I had a lot of Ducati singles before I switched to my first little Honda twin. I enjoyed riding the Ducks (and was sponsored by Fred Mork on a very nice 350 for a season), but I grew to loathe some of the design "features" that often kept my bikes from running for any appreciable length of time. My friend Henry Deaton had been roadracing a sloper CB175 (all future references to 175s are about the CB160-style sloper, not the late 1969 (1970 model year) vertical cylinder 175) with AFM, and I found myself intrigued by the styling and construction. Horizontally split crankcases, real electrics, and no bevel gears - you could even get parts from your friendly local dealer! It didn't hurt that I already had a 750 Laverda twin, which looked a lot like a Super Hawk, heavy on the steroids/pasta.

After discussing the potential of the engine with Craig Hanson, my favorite race-tuning maven, I bought a 175 rolling chassis with engine from Henry (this was about 1986). As the 175 was not terribly effective against full 250s, we decided that we would shoot for building two identical engines that would be competitive in the vintage 250GP class. Henry had Craig modify a 160 chassis for his pumped up motor, and I built a frame to house mine.

My Honda 216cc road racer on the frame jig This is the second frame I designed and built. It is a Seeley MKIV style frame for my 216cc (175cc based) Honda 250 GP vintage racer. 16K jpeg file

When I got my engine assembled and into Henry's modified frame I rushed down to the AMA/AHRMA national at Laguna Seca. I was pleased with the performance of the very roughly tuned engine.

My engine received a long evening of tuning on Craig's dyno after the Laguna Seca race. I can not stress too heavily how important dyno tuning is to a race project. When it was first run on the dyno my engine put out the grand amount of 12 bhp at the rear wheel. An evening of dyno tuning which included changes only to jetting, timing, and velocity stack length bumped the horsepower up to just over 20 bhp @ 12,000 rpm. Power was still increasing, but we didn't run any higher on the dyno, although I later used an occasional redline of 13,000 on the track. I might have been able to get half of that increase on my own, but since many of the changes resulted in increases of one-half to one horsepower I would have never realized the full amount. Dyno time is the cheapest horsepower you will ever buy! My Honda is competitive with most 250 singles. In fact, the next year at Laguna Seca (the first AMA national using the extended track) I spent the whole race dicing with (and beating) a 250 Bultaco, which should be one of the faster 250s around.

The Honda 216cc road racer at Laguna Seca This picture was taken at the 216's first race at a Laguna Seca national. I didn't have the fairing mounted at that race. 90K jpeg file

My Honda 216cc road racer with fairing This picture was taken at Sears Point. 54K jpeg file

I've written up a little tuning manual for the 160/175 bikes (about 20 typewritten pages), documenting the things we found out while developing my bike and Henry's. It covers both engines and chassis. This is available from me for $20 including postage. I've sent out about 10 copies so far, and haven't had anyone calling up telling me that they didn't think it was worth the price. This is not a "Euro Spares" publication (at least at this time - maybe I'll spiff it up with a real cover, some pictures, etc at a later date when I have tons of time on my hands) , so payment needs to come to me directly in U.S. funds. Drop me a line if you are interested in a copy. I'm planning on getting the CR216 back together for the 08/97 AHRMA national at Sears Point, so there is likely to be some additional info in the tuning manual by then (or shortly thereafter).

If you've got a trick 160/175 I'd like to hear about it or get a picture to add to the web site (but it has to be TRICK!).