'65 CB160 "Ghost" Update

Dialed in and rode der Geist home today. 16 miles. Flawless. Too many thumbs up, shakas, call outs, and other ride acknowledgements to count. Had one group of young ladies (college age?) tell me, "That's hot!" as I sat idling at a red light.

I felt like my left hand was only sometimes on the bars responding to the fan base acolades.

I also picked up a "time period" helmet. Now I look like a lollipop-head riding along; or the robot from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - you make the call. :LOL:

So much fun riding a vintage Honda twin. 🏍️❤️

Screenshot 2026-06-13 at 20.32.35.png
 
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

Yesterday was a perfect day to be out and about on a bike (~70F and sunny), so I went for an extended ride. Less then a mile from home on the return trip old Ghost started making excessive noise. I of course pulled off and started looking the old gal over, and... found that the front right exhaust was nearly detached; nuts and washers nowhere to be found.

Upon further investigation I also found that the interior mounting stud was completely stripped mainly due to the PO's hack-job attempt to address an earlier issue.

Now I'm not a trained and certified machinist - but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn and Suites - so I drilled, tapped, and Helicoil'ed the offending stud hole, and then fabricated and installed a new (albeit 8x1.25) SS stud from a Lowe's Hardware 40mm SS bolt.

All back together again, Ghost is resting-up post surgery and looking forward to the next outing. Having just addressed her derrière, however, I'm hopeful that the next outing won't include a cycle-hip or -shoulder replacement...

Vintage cycles are a constant labor of love, aren't they? That is all. :rolleyes::LOL:

Exhausted.png
 
Not that I know if it makes any difference, the factory setup and as described by the parts manual is there are no washers under the exhaust flange nuts
 
Tony Clifton said:
Not that I know if it makes any difference, the factory setup and as described by the parts manual is there are no washers under the exhaust flange nuts
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I'm seeing them in the CB160 fiche on CMSNL and it certainly seems prudent to use them given what happened.

1365.png

Interestingly, 14 is shown as the spring washer and 13 is shown as the nut. <JOKE> That would certainly explain how they ended up on the side of the road. </JOKE>
 
stl360+450 said:
I'm seeing them in the CB160 fiche on CMSNL and it certainly seems prudent to use them given what happened.

Interestingly, 14 is shown as the spring washer and 13 is shown as the nut. <JOKE> That would certainly explain how they ended up on the side of the road. </JOKE>
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You beat me to it!
 
stl360+450 said:
I'm seeing them in the CB160 fiche on CMSNL and it certainly seems prudent to use them given what happened.

View attachment 58919

Interestingly, 14 is shown as the spring washer and 13 is shown as the nut. <JOKE> That would certainly explain how they ended up on the side of the road. </JOKE>
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Correct you are. I was looking at the CL160 fiche, apparently "offroad" bikes don't need no stinkin' washers
 
Sorry folks, I appear to be cross contaminating posts. The CB350G thread was - I thought - being posted against that thread... 🤷‍♂️
 
stl360+450 said:
Been there, done that. 👍

It occurred to me after I asked that one nut on each header would probably be enough for that one mile ride. (Assuming you had tools to move one to the other header.)
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Solid call! It would've got me home, 4sure. In the end I've added a couple nuts (6 and 8) to my onboard "bag of tricks".

However, with all of the extras in that little sack someone might go and call me Hermione Granger. I think if I looked long enough I may have a spare cycle in there tucked away in some library cubby...
 
I seem to be filtering down through the various potential issues when bringing a vintage twin back to 'street ready'.

In today's edition: Front tire blow-out

Riding yesterday I heard a definitive *pop* followed by the front end of the biking destabilizing rapidly as I fought for control whilst decelerating as fast as possible. Coming to a complete stop - with a redlining heart rate - I hopped off the bike and discovered that the tire liner was partially laying out of the tire, which was completely deflated.

I went from full-up tires that I'd checked when grabbing gas earlier in the ride to a blown-out, deflated in less than a second at nearly 40 mph, front tire. No bene...

New tires are ordered - and new undershorts as well. 😬

View attachment BlownTire.jpeg
 
I'm glad that you were able to stop safely, that would be scary for sure.

Is there any indication of the cause? Tire pressure? Are any of the spokes protruding very far? Did the rim strip have any holes?
 
stl360+450 said:
I'm glad that you were able to stop safely, that would be scary for sure.

Is there any indication of the cause? Tire pressure? Are any of the spokes protruding very far? Did the rim strip have any holes?
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Front tire pressure was just a bit low - only a few lbs psi - when I'd filled up earlier. I corrected that then and verified the rear pressure. Nothing on the tire's exterior tells the tale.

