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The Honda CA95 / Benly 150 Restoration The little brother to the CA160 in our family of Hondas

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  #1  
Unread 07-07-2016, 06:42 AM
rnbrn21 rnbrn21 is offline
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My name is Ron Brown and I have a 63 CA95 that I will someday restore. It's an early model that has been in my family it's whole life. You would think that it would be in great condition with my family it's only owners but sadly that is not the case. Probably 35 years ago my brother it a tree with it and bent the front forks. It took a long time for my father to find parts and the guy he had put it back together gave it a really crappy paint job. I have acquired a few replacement parts over the years getting ready for a restore. The bike currently runs good and my 18 year old son just got his permit and has been riding it with me on my Honda Pacific Coast riding along. I've modernized it a little with the prospects of my son riding it. I've added turn signals and a front brake switch. The front brake switch came from a 73 bike and the turn signals I had to piece together. The turn signal switch was the hardest part. I found a switch that was supposed to be headlight HI/Low/OFF with a two position kill switch and horn. When I received it I realized it was for a smaller diameter handle bar. I gutted the switch and ground it out to fit the bigger bars of the CA95 and refitted the switch components and turned the three position headlight switch into the turn signals and the two position kill switch into the hi/low for the headlight not needing and off position. The switch matches perfectly with the style of the original since it came of a early 70's Honda. The new switch housing and the new front brake lever with switch gave me the added plus of both having mirror mounts. Unfortunately the left was 8mm and the right 10mm. But forcing a 8mm helicoil in the 10mm hole let me mount a 8mm mirror so both mirrors match. It's a fun little bike to run around town on but when 55 to 60 mph is the max speed you don't tend to go very far. It took a while to get permission from the forum, I look forward to following along.
Ron Brown
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Unread 07-09-2016, 06:59 AM
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Smithers Smithers is offline
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Hi Ron, it sure sounds like you have been putting a lot of work into that little bike! When Honda made them I'm sure they put the bare minimum electronics on the thing just to make them street legal. Back in the day there were far fewer drivers, slower vehicles and people weren't in such a hurry. Thus, a 6 volt system was adequate. Now you the brightest signals you can get so people see you.

With all my experience riding classic bikes I have to recommend bright clothing, using hand signals and just trying to stay our of the way of dense traffic. I'm sure you are a safe rider but just be careful out there on the little bike. They are sure slow and are just meant for cruising. I live in an area with a lot of hills and traffic speeds have increased in the last ten years. I still have my little classic bikes but I only roll them out for car shows or for show.

Have fun with it!
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Unread 07-09-2016, 04:48 PM
rnbrn21 rnbrn21 is offline
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We live in a somewhat rural area. We can stay off 55mph roads if we want to. I was amazed at how dim those turn signals were the first time I rode with my son riding the little Honda. When we got home I switched the bulbs from 8 watt to 10 watt which helped a little. I now know why the US has width standards for turn signals which is why the CA95 came to America without turn signals. Those front turn signals mounted on the handle bars get washed out by the headlight. It is a great little bike for my son to learn on, which happens to be the very same bike I learned on. I still like taking it for a ride now and then.
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Unread 07-09-2016, 08:24 PM
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Very good. All the older Hondas are SO easy to ride. They make a perfect tool for learning to ride and work the controls and such.

About the turn signals... when I was about 15 I used to ride around a 1969 CL70 a lot. I would ride all over some ranch property and backroads all over the area. It is actually a street legal scrambler type bike with a manual transmission. The lights worked but not all that well. They horn was pathetic. From my experience building RC cars, the batteries and the motors I knew the importance of contacts wiring resistance. I removed all of the bullet style connectors from the harness and hard wired everything together while making sure the terminals were shiny and the little 6V battery terminals were in top shape. The electrical system worked REALLY well once this was done. The lights were very bright, the signals blinked properly and the horn worked great. I have a feeling that all the older Hondas worked really well when they were new but over time the resistance and performance gets worse and worse, naturally.

Here is my old 1969 Honda CL70. I still have it! It's such a useful little bike on a ranch or around the neighborhood. It has the 4 speed manual which gets a lot more power out of the engine. It does wheelies pretty good even with the larger wheels.
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