A few Fridays ago I went up to visit my friend Kiavash Shariloo at his Subaru shop, TD Garage. Kia had a cool new motorcycle project going on, and I wanted to get pictures of all the disassembled parts before he sends them out to chrome/powdercoat.
What kind of bike is it, and what interested you about it?
Kia: The bike is a 1966 Honda CB160 I found on craigslist. I really like the design of it and I want to turn it into a café racer, because mid 1960’s through early 1970’s bikes are the best ones to start with for a build of that nature. Pretty much any small bike that you can easily modify and take things off to make them go faster, haha.
What about the design attracted you to it specifically?
Kia: There are a few main things that I really like about this bike. The gas tank is my favorite part, it’s painted the same color as the bike but then it has chrome pieces on the sides with rubber pads on them so you can grip the bike with your knees when you’re going really fast. I also like that the engine is an integral part of the frame, so from the front of the bike it doesn’t have a bar that goes in front of the engine. Overall it’s a really simple design, and it’s really easy to make it look cleaner by not having a bar there in the first place. If it did, I’d probably have to cut it out.
So, why is it disassembled?
Kia: I disassembled the motor because it needed a rebuild. So while that’s apart I took everything else apart to clean up the body and get rid of some of the extra stuff that, you know, wouldn’t be needed. Like fenders, exhaust, tucking in the wires, basically anything to make it look cleaner.
After we got done at the shop, we headed down to a giant car meet in Pleasanton. I have no idea who organized it, nor did I see a single flyer for it, but it was gigantic! 400+ cars, and at least a thousand people. Props!
All sorts of cars were in attendance, from vintage cars like Kenny’s Toyota TE70 wagon (first car) all the way up to Lamborghinis, and other high-end exotics.
Meat.
Kia’s new girlfriend Gladys showed up too! Aren’t they cute together?
Check back soon, we’ll be doing a follow up post when the bike is done!
-G
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