Need help and am looking for some input from all you fellow motorcycle nuts.
I have this 1964 Honda Benly 150
Crazy thing is I have had this bike for 20 years. I got it when I was about 13 and my dad let me tinker with it and get it running (from what I can barely remember) but he never pushed me to do anything serious with it cause hes a Harley guy and then I also ended up buying a Beat C10 GMC like a year later (you can see the bumper in the picture, still got that too) and getting more involved with that so it just sat.
Well it sat in the corner of his shop neglected for 20 years.
I was up visiting this summer and said the heck with it I'm dragging that back with me.
This whole time my plan was a full resto. blow the thing apart, redo everything. Not even bother trying to get it running first just blow the whole thing apart and start cleaning, painting and re-chroming
Now I'm second guessing that plan.
I picked up a miss matched tank to replace the swiss cheese original one. stuck it there for looks. And this Hodge Podge of an old bike is growing on me.
Part of me badly wants to just throw gas and a battery at it as well as some cheap nobby tires and Ride it
I would get the biggest kick out of parking this ratted out Honda next to some trailer queen Harley on main street Daytona during bike week.
I do realize that I can do both. I can have my cake and eat it too. I can rock it as is for a while and then when I am tired of it blow it apart it clean it up.
But I know me and projects (and I already have a million of them) and its harder, for me at least, to blow apart a runner then it is a non-runner. If it moves on its own then for me its hard to "go backwards" in a sense.
What do you guys think I should do? get it running or start gutting?
Get it up and running. I have always preferred unrestored, original bikes. You can always do a full restoration once the bike decides to stop being a runner. Chris C
Determine if it will run first. Then once it's running you can then decide whether to do full restore or a rat restore. Either choice the bike aint going to be worth, a fraction, of what you have into it; however with a rat restore you can at least enjoy putting around on it without fear of damage to restored surfaces.
Me, I'd pop it on craigs list and see what it's worth to someone as is. The parts may be worth more than the whole bike!
Thanks for the input so far. It was kinda the idea before I picked it back up.
I figure just get it running and do field /yard bike stuff with it . My oldest is almost 8 and wanted to teach him the feel of a hand clutch and get him broke in on something small.
But then I found a Honda forum looking for answers and saw some all done perfect and it all started to snow ball a little
These things are worth between 3k to 3500 done perfect and even with the little amount of chrome this thing has i know I would surpass that no problem.
Maybe in a few years he will want to blow it apart and go nuts on it. Or we can pick at it little by little.
But for now an unrestored original I think is the way to go. Just clean it best I can and enjoy it.
All add some pictures, I took some compound to parts of it and they paint isn't half bad under all that dust
So pumped. I had found a factory key for it on eBay. I guess it was very common for dealers to not deliver the bikes with all four keys and would sell you your key back if you lost it. Well now you can take the lock number and guys sell all the old factory stamped keys on eBay.
It came in and I knew it was right becuase it worked the fork lock. Well the original key was broke off In the ignition switch and I managed to take it apart down the the tumblers , get the chunk out and get it back together and it all works.
Agreed. I did a "rescue from a bucket and turn into a light cafe" conversion on a 78 KZ400.
Before you drop a bunch of money into "perfection", get it running and run it for a while. I think you will find that a $3500 Uly will kind of ruin you for that bike in every area except maybe novelty and memory.
So I wouldn't put too much into a restore. You may not be riding it much.
And as others have stated, origional survivor condition is far desirable over a bad restore. And you can't afford a good restore...
Squids what year Sprint? I may be in line for that if you are serious.
Reepicheep, I agree I would sooo rather put 3500 into a uly or a nice old tuber, not that this bike isn't really cool, and I do like it, but value for money I wouldn't pay that for it. And really the Buells are more my passion then old Honda's
My dad is a full blown, no screw left un rechromed resto guy and he has a couple immaculate cars to prove it. I think that's why I was thinking of going that direction. with it.
But I like to ride my stuff and ride it hard. I can't do that with something perfect. I keep my stuff in good shape and try not to beat up on my self to bad when something gets nicked or scratched but I need to be able to use it.
I am really liking the cleaned up survivor idea and you guys are all probably right that that actually brings more money later cause like they say, its only original once.
I started taking some simple 3M rubbing compound to some spots after I got the switch figured out and holy cr@p it can still hold a shine.
I take some more pictures of it. kinda impressive.
Tq_freak Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2016 So pumped. I had found a factory key for it on eBay. I guess it was very common for dealers to not deliver the bikes with all four keys and would sell you your key back if you lost it
Actually, keys could be ordered by a dealer, according to lock number and the key was precut. Most if not all Honda dealers, back then '60s/'70s, here in socal would have genuine Honda keys in stock. There were not that many different lock sets, so stocking a couple of keys for each set was not unheard of. On the down side of that availability, many a Honda motorbike were stolen. Mainly, from school parking lots.
Its kind of silly how the lock number is stamped on the outside or visible side of the lock. I can see how if someone routinely parks the same bike in the same parking lot how someone would just go to a dealer and get a key for it
Squids- what a good looking ST, it looks awesome in that green.
A friend of mine had the next body style newer. outstanding bike and the sound of that triple with a micron pipe was incredible.
Vern did the paint- his paint guy had to use a code from the '70's, and when we got the can, it said "British Racing Green Jaguar".
Had a spell o' stupid a week or so ago, and scratched a bit of the left lower fairing, grrrr!!! Should buff out, gotta go see Vern I guess. I prefer the body style of mine to the next gen bikes- too much "Manga/origami" for me, plus an underseat exhaust aint the best way to go.
And yeah, the triple with a good pipe is nuttin but ear candy. Mine's stock now, but still sounds great.