The Hodaka Club Forum

Hi Everyone

Its been many years since I`ve been active in the Hodaka World, but I`m finally getting around to restoring some of my collection, after a few false starts over the years.
I`m member #130 and currently own 2 93A SR`s, a 94 Wombat and a 96 DS, my current focus is on the Wombat.
I will be asking a lot of questions and probably posting rambling on messages, like this one.
I was recently able to get the Wombat licensed and plated here in SoCal, after sourcing out some missing parts from Terry and Bruce. Heck, I even got the rough old girl running long enough to ride it around the neighborhood a couple of times, before she blew the head gasket.
My plan is too restore it as a mostly correct looking classic bike, with a few upgrades to make it a little more reliable and streetable.

Upgrades I`m considering are:
Reed Valve and necessary porting
Larger carb
Electronic Ignition
12v conversion and Led lighting

Some questions I have concerning some different avenues and techniques for parts restoration:
Where most of the original nuts and bolts and things like brake stays and assorted hardware Zinc Plated ?
There is a lot of chrome parts on these bikes and that`s pretty easy to figure out, but not sure if the kick start and shift levers were actually just Zinc Plated ?
I know some prefer ball burnish vs vapor blast on certain parts like cases, hubs, levers etc. Does one method retain its new look longer ?
Are the spokes SS ?
Are the nipples zinc plated ?

Hopefully I haven`t already wore out my welcome with my first post.

Thanks in Advance
Bill

That will never happen here. I'm in the middle of "The Summer of M94 Wombat Love". As mentioned in other threads, I spent a week with it in MN deer trailing/fire roading in June and its my current daily rider. Mine is bone stock. Its the perfect marriage of formand function. The induction mods you listed are well described as are their performance benefits. Yes, there are times when a bit more grunt is nice, as are the times when it would be nice to throw a little screamin' and reamin' down on some of the straighter fire road sections. If that is your vision for the scoot, perfect. As an aside, I had an absolute blast operating the stock Wombat as delivered and through some fairly rugged and challenging terrain needing nothing in the performance department. 50 MPH on a fire road is fast enough for me. If streetability is primary objective, the induction mods become more desirable. I finally got to try a seat-to-seat comparison between the M94 and 03 Wombats. Actually, there is no comparison. The 03 (which is in a sense what you are building engine-wise) was superior in every way. Ya just can't go wrong.

I'd say spokes & nipples zinc plated. I stripped these in dilute hydro chloric acid, polished and bright nickel plated them.

I'm confident some of MY Ace 100 fasteners were chrome plated. Most of those I replaced with stainless & buffed to look like chrome.

My Ace Kickstarter & shift lever are definitely chrome. That said, I've stripped a kick start lever on my Suzuki, polished it & replated with bright nickel & polished it after.

Front & rear brake stays were Zinc plated.

Hope this helps.

The 03 Wombat uses a 2mm bigger carb and a reed valve, along with porting upgrades over the Model 94 that makes it smoother and stronger. An 03 cylinder, carb and reed intake are direct bolt on's BUT you would need an 03 pipe. The 03 piston will not work.

A GEM reed setup with some mild porting can give you comparable performance and is an easy upgrade.

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate the feedback.
I do have a Gem reed setup that I can use and possibly a larger carb stashed away.
I hope to start my disassembly over the coming weekend, so I`m sure there will be many more questions to follow.

Just curious how many active members we have out here in southern california ? Many years ago 10-14 probably I traded some parts with a guy name Earl (Hodaka Earl) I think his last name was Burrows ?