Tue I'll load her up and take her to the shop to remove both rims for our local cycle shop. I prefer them to re-shoe, spoke check, and balance. Hopefully I can track down the cause then.
 
Update: The PO - or whoever did the tire work - didn't follow protocol for the rim tape thereby causing that to slip and punctures to occur; which is why the tire needed to be pumped up a bit (2 - 4 lbs) after sitting for more than a week.

However, those spoke holes WERE NOT the cause of the failure but instead likely contributing factors.

According to the cycle shop that just re-shod the Ghost, it would appear that the previous installation saw a portion of the inner-tube 'PINCHED' leading to a catastrophic failure of the tube (aka a 'blowout'). He was surprised to hear that I didn't lay the bike down at 40 mph given how quickly it destabilized. Just lucky I suppose...
 
Picked up the re-shod tires and... ran into this issue when starting to clean the rims and interior of the brake box prior to attempting to reinstall the rear tire:

IMG_6692.jpeg

I took it back to CycleGear and they told me that they neither dropped the tire nor did they cause the situation in any way; disavowing all knowledge or ownership of the problem altogether.

Oddly enough, It wasn't in that state when dropped off but it was in that state when collected after the tire and tube had been installed.

Question: Has anyone run into the before and, if so, is there a fix other than trying to either pull it or realign in with a rubber mallet? Further... if you've been down this path, was there lingering damage due to the misalignment?

A follow-on question... How could this happen? I assumed it was accidentally dropped, but now? Now I'm wondering if someone tried to drop it onto an alignment machine and the center stand torqued it accordingly?

Thoughts/Insights?

To say that I'm "less than pleased" might be the understatement of the week. :mad:
 
73Goblin said:
Update: The PO - or whoever did the tire work - didn't follow protocol for the rim tape thereby causing that to slip and punctures to occur; which is why the tire needed to be pumped up a bit (2 - 4 lbs) after sitting for more than a week.

However, those spoke holes WERE NOT the cause of the failure but instead likely contributing factors.

According to the cycle shop that just re-shod the Ghost, it would appear that the previous installation saw a portion of the inner-tube 'PINCHED' leading to a catastrophic failure of the tube (aka a 'blowout'). He was surprised to hear that I didn't lay the bike down at 40 mph given how quickly it destabilized. Just lucky I suppose...
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A pinched tube also means the tire bead wasn't evenly seated. Easy to do when tire is really flat and bike is rolled around then aired up with bike's weight on it. Best to air up an empty tire when on center stand and little, or no, weight on tire. Plus, spin and check bead seat before going full pressure.
Glad you survived the road flat, good handling skills paid off.
 
73Goblin said:
Picked up the re-shod tires and... ran into this issue when starting to clean the rims and interior of the brake box prior to attempting to reinstall the rear tire:

View attachment 59244

I took it back to CycleGear and they told me that they neither dropped the tire nor did they cause the situation in any way; disavowing all knowledge or ownership of the problem altogether.

Oddly enough, It wasn't in that state when dropped off but it was in that state when collected after the tire and tube had been installed.

Question: Has anyone run into the before and, if so, is there a fix other than trying to either pull it or realign in with a rubber mallet? Further... if you've been down this path, was there lingering damage due to the misalignment?

A follow-on question... How could this happen? I assumed it was accidentally dropped, but now? Now I'm wondering if someone tried to drop it onto an alignment machine and the center stand torqued it accordingly?

Thoughts/Insights?

To say that I'm "less than pleased" might be the understatement of the week. :mad:
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Honestly, they did you a favor.

Wheel bearings of unknown provenance are just a problem
Waiting to happen, and getting the first side off is the hardest part of the process.

The bearings themselves are super cheap relative to the function.

A one time misalignment like that isn’t going to cause any real damage. Particularly since it was never under load. You could just mallet it back in place and continue on - I’d take it as a sign from the universe that they were due for a change.
 
EzPete said:
Honestly, they did you a favor.

Wheel bearings of unknown provenance are just a problem
Waiting to happen, and getting the first side off is the hardest part of the process.

The bearings themselves are super cheap relative to the function.

A one time misalignment like that isn’t going to cause any real damage. Particularly since it was never under load. You could just mallet it back in place and continue on - I’d take it as a sign from the universe that they were due for a change.
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Thx sir! I love both the insight and the upbeat response. I'll absolutely follow your advice and "...take it as a sign from the universe that they were due for a change."

That said, I'm off to order a new bearing.
 
Good deal. Just to give you a point of reference. When I removed the wheel on my orange 160, that bearing straight up fell out. Really possible that yours did that just loading into the car.
 
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