A friend gave me a junked-out 1972 Honda Z50 frame and engine for helping him build up his 1978 Z50. The tank was full of holes on the bottom, but there was something about the faded gold that caught my interest. As with a number of builds around he
Custom aluminum body work includes the front fairing, front fender, side covers, rear inner fender, seat assembly, and belly pan, all formed from .090 aluminum sheet, and the chain guard and oil cooler cover made from .050 sheet. The handle bars are
A set of Koni rear shocks and a modified Honda XR80 swingarm makes for enough room to mount the 10” Honda CRF50 wheels and a set of Heidenau K78 tires.
In order to use the early model tripletree clamp with its shorter steering tube, a special nut was turned that recesses in the clamp. Custom aluminum clamping knobs keep it all tight together. Much of the hardware is safety-wired. An SL70 headlight
There are a number of Takegawa parts on the bike. There is a Special Clutch, 125cc bore kit with +R Superhead, oil cooler, kick starter, kickstand, and fork dampers. The oil vapor catch can behind the right side cover is Kitaco, as is the ignition
The 1960’s Honda CB77 rearset controls took some extra fabrication on the frame to mount them, but they blend in with the bike once they are. The right side brake pedal cable means chain tightening/loosening can be done without the usual adjustment
The front fender and mount subtley perform several duties. Aside from holding the fender in place, the mount act as a fork brace and mounting points for the external fork dampers. There are tabs on the lower mount to keep it from rotating.
Most of the body parts are designed for quick and easy removal. The belly pan is held in place by a single screw and a quarter-turn fastener. The front fairing uses a couple quarter turns, and the side covers use one each. The kickstand is also held
The quarter-turn fasteners that secure the front fairing can be seen below the handlebars, along with some rubber tethers and hooks. Some discrete turn signals are below the fairing.
From underneath, some of the frame mods can be seen. There is an extension of the frame below the motor mounts to hold the lower rearset mounting bolt. The rear of the frame was modified to accept a 1990’s style Z50R rear seat loop. The loop was use
On the XR80 swingarm, the lower mounts were modified with rubber mounts to accept yoke-style shocks.
The tank thumbscrew can be seen under the strap.
Some brass inserts were soldered into the tank to mount the side badges. The petcock is from a Ducati. A Mikuni VM26 carburetor can be seen peeking out below the tank.
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The rearset footpeg and brake were both in the way of the kickstarter. Easy enough to fold up the footpeg, but in order to get the brake pedal out of the way, a cam was welded to the edge of the footpeg that pushes the brake arm down. Whenever the f
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Some of the ugliness on the lower tank. Don’t know why, most every time I see one of these tanks from the 1972-1978 Z50’s, it seems to have some holes. New mounting brackets were made for the front and back of the tank, utilizing the stock rubber pa
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