Honda-SOHC

I’ve been hiding from the salt for the last few weeks, however it rained on Saturday and dried up again on Sunday. We too are decorating, and realised yesterday that we needed fine sanding paper, we only had the chunky stuff.

The trading estate where B&Q is can be a nightmare to get in and out of at the weekend, so it would be daft not to go on a bike. The Harley was nearest the garage door, I wheeled it out and saw the hanging wire from the unfinished indicator repair I’d forgotten all about. Next up was the CL450, despite not being on a trickle charger all winter, there is no drain from an alarm or anything so hi tech, and with a bit of coaxing it burst into life!

My first ride of 2023, it put a smile on my face as I nipped through the Sunday traffic. 

That looks very sweet for the money, you can pay that for a barn find, especially one that runs.

The exhaust condition is super important, you’ll never find a new one (unless you are James H). It also has the hard to get bits that had mostly disappeared from my bike such as the correct  horn and tank badges, plus an original seat cover, although the foam is tired as they usually are. The front mudguard is a little battered, you might not find another but it could be put right if it bothered you enough.

I hope someone bought it to use, however it wouldn’t be surprising if it turned up again for sale, cleaned and marked up in price.

Edit: I just noticed it has the (optional I think) bash plate under the sump, mine hasn’t and I’ve never found one, despite it being on my eBay saved search list.

Do yourself a favour, go and check your fuel pipes are holding up OK without cracking, lest your bike stops or combusts.

It's only a couple of years since I got my CL450 barn find project back on the road, so I was shocked to find out how badly one of the (then) new fuel pipes had rotted and cracked when it failed yesterday. Despite having only a fleeting sense of smell since I had Covid last year, I suddenly smelled petrol, and looked down to see this:



I limped home on 1.5 cylinders (luckily I wasn't far away) and replaced the pipes to both carbs as I had some left over from doing the Z1A.

As with any barn find, the original fuel pipes had turned to stone, but were useful as patterns to cut new pipes to the right length. I had used new (allegedly) nitrile fuel pipe bought from eBay, if my purchase records go back that far I'll find the details. The bike hasn't been left in the sun for any significant time, and I assume that if the ethanol in modern petrol is doing damage it would be from the inside, and that wouldn't explain the cracking on the outside that you can see in the photo.

Somewhere on my bucket list for years, we took the Sportster, which I just keep as a holiday bike these days, to the outer Hebrides, because, why not? I'm not getting any younger so I have to do it while I can. We rode up to Oban, then its a 4 hour ferry to Barra, the most southerly island. We then worked our way up to the most Northerly island, Lewis & Harris, and came back to Ullapool from Stowaway.

Stunningly beautiful, and pretty deserted even in season, the weather alternated between gorgeous and dire, which the locals tell me is par for the course. I'm not keen on riding in strong winds, though the weight of the Harley becomes a plus. My weather app kept promising 3 days of windsocks, though our landlady declared it 'just a breeze' as the sea wasn't hitting her windows. As we left she said 'It's shifted to westerly now, that's not what you want' Thanks for that! When we arrived at our hotel in Stornaway, having braved sideways rain and that Westerly, I was ready for a large whiskey, after telling us that it was too early to serve alcohol, the barman gave us a free one anyway!

Back in Ulapool I rode off the ferry and nearly fell off, I knew straight away I had a rear puncture! The AA washed their hands of us, after nearly 40 years a member and 430 miles from home, (I knew I'd forgotten something, it was to re-tax my bike!) but when we went for a walk into town on the beach, the only person we met, Craig, had a mate with a bike shop, and gave us his number. Malcolm, a proper biker from BRC in Muir of Ord, which was on our way back to Inverness. He borrowed a van and came and picked us up, unexpectedly he had a 500x16 inner tube for an HD (offset valve), his wife took us to a cafe while he fixed the flat. He said he has plenty of work, but gets a kick out of saving bikers' holidays - hundereds come each year to do the North Coast 500, some not so well prepared. The nail he gave me was very old and rusty, the wife wondered if I should get the bike a tetanus shot.

A bunch of views, in no particular order.







Sheep take over a croft - the history of the highland clearances is awful, crofters were treated as mere slaves by landowners who bought Islands as playthings. On Uist the new owner, Lord Gordon, demanded all the tenants come to a mandatory meeting in Lochboisdale, from where they were bundled onto a ship to Newfoundland, Canada! When they got there there was nothing, they just had the clothes they stood up in.

Eriskey, where the SS Politician ran aground with 20,000 cases of best malt whiskey, inspiring the film Whiskey Galore.

Barra Airport, the world's only tidal airport with a daily service to Glasgow.

View from a petrol station (rare) on Harris.



Malc's bike shop, where we got rescued.

Regarding Laverdas, an old friend once bought an ex George Fogarty (Carl’s dad) 500cc F2 TT bike, in Castrol colours, from Sports Motorcycles. I went with him in a van to get it, and helped him bump start in his works yard. It had chipped cams ,we didn’t have a clue how to get new ones, and he sold it on. He now has an ex Mert Lawill Harley XR750 flat tracker which I’ve also helped start and also covet, so some things never change.

Well we’re in Dumbarton, and the weather is glorious!
We had a couple of pints sat in the sun at the Counting House, then a Staroprama at the ‘Spoons. The bus driver coming back was a bit unsure of where we were trying to get to, but let us ride for free, great as my bus pass doesn’t work in Scotland. Petrol prices are horrific but at least the Sportster does 50mpg.

We have realised that the dark skies in the Hebrides will be a bit of a washout because this far North it doesn’t get that dark in June, when we went to Iceland in the summer we never saw it go dark, people were wearing sunglasses at Midnight! 

The bike is behaving itself, tomorrow morning we’re off to Oban for the ferry to Barra. No pictures till we get back, I can’t host then until I get back to my PC.

A quick update, On Sunday, after our ride I ordered a set of Pyramid fork seals from xanadu-eight on the bay of fleas. I stressed the urgency, they were posted first thing Monday and arrived Tuesday.



The seal, and dust seal above were well shot, and had split halfway up. The biggest bugbear I've always had with that bike was that it was assembled dry, a few cents worth of assembly lube would make such a difference 17 years down the line. The fork yoke screws (steel into alloy) are the same, never been out, exposed to the elements where the yoke is 'split' and they were so not moving that there was every risk of breaking them or buggering up the torx heads. Not too bad if you have weeks, not an option when you have 3 days, so it had to be done with the fork tubes in place, making it harder.

I'm doing the other seal when I get back, too much of a coward to try doing both to such a tight deadline in case I screw one up, but I'm taking the spare seal to the Hebrides with me. We had a test ride yesterday, and a test pack today, we set off after the cats are safely in prison tomorrow. Saturday night we will be finding out how the Scots do the Jubilee by visiting the Wetherspoons in Dumbarton for a bijou dining experience. What could possibly go wrong?

Do you apply gasket sealant to the big end-bearing joint faces? The ones that house 2, 3 and 4 main bearings?

No they should be dry and clean, that's all. My CB750 crank was completely ruined by a previous owner painting the cases all over, including behind the shells. The tolerances are very fine, after painting they were zero or less, ruining the crank and shells.