Battle of the Bolts

Since beginning this season’s strange resurrection of a basket carrying Honda mini-bike, the first question to come forth when explaining our current task is normally ‘What the hell is a Chaly’? Well, everyone remembers the Top Gear Xmas special when three proper presenters decided on a two wheel crossing of Vietnam and as always, failure meant completing the journey aboard the worst kind of alternate transport, in this case it was a stars ‘n’ stripes painted Honda that blasted out ‘Born in the USA’ loud enough to bring deceased Viet Cong back to downtown Hanoi; that is a Chaly.

The only non-factory engine bolt, bent like banana and fought for an hourLet’s be honest, if it was that easy, everyone would want to play ‘resto the old bike’, wise words from the Silver Fox, me old mate Alan. She is a fighter and whilst some fastenings offer easy surrender, like the swing arm bolts (fortunately), others insist on suicide before releasing their grip. Whilst I am starting my excuses early, the biggest issue we have with this CF70C is its 12-volt capacity and the fact that virtually no supplier stocks parts for this model; I can buy a complete machine for a 6 volt but parts for this model are rarer than a hot British summer. Certainly, I didn’t expect to breeze through this rebuild, but my lack of knowledge has come back to bite me in the gonads yet again. At this stage all we can do is breakdown what we have, all the time trying to preserve everything, although we are finding she is a rough old girl. Saying all that, we do enjoy a grotty resto, makes us look so much cleverer when our efforts go on display at the end but that is still months away, so best crack-on.