and the spokes are pretty well rusted. My plan is to replace the spokes and paint the wheels black, which I think will look pretty good. 

 

The Tear Down

I had my first tear-down session the other night, and things went pretty well. There are a handful of parts that will NOT be going back on the bike, such as the huge turn signals, brake light assembly, side covers, mirrors, passenger pegs, and seat. I'll clean those items up and put them up on eBay so that I can help pay for some of the new parts. If anyone is interested in those items, feel free to contact me. 

Though I have a service manual for the bike, I'll be taking a ton of photos so that I can figure out how to put this thing back together. My main concern is the electrical, even though there isn't much of it. 

I gave most of the bolts a good dousing of PB Blaster, since I just assume that they're all going to give me a hard time. I've been mostly right so far. At this point, I still have a very limited amount of tools at my disposal, but hopefully I will continue to acquire more as the project continues. At this point, I've mainly been using 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm sockets and wrenches. I guess that's one of the nice things about these older bikes. 

The seat and rear fender came off without too much trouble. The battery box and assorted electrical components was slightly more time consuming. 

I was also able to get to working on the front end a bit, but mainly just removing the handlebars. Next time around, I'll be posting my progress on removing the tank, rear shocks, front fender, and controls/cables. Stay tuned!