The Hodaka Club Forum

Made a ton of upgrades to my ongoing trials bike project thanks to Greg and Diane. One big upgrade is a new CDI ignition with flywheel Danny Messmore made for it combining Hodaka and Kawasaki parts, photos of that unit later.

Now a CDI with a flywheel is something I would like for my trials bike. Maybe even my CW trail rider. Looking forward to more info on this.

Hello, Richard and Hodaka World, FYI; the Penton Products LLC, has new units that will fit Hodaka,s both Lighting typoe < Powerdynamo ign systems > and non lighting Units, known as PVL, They are working closely with Hodaka World to develop units for all models. More info about this will out shortly, These will be ready to go bolt on units, to take the place of the stock ign., and lighting systems, for info see,
Pentonracingproducts.com or call 1--440-989--4474, This will help us all, would like to see this product info put into the next Resonator, along with the unit Danny Messmore has developed. Lots of interest here. Bruce Young

Kelly, looks good to me! I look forward to seeing it a HD this year. I took the Hodaka foot pegs off and put on modern KX65 or YZ foot pegs. They are shorter and much wider. For me they are much more comfortable to stand on, but I am old and have tender feet.
Jack K

Kelly I spoke with Preston yesterday. I wanted to let everyone know what he said about your Trials skills.
He told me that he had recently seen you at a Trials event on your Hodaka. He said you were the only Hodaka there??
He also told me how well you did on your new trials bike. He was very pleased and very proud of you!! He told me that you rode like a pro.
Great job kiddo.......

Wow, that's so cool to hear Paul. Preston is a special person and to hear that is so great. I was riding the beginner line, but it was the first real test of the bike. I will move up next time. I also had some good coaching from this guy who drove a long way to see me. Danny Messmore and me. Also thanks again to Greg and Diane for all the help with the bike.

What did you use for a fuel tank - I like it!

LBM

socalhodaka wrote:Made a ton of upgrades to my ongoing trials bike project thanks to Greg and Diane. One big upgrade is a new CDI ignition with flywheel Danny Messmore made for it combining Hodaka and Kawasaki parts, photos of that unit later.

image.jpeg

The tank, pipe and airbax are all one off hand made by Hayden Campbell. I bought the bike in mid stream as Hayden decided to get out of the project.
You see the pipe side of the tank is higher for the pipe to fit.

Cool Kelly! Not many stock items left. Looks fun, thanks for the post.

Max

Greetings kelly

I see that the bottom frame rails are removed. Do you notice any flex in the frame or does the bolted on skid plate compensate for the removed pieces? It's a neat idea that should give you a couple of extra inches of ground clearance and take off a few pounds. It's a win win solution!

Removing the cylinder fins is something I've not seen before. Is this for weight saving and not needed for trials riding with less load on the engine?

Excellent craftsmanship-----nicely thought out-----very clean and tidy.

I am beginning to get ideas for my next project.

Thanks

Tom

Flat side pipe is kind of interesting - is it flat on both sides or curved on the inside. Also kind of curious if you or the builder has compared low speed/torque performance with a stock pipe?

Good looking forward thinking bike!

LBM



quote="socalhodaka"]The tank, pipe and airbax are all one off hand made by Hayden Campbell. I bought the bike in mid stream as Hayden decided to get out of the project.
You see the pipe side of the tank is higher for the pipe to fit.[/quote]

I first saw photos of this bike many years ago (before Kelly purchased it). I was mightily impressed . . . but hadn't noticed the asymmetric tank till it was mentioned in this thread. Again, I am impressed! A fine example of "form follows function" - I love it!

I even communicated with Hayden about the fin removals. He was certain that the relatively gentle power demands would not cause over-heating -- and added that he thought having the larger gaps between fins would help prevent mud clogging at a muddy event. At the time, I was considering converting my Bullfrog to piston port power . . . so I removed every other fin from an iron Wombat cylinder (which actually saved some real weight!). I have to admit that I'm a bit worried that the iron cylinder minus half its fins might get a bit warmish at a summer trial with 90-100 degree ambient temp. But . . . the cylinder is still sitting on the shelf awaiting it's turn to go out and play. Gotta get around to that someday. (Soooo many fun things to try, so little time!)

Ed

Just for lack of anything to do I'll comment on fin removal. It looks like it would only let larger clunks of mud in easier. In the case of the iron cylinder you probably did remove a significant amount of weight. (Just messin' with you!)

Maxie

PS--since a major amount of cooling comes through the carb maybe we should jet up a notch. That's all I can think up for now.

But there would be space for a big stick to poke the mud out. (and yes, I worry that the iron cylinder with only half the fins may not be a good plan.) But heck, it seems(seemed?) like a fun thing to play with!
Ed

Bullfrog wrote: But there would be space for a big stick to poke the mud out.
Ed

Funny Ed I can't think of anything to top that but give me a few minutes.

Maxie

It's all about the COOL factor. Not sure it would help in cooling. But it is a trials bike, run it slow for a couple of min then turn it off for 15 min.
I have seen the fins shaved, grooved, tapered, made longer, heat sinks added and of course drilled (like mine) I'm still not sure it helps much with the cooling considering the work involved. But it does make each bike look different and that is what is all about. I remember the Ace90's, they all looked the same but if you changed the grips your bike looked cooler than you buddy's. The Cool factor.
Jack K

Very nice trials bike. I do have one concern though. Here in the Northeast, we have lots of rocks and high logs in our trials. I would be afraid that the pipe is very vulnerable to damage. Compare it to the pipe on my Spyder Ace 100.

Jack, you've hit the nail on the head. I'm totally guilty myself on The Cool Factor. The Hodaka has always been the perfect subject being that everyone in the day started with identical motorcycles and mine had to be different. Kelly's bike is definitely cool!

Guilty!

Max

Good point Rick. In trying to make the Day One project "Cool" I think I created a clearance problem. I'm thinking of a cool extended guard to protect the pipe. My old motorcycle group does have a saying "Better to be cool than to be practical" (which I try to adhere to!)

Rick, I've always thought that your bike was cool.

Be cool,

Maxie

Back in the early 1970's (when CZ's were considered the hot MXer's) my brother cut off every other fin on his reed valved Model 93 Super Rat (similar to what the factory CZ's had). He raced it with the cut fins for a couple of seasons here in Florida and never had a heat related problem. Did it help any...I doubt it, but it did look COOL for a couple of teenagers back then.