Hodaka flat tracker

[admin]

Welcome back Clarence !
See you in Athena

[tvrc18]

I hope the shifter cover does not need any parts because I bet the special parts are not to be found. It seems ok other than the arm the goes into the control shaft spool feels a little loose but not sure how much play they normally have.
Terry

[admin]

Terry I bet they would be stock shifter parts. Should not have any troubles at all.
Paul

[taber hodaka]

The foot change ratchet is different. the four speed has three ratchet notches and the five speed has four. As I remember the ace 100 ratchet cannot be installed in the ace 90 shift cover. Clarence

[Bullfrog]

Gotta be a problem with the count there -- there has to be an indexing notch for each speed (plus a shallow one for neutral).

Ed

[taber hodaka]

I feel it is easier to count ratchet notches than shift notches. The five speed has one ratchet notch that is also a shift notch .
The four speed has three ratchet notches and four shift notches
The five speed has four ratchet notches and five shift notches however the fifth gear notch is also a ratchet notch.
I am only referring to the ace 90 and the ace 100. Clarence

[tvrc18]

Well I finally got some time to work on my new bike and pulled the top end off and stripped it down to paint the frame. I can not believe the rod on this bike. It looks like a butter knife it is so thin. Larry must have shaved off more than half the rod it seems. I can't believe it never snapped in half. I will get a picture of it when I can. I sent the shift cover to George Cone and he said the round part the covers the mag was cut out and a light weight piece of thin aluminum welded back in. That Larry Powell must have been a good welder because I did not notice that. The piston has 4 big windows in it and the port work looks amazing. The cylinder still has cross hatching in it but it seemed low on compression. The single dykes ring seemed to be stuck a little because I think he used Blendzoil in it. Has a sticker on the aircleaner for Blendzoil racing castor. Well off to order some parts from Paul if I can figure out what size the piston is for a new ring.
Terry

[tvrc18]

I need to find some reed petals for the bike and not sure what reed it has. I don't think it is a GEM because they usually say GEM on the cage I think. Any one have any suggestions on what to use for replacements? I know it has a 93 head and I think the cylinder is a 93 so that should help narrorw it down. The bottom reeds are not closing all the way you can see a gap on them. Do you have to cut to fit or does Paul maybe have some?
Terry

[bchappy]

It would help if you could post a picture of the reed and maybe someone can identify it. (click on "Full Editor" to post a photo.)

[tvrc18]

I freshened up the bike and almost done. Need to mount the pipe and double check all fasteners etc. but it came out pretty good. The seat did not come out like I would like but I did the best I could. The foam was total dust and the cover is torn in a few places so I glued a couple of pieces of foam together and did what I could with the flip up on the rear. I rebuilt the motor with new seals and gaskets and sent the shift cover to George Cone for rebuild, painted the frame and rebuilt the forks. I also rebuilt the Amal and added new shift springs. I may need a new control shaft and ball receiver as I can not seem to get the adjustment as good as I would like but I will probably not start it anyway. The control shaft wants to bind when you get to first gear and it may be bent or have a bad spot. I seem to have to help the control shaft with a finger to go to second gear sometimes. All the other gears seem fine shifting up or down. I hate to buy a $50 battery to ride it once or twice and then let it sit for a garage queen. I mainly bought it to save from the scrap pile or being parted out. I hate that for bikes.
Terry

[tvrc18]

Last picture of the finished product. I need to thank Paul for all his help on parts, more than once I made an online order and then thought of something else I needed and Paul would make sure to ship the extra pieces. He even sent one part at no charge. Now that is service at its best.

[admin]

Very nice looking Bike !!! Beautiful. Larry would be proud.
Thanks for sharing the photo
Paul

[oldmxracer]

Awesome touch leaving that "patina" on the tank. SWEET.

[tvrc18]

I thought about having the tank painted but were would you get those old school Hodaka stickers and it needed some patina. I started to not even paint the frame but some one had done some touch up paint work and it looked bad. It is one of my favorite bikes just to look at because to me it looks fast just sitting there. I sure would have liked to met Larry Powell because he did some nice work and the attention to detail was really obvious. The crankshaft and the port work and the pipe are just works of art by someone who had a great knowledge of 2 strokes. I just had to save it from being parted out. I wish I could have bought the other one also to save it.
Terry

[Thunderdogdownunder]

Great bike you picked up there ,would be good to here it run or see it on a track somewhere.
Im sure it would be a big hit at the annual hodaka days event

[tvrc18]

Anyone in the Fresno Calif. area going to Hodaka days? I am trying to figure a way to get the 2nd Larry Powell bike and someone mentioned they might know some one from the Fresno area that could get it to HD. If that works out anyone from Dallas area going and have room to bring it back? I would kick in gas money for the effort. Just a long shot, never hurts to ask.
Terry

[hodakamax]

It's a dreary cold gray day in Kansas and I was reading some posts from the past on the Forum before I joined August 28, 2014. It brought back old memories of early Hodaka racing. The one featured here probably started like mine and many others as our first Ace 90. The first thing I looked at was the welded wiring loop on the fork head which branded the frame as a 90. It was mentioned that it might be a Super Rat because it had a four bolt intake but it was just how they all evolved from stock Ace 90 to the state of the "Racer of the day."

