HONDA CB160

Past Memories

HONDA CB160

My ownership of the Honda CB160 started and finished on a bad note.

I purchased the machine new in 1964, it looked very sleek with it's dark blue paintwork, chrome sided pet­rol tank and chunk of alloy engine. I carefully ran the en­gine in over 1000 miles, feeling very pleased with the Honda when disaster struck.

One evening I was riding the CB with my girlfriend on the pillion. It was dark, we were travelling along a country road at 60mph, when suddenly a large dog ran from the left-hand side of the road. I swung over to the right to avoid it but the dog ran the same way. The bike hit the dog and we were thrown into the air.

I did several somersaults up the road and was amazed to find when I stopped that I was unhurt. My girlfriend was ly­ing unconscious in the road with blood running down her face. After I stopped a motorist, we moved her to the nearest house, phoning for an am­bulance. Whilst waiting for the ambulance the residents of the house were a great com­fort. They made remarks like perhaps she has a fractured skull or perhaps she has in­ternal haemorrhage. Fortun­ately, her helmet had saved her, she only had concussion, cuts and a broken collar bone. She was out of hospital the next day.

The Honda had gone up in the air, landing upside down smashing the tank, seat, handlebars, headlight, etcetera. Two months later I collected the bike from the dealer, fully repaired and was back onthe road. The CB160 was powered by a twin cylinder four stroke, OHC motor fed by twin carbs. The engine was inclined forward and held in a tubular spine frame with no down tubes, the headstock well braced, the whole structure quite strong thanks to use of the engine as a stressed member.

The gearbox only having four gears really would have benefited from an additional overdrive type gear, as the engine worked hard in top gear. The gearbox also had a common Honda feature of false neutrals - quite often you'd change down through the box for a bend, hurtling into it in a false neutral. Ex­citing stuff!

HONDA CB160

The engine was fairly smooth, although some tingling vib­ration was felt at high revs, which may have caused the regular bulb failures. Apart from this the bike proved reliable over six years of ownership.

Oil changes, though, were done every 600 miles as, if I remember correctly, the sump only held about two pints. The Honda used to deliver high performance mile after mile without any oil leaks - which was a marvel to me after owning British bikes.

The Honda's front TLS brake and rear SLS were excellent and trouble free, again a nice surprise after British brakes. Naturally, 12V electrics were fitted and a, then rare, electricstarter turned over the motor. In my opinion these early Honda twins were built to a much higher quality than later ones.

I had the cylinder head gas flowed. Then I removed the exhaust baffles, fitting bigger carb jets and bellmouths. The engine had sounded like a sewing machine with the baffles in, anyway. The CB160 would then do approximately 85mph on the flat and fuel consumption was 65mpg. Initially, handling was poor with plenty of back end wal­lowing when cornering. How­ever, after fitting Girling shock absorbers and changing the front fork oil to a thicker grade the handling became very good. Anyway I was able to stay with my mate's old 650 Triumph on twisty roads.

After covering 24000 miles I thought, being used to British bikes, that I should have the engine decarbonised and checked. I was recommended by a 'friend' to have the work done by a long established local British bike dealer, who had the bike for about three weeks. When I collected it they claimed they'd renewed some parts in the camchain tensioner mechanism.

HONDA CB160

The en­gine seemed noisier than be­fore. Three weeks later the big-ends went. When I com­plained to the dealer about this he came up with a plausible sounding explanation that overhauling the top end of the engine had stressed the bottomend. I was naive enough to accept this and, like a fool, asked him to overhaul the bottom end.

HONDA CB160

I collected the Honda a few weeks later. It sounded better but wouldn't rev as freely as before - 1 put this down to the engine being tight after the re­build.

I didn't do much riding at this time, so it was a year later before I covered a 1000 miles. One night I was riding the Honda when the death rattle came back. I was forced to sell the Honda for a nominal sum to a chap who was prepared to rebuild the motor.

I later found out through friends in the trade that the British dealers concerned had never overhauled an Honda before and hadn't a clue what they were doing - because they hadn't the decency to admit this I ended up paying for their mistakes.

Back in the mid sixties, the Honda was way ahead in en­gineering and reliability, it made things like Bantams and Tiger Cubs look like sick jokes and could keep up with much bigger British bikes. Nowadays, the CB160, stood alongside one of the newer Hondas, evokes a feeling of robustness and quality that's reflected in the purity of its engineering design.

I still think that the CB160 was a good bike although the engine may have been more complex than its British rivals. I am sure that had the mec­hanics known what they were doing and rebuilt the engine properly, the little Honda would have given good ser­vice for several more years.