HONDA C70 CUB
Niall Mackenzie is almost on the final furlong with this.
I’ve only ever had enjoyable experiences with my restorations, but I’ve become quite envious of Mr James Whitham of Huddersfield lately. His most recent projects have been competition-based machines, which are far less complicated having much fewer parts than any of my road-going machines. His list of restorations includes a Yamaha TY 80 trials bike, a Yamaha TZ250 S that he did for CMM and the 250 MBA, currently on his bench. They are all beautiful and seemingly restored to their former glory in no time at all. And we know why as they feature basic electrics (normally just an ignition system and a kill switch) and the least amount of components necessary to make these bikes perform as efficiently as possible, makes them very straightforward to assemble: one day Niall Mac, one day… But let’s get back to my C70 and I’m almost at the end of my hunter-gatherer phase and nearly ready to bolt things together. My trusty pals at CJ Ward in Burton have returned my many powdercoated frame and chassis parts – now looking pristine in the same grey of my original 1967 C90. I definitely have more boxes than normal but handlebar housings and cowls plus chain guards are just a few of the extras only found on the old step thru. The only blip along the way was after shot blasting – they found the rear mudguard area was slightly corroded and porous, so needed some minor brazing. Otherwise everything was rock solid and is looking as good as new. As mentioned in my last piece, pretty much everything for these little bikes is available on ebay but please don’t forget suppliers like Wemoto as they have a substantial selection of aftermarket parts, and (as I found out too late on one occasion) are sometimes the cheapest out there. That said, grey shocks seem to be elusive so I’m trawling the Internet on a daily basis. The only other part I’m short of is the little front parking light with red ‘70’ decal, and I’m particularly gutted as I spotted one on the Bay a few weeks ago, hesitated with the ‘buy it now’ button and now it’s gone. I was thinking I needed to
The parts puzzle all seems to be coming together for Spuds’ Honda C70 as it goes from orange to grey!
invest in a brand-new seat but on closer inspection the base and foam of the original are in good nick so a good rub down, primer and paint with a new cover will work equally as well. My first attempt at upholstering last year was with a 1970s Raleigh Chopper saddle and it went reasonably well, so I’ll be searching for another Youtube tutorial to help me along again. Digressing for a moment, the Chopper was a revenge resto as my parents banned me from having one back in the day! Their reasoning was a close friend’s son had landed in A&E with a broken nose and testicle injury when he shot forward onto the protruding gear lever during an incident involving a Ford Anglia. I was given a Raleigh Olympus racer instead but never stopped lusting after the Chop! Although it was of no real benefit as it has long since run out, the Devonshire pensioner I acquired my C70 from kindly Mot’d my bike before collection. His efforts weren’t completely in vain as he fitted Michelin M45s for the test. They’re still sporting all the hairy bits new tyres have so I’m well chuffed. And these have to be the best boots I’ve ever seen on a chicken chaser as they look more like a wet weather race tyre! And it turns out, still having my old Two Wheels Only magazine C70 around (we bought it for a feature a while back about field bikes) has come in pretty handy. I’d been struggling to source the chrome strips underneath the headlight and at the back of the leg guards but never thought to check the old bike. Although still a runner, pretty much everything else is knackered except the said chrome strips: result! At the same time I realised my old bike will come in as a very handy reference when we start rebuilding. Good old Halfords Wonder Wheels (a great J Whitham tip) has brought my wee carb up an absolute treat and Solvol Autosol combined with an hour of elbow grease has minted up my crankcases. While we’re talking products, LC Kev (Schofield) pointed me in the direction of B&Q heat resistant BBQ paint for my 350 LC barrels so I’ve just used the remainder on my C70 cylinder, I just love it when I find reusable stuff lurking on the bench! The final piece of the parts puzzle was sorting out my plastic front mudguard and side panels. I’ve just dropped them off with Kez at Apex Paints in Derby who reckons he’ll easily be able to heat treat/ repair and paint. My bike came with a brand-new leg guard which I also left so he can colour match with the beige side covers. He reckons it’ll all be finished and back to me by the end of the month. Perfect timing, as I’m confident by then we’ll be well into the rebuild and ready for these last few items. My total haul of new stuff including wheels, indicators, front and rear lights front footrest rubbers, gaskets, footrest rubbers is less than £200 so to date, I’m still the right side of £700 including the £350 I paid for the bike. As always I’ll schmooze Craig and Daryll at IDP Moto down at Silverstone to help me with the rebuild, so I reckon after my outlay on painting plus the last few parts, at the very outside I should hopefully own a bonnie 1975 C70 costing me less than £850. Some may say that’s not cheap but looking at the current selling prices of some of very average C50s, 70s and 90s mine appears to be a reasonable investment. What’s the betting I will have a gleaming Honda icon on my bench next time? I’ll make it happen!