The Beginnings of a Super Rat

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Makotosun
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The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by Makotosun »

At Hodaka Days 2017, I took 2 bikes along, and came home with 5. Long story, but one was a fairly complete, though a bit long-in-the-tooth '72 Super Rat. The Carb was off, the pipe was badly modified, the tank rusty and the seat just a pair of mounts. Other than that, not a bad deal, and it came with a clean Idaho Title (now a Washington Title) and a box of parts.
IMG_2401.JPG
The story is the fellow my friend got the bike from had it as a kid in about 1975. He and his brother rode the smack out of it, and at some point it needed repair and either they couldn't afford it or couldn't figure out how, but it was parked (ran when parked) in his garage/shop since 1975 in the state you see it.

My son also came home with a Combat Wombat project, which we tackled first, but I will detail later, but it relates to this build as well. The Combat needed a pipe, and they tend to be a bit rare. My son located a fellow in Tacoma with a "lot" or a bunch of Hodaka parts including a bunch of tanks, pipes and three rollers. A trip to Tacoma, a lowball offer accepted, and now I am starting to resemble Bruce at Hodaka Parts in Idaho! The key items we needed (seat and pipe) were in the mix. and the price for the lot was about what I was looking to pay for just those two parts!

Included in the new lot was a set of late model Super Rat wheels in nice shape (18"/21") and a variety of tanks in various states of disrepair. 5 bins of frame and motor parts, so we should be able to build most of this bike out of inventory! It is not going to be a restore at this point, more of a custom rider for the Bad Rock and maybe some vintage racing.

Well - as luck would have it, my son was a bit bored, so he plowed around and cleaned the carb and installed it, and added a nasty chamber from something that sorta fit. Slide on a good tank from one of our other bikes and we have a rat to test and see if the motor can be made to fire.
IMG_0024.JPG
A bunch of kicking, starting fluid and oil in the cylinder to see if we can get anything out of the old girl. Discovered it needs the kick start retainer replaced. (add to the list)

Long story short, we got it to light off, and actually, it sounds pretty good. At least we know it has no odd noises and the tranny seems OK. An order to Paul for the upgraded shifter tonight and we are about to go spelunking into the case!
"If you can't fix it with a hammer, then it's an electrical problem"
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."
"You can tell a professional by the lack of wrinkles in his duct tape . . ."
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Makotosun
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Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by Makotosun »

A little video for those of you who do better with that . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT79M3fLogk
"If you can't fix it with a hammer, then it's an electrical problem"
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."
"You can tell a professional by the lack of wrinkles in his duct tape . . ."
matt glascock
Posts: 2520
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:20 pm

Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by matt glascock »

OOh...this is going to be fun!!
matt glascock
Posts: 2520
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:20 pm

Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by matt glascock »

Hmm. No vid.
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Makotosun
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Location: Longview, WA
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Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by Makotosun »

matt glascock wrote:Hmm. No vid.
Trying to get the site to allow embedding . . .


href="http://youtu.be/oT79M3fLogk">youtu.be/oT79M3fLogk
"If you can't fix it with a hammer, then it's an electrical problem"
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."
"You can tell a professional by the lack of wrinkles in his duct tape . . ."
matt glascock
Posts: 2520
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:20 pm

Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by matt glascock »

Excellent. I also found the vid on youtube. Isn't it awesome to hear that baby fire up after all those years? That's always my favorite scene.
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Makotosun
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Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by Makotosun »

It sure is! I added a new tab on the editor so folks can embed video easily now. There is also a How To pinned to the top. Eventually we will have a whole slew of that type of stuff in a separate section.
"If you can't fix it with a hammer, then it's an electrical problem"
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."
"You can tell a professional by the lack of wrinkles in his duct tape . . ."
matt glascock
Posts: 2520
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:20 pm

Re: The Beginnings of a Super Rat

Post by matt glascock »

Excellent!! That will be a terrific addition to the forum. When it comes to explaining a procedure or sharing the experience of a bike being fired up for the first time after being forgotten for 40-odd years, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video can be worth millions. Thanks for all you do to make this forum the great resource that it is!
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