Parts were changed out as they came from the factory and as bulletins and advice poured from Pabatco and their distributors to the dealers. Parts stamped 91 were new stuff for 90s. Heads, needle bearing rods (90s had a bushing upper end),R pistons, straight cut primaries along with mainshaft and countershaft needle bearing were availible. The big one was a close-ratio 5-speed which we really needed. 20mm carbs changed to 32mm Amals and reed valves arrived. Everybody built home-made pipes from bulletins and formulas. It was the great technology race to beat the competition.

Max, Clarence, Larry and Bill along with many others had the same platform. They were formidable machines in their day often gobbling up 175s and even some 250s. They were a motorcycle that the competition didn't like to see unloading.

Here's a shot of my original Ace 90 that evolved into the "Racer of the Day". All that stuff and more, some secret of course.

OK my ranting is over for the day but it did remind me of the good times.

Max

PS--This needed to come to the top--interesting reading and discussion! (Too bad I missed it the first time.)

[ossa95d]

Max,
I wish we had all taken photos of our bikes back in the day. My first real race bike was an ACE 90 set up for short track. It was a real budget racer that I built myself with my own meager resources. I spent a lot of laps in the back of the pack, but a local Kawasaki dealer must have seen something he liked because he gave me a G31m Centurian Baby Green Streak to ride and that thing shredded the competition! If I knew then what I know now, and had the resources, I think I could have built a much more competitive Hodaka! Ah the memories, those were the days! Loved every minute of it! Thanks!

[dirty_rat]

From what I remember of the Kawasaki G31m Centurian Baby Green Streak, on a flat track or short track, there wasn't much that could beat them (ashamed to say, not even the Hodaka's). But, on anything but a smooth track, they didn't handle worth a darn and they were so pipey that it was impossible to stay on the pipe. That is where the Hodaka's always shined.

[2Brothersvmxracing]

Hi Terry,
This is Terry from 2Brothers VMX Racing. I bought a few years ago some literature and books that came out of Larry Powell's shop. Here is a instruction sheet about modifying the Ace 100 for flat track. It has Larry's stamp on it with his address and under the picture ( which looks to be your bike), "Larry Powell's Prototype Hodaka". If you send me your address I will make a copy and send it to you. It would be a nice to have with the bike, if you want.

[hodakamax]

There was another bike of this era that I should mention. We raced out of Parsons Kansas in the 60s but only 40 miles away there was another Hodaka dealer. It was called (I think) Bob's Lawnmower Service or maybe Shop. We didn't cross paths often. He and his son, also Bob Milke, and rider campaigned most of Kansas racing for points where we raced more in SE Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. They earned and carried the #1 plate for their organization. The Milkes left no stone unturned when it came to performance. They tried everything. Multiple carburetors is one thing that comes to mind. The day of reckoning happened one fateful day when the Milkes showed up at our local short track. We just had to beat them. Bob jumped into the lead at the beginning of the heat race but I seemed to have a little power on him and finally passed him on the back straight. As I hit the front straight the bike jumped out of gear and was all neutrals. The clip on the end of the control rod had come off. (I have NEVER seen that happen before or since.)

My teammates bike was down on power that evening so we quickly rolled mine into the pits, laid it on its side and fixed the problem. We then changed the number plates and sent my teammate Tom Treadway out to finish the business of beating #1 in Kansas. Win he did and we were all elated and cheering. I didn't get to beat him but my bike did. Credit to the Milkes though, they might of just had a bad night. What a machine.

Well, another great racing story of the day at least for me. It was a time of great fun and excitement that I miss but I still have a good supply of stories!

Max

[tvrc18]

Hey Terry that would be so cool to have, I appreciate you doing that for me.
Terry Smith
137 Leda DR
Dallas TX 75218

[tvrc18]

Hey Max what kind of seat is that on your bike? I like the look of it.
Terry

[hodakamax]

Terry, I fabricated the seat from aluminum sheet and took it to the local upholstery shop. It weighs near nothing. Decades later I took it to the same shop for restoration.

Max

[socalhodaka]

Here is an Awsome flat tracker from the west coast dirt track FB page. The rider said it is a factory racer. We had some conversation about that and he insists. I will leave it at that, but I do know from the photo he can let it all hang out.