HONDA C70 CUB
Niall Mackenzie cannibalises one to build another!
There is something special about building a bike up from scratch. It may well be a man thing, but I find turning a bench full of bits into a living, breathing object of beauty is both exciting and satisfying. And having an expert to hold your hand throughout the process is always a good idea, yes I know some of you may moan at me for this, but I’m not as experienced as you, so once again, I gathered up all my C70 bits and headed off to team up with Daryll Young at IDP Moto. Apart from little Daryll being a genius (he also crew-chiefs for my son Tarran in British Supersport) his fully equipped workshop is a dream for me as it has every tool and machine you’d ever need when it comes to bike prep. Handy stuff, like tyre fitting gear, an excellent parts washer and every special tool to come out of a Snap On van live there, making any bike task so much easier. This time he even found me upholstery tools when it came to fitting my new seat cover, which I did. See? I can do a lot of things! As always, the first job is to lay everything out in an orderly manner on his immaculate benches. Every part in its own area – chassis, engine, electrics etc. plus every nut, bolt and washer lined up OCD style in order of type and size. This works so well as, when you begin the build you can instantly see what you have and haven’t got. It’s not rocket science I suppose, but my default method of constantly digging around in boxes as you go along is Daryll’s worst nightmare. Instead of a Haynes manual, this time I brought along another C70 I had acquired 10 years ago for a feature in Two Wheels Only magazine. It worked really well as a reference and, as it turned out, a donor machine for our rebuild. Firstly, to get the frame in an upright position was a simple case of slotting in
the centrestand pin that also locates the rear brake lever. Next up was fitting the swingarm and shocks, normally a straightforward job except the top bushes on my shocks from the far east were 8mm instead of 10mm. No big drama though, as we simply squeezed them out in the vice and replaced them with the original bushes that fortunately were still in good condition. We then packed the head stock cups with grease before carefully placing in the ball bearings and clamping the front-end in place. Another straightforward job we thought, until we found the fine thread on the headstock had been damaged (I’m blaming my son Taylor who was in charge of dismantling). Anyway, we lost an hour cleaning it up with a thread file. While that was being attended to, Daryll washed and fitted both sides of the front suspension mechanism that had to be removed when the forks were being painted. I had to smile as Daryll’s young apprentice Craig Prior (who we all call Clive to wind him up) couldn’t get his head around this ‘weird’ front suspension set up on my C70 – ‘you push down and it goes up’ he said, kids of the 21st century eh? With the headstock eventually locked in place, next to be added were the front and rear wheels with respective brake hubs and shoes. I only wrecked one tube in the process of fitting the tyres to my new rims so immediately robbed one from my old C70, which was beginning to look more and more sparse! With original front brakes shoes still in good nick, I clipped them to my refurbed hub and popped in the front wheel. The rear was even easier as the new wheel came with its own new hub, brake assembly, spacers and spindle: both wheels new – with the associated gubbins – cost just £60 front and £80 rear from the Far East: bargain, really! Unfortunately, the aftermarket hub looks slightly different to the original but they’re not interchangeable so I’ll have to overlook that small detail. Attaching the rear hub stay and brake rod was next, followed by the front brake and speedo cables.
So in just a few hours (including tea breaks, thanks for that single cuppa Bertie) we had the bare bones of a motorbike sitting happily on the bench crying out to be finished. The last job requiring two men was slipping the engine hanger bolts. Within five minutes we had the motor in place and the foot peg bar bolted in place beneath. After seeing things take shape quickly we were all keen to crack on so taking routing cues from our old bike it was the main wiring harness, rectifier, battery and electrics next. With every wire cleaned, checked and freshly wrapped, by some miracle (Daz was confident, I wasn’t) it all went together like a dream. The Honda C70 may be a simple little bike but with the majority of electrics, plus the brake, speedo and throttle cables running up the headstock into the handlebars and cowling, things get rather congested. The up-side is all of the above is neatly tucked away, however, patience and organization is crucial when it comes to making it all fit and operate properly. Still on electrics, my handlebar switchgear cleaned up nicely with Autosol and I’m really pleased with my ebay sourced Honda indicators, head and tail-lights, as they all matched the original items and came correctly colour coded. Back to the build and it was time to pop on the under seat fuel tank, a simple job even for me. Although I say it myself I made a good job of sanding and painting my rusty old seat base, so with the original foam in good shape I made short work of tacking on and clamping down my new seat cover. I sourced this item from the excellent ‘car-trim’ who it seems specialize mainly in car upholstery. I tracked them down on (you’ve guessed it) ebay, and after sending the very helpful Yvonne £32, I received a high-quality cover that fitted perfectly. As a former Honda dealer, Daryll had worked on but never built a C70 before so what was achieved in less than eight hours impressed the hell out of me. Like all professionals he made the job in hand look easy as he logically assembled (with my valuable help) this little machine. Apart from fitting the plastics, which are now ready to be collected from Apex paints, and a few chrome nuts and washers, my bike is complete. One thing though… I have some sad news… the ‘Haynes manual’ C70 was going to be kept by me because me and the boys use it for our own private ‘Cub Challenge’ in the back garden (lap record holder N. Mackenzie) and I was hoping to keep it in decent working order for some time to come. The thing is, this machine is un-killable. I bought it for around £150 all those years ago and we do nothing to it, but every year you switch on the ignition and she starts first kick! Now, sadly, she’s kindly donated so many parts to my current restoration she’s looking like she’s really gone to pieces. Oh well… Now, providing my latest restoration starts, the full road test will be coming your way next time!