Anyone Care to Top Stevers Boneheaded Move?
 

Hi Everyone:
You might remember I lucked into a pile of CB160 parts on craigslist, enough to build several bikes, and building bikes is what I've been doing. I finished my first CB160 last Spring and I figure I am a couple months away from finishing my second. Lately I've begun to feel like quite the craftsman when I consider the ease with which this second bike is coming together compared to the first. My Friends, Pride comes before a fall.
I made a point with my second bike to paint or polish every part before assembly. I painted the engine cases before assembly to avoid getting paint on the gaskets and so on. The past few weeks I have been working on the wheels. I started by finding a pair of nice rims, ordering a set of chrome spokes from overseas, and cleaning, sanding and polishing the hubs. I did a good enough job on truing these wheels that I decided when I have time I am going to go back and redo the rims on the first bike. I installed the rear wheel and tire on the bike a week ago and I've spent the past couple days getting the front assembly ready. Today was supposed to be the big day. The day bike number two would be standing on it's own two wheels. I got the wheel into position and picked up the speedo drive to place it on the hub and at that point I discovered I had put the front wheel together using a Scrambler hub. 160 Scrambler hubs have no provision for a speedo drive.....
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This doesn't sound so bad at all. So, you either have a spare Scrambler wheel now, or you have more wheel lacing practice than you did earlier. Do you have a CB160 hub?

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Funny this subject came up today. I was thinking about posting something similar after last night in the shop.

I have to put this up front though. I don't make mistakes...I am the mistake so that covers every thing I do wrong.

Last night while installing a new chain on one of my bikes, the clip for the master link disappeared into thin air. I literally readied it seconds before I reached for it. We have probably all experienced this type of thing and said stuff to our selves like I did..."I know i put right there on the bench". I looked everywhere for it everywhere for a long time as I didn't have another one. Finally gave up and will get a new one today.

How about dropping a small part, you hear it hit the floor but when you go to look for it, it can't be found. Funny thing is I will find other small parts that I dropped and couldn't find at the time for some earlier project.

The scariest thing I did was when I didn't secure the cap properly on the carburetor on my Maico 400 dirt bike several years ago after rebuilding the top end. I took off in the field in back of my house, the cap came loose and the bike stood straight up and it took off with the engine wide open. So I was hanging on to the handle bars with my feet off the pegs and my face against the tank. I couldn't reach the kill switch. I was holding on for dear life. The small river at the end of our property stopped us. My friends enjoyed it.

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Thanks! Now I feel better.
I am riding a couple times a week and on these rides I practice skills that are covered in the book BTL mentioned. Very Good Book. Grubsie, I have given up even looking for parts when I drop them, I just go get another one. Searching gets me nowhere.
Yes I do have a very crusty hub, I have a feeling all I am going to wind up doing is ruining a couple gallons of white vinegar though.
Spokes, you still into cars? I've got a 59 Buick Convert and a 50 Hudson Coupe and some others.

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I am wrong, Scramblers do have speedos. So now I don't know what this hub is off of.

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I have a cb160 brake plate installed and it is undersized. Here is a pic along side of the correct cb160 hub and plate.

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Stever's back on track and one Great Honda Shop
 

Hi Friends Thank you for your help with my front wheel assembly. As was suggested, de-lacing and re-lacing was good practice. I think the rim spins truer this time around.
I picked through my small pile of hubs and found a pretty good looking one, with proper speedo drive and brake plate clearance. I cleaned it up and polished it and started lacing it up. I had most of the inner spokes in their hub holes when I noticed I was starting to run out a little too soon. "What the heck? I've misplaced two spokes. I must of set them somewhere. Hmmm, they're not on the floor, I'm not sitting on them, ... what the heck?
I can't say how long I sat there scratching my head before it dawned on me that maybe I should count the number of spoke holes on that hub. But when I did, I learned Honda made a 40 spoke hub that is the same size as the 36 spoke hub. :o
On my third try I knew to check for proper brake plate clearance, correct speedo drive, and to be sure to count the freakin' spoke holes. I found a hub and of course it was the most oxidized rattiest, with seized bearing example I had. Because of the seized bearings, and because I enjoy looking at shiny new motorcycles I took it to Taylor Honda where the guys greeted me by name, cheerfully pressed out my seized bearings, bead blasted the inner drum, and sold me a set of new bearings for a total of 22 dollars, all while I waited.
Hopefully, in sharing my goofy mistakes with all of you, I can be of help to somebody embarking on a similiar project.Attachment 1098

Hey Steve we all do it...
On a recent 350 twin rebuild I couldn't get the engine to fire..spark gas timing correct usual stuff. Top end came off 4 times. I literally was going to quit bikes.... during the last mounting of the engine I saw the yellow and blue wires were reversed on the coils. I had spark but at the bottom of the stroke....10 seconds later a well running bike...

Best news from you tho is you Have a 50 Hudson! I'm here only due to a particular 53 that my dad met my mother in. Later in life we had several Hudsons together including a very nice Commodore 8 Club Coupe. Hudson people are great too!

At age 7, painting my purple stingray metailic green and realizing afterwards that color made the metalflake purple banana seat look really terrible.
At age 16, doing my first valve job on a neighbor's 65 Buick Skylark aluminum head V8 and having to do the job twice becuase I didn't have the heads milled.
At age 19, installing a 350 crate motor in my brother's '73 Chevy pickup, but not getting the pressure plate inspection cover installed properly and having to call a roving mechanic to find out why my brother's newly installed motor had this constant ticking sound.
At age 26, changing oil on my '83 Nissan Sentra, but forgetting to reinstall the drain plug; 4 quarts of engine oil on the floor.
At age 35, rejetting my '67 Chevy Caprice QuadraJet carb, but losing a sliver of the carb body fuel-inlet line threads into my main jet and coming back about 3 hours after reattaching my fuel line to all 8 cylinders feeding fuel to a pair of mufflers that were dripping a very large puddle of gasoline on my garage floor.
At age 47, rebuilding my '74 Honda MT250 (owned since I was 16 y/o) and not replacing the crank seals.
At age 52, buying a 1960 Benly and thinking I could restore it easly to original running condition for something less than $2,000.
To be continued...

I am glad to know I am not the only one who goes through these learning experiences.