I picked up a Ruby Red, silver tag CT70, vin CT70-113XXX. I'm not sure what year or model. The guy I got it from said it was his FIL's bike. The kids from next door jumped the fence and smashed the speedo, headlight and the headlight/speedo bucket. Other than that, the bike looks complete. Needs the seat recovered, tires, tubes, air filter and a general clean up. The throttle cable is broken off in the carb slide and I need to get a key for the ign, so I can check for spark. Great site full of info. Thanks.
Picked up a silver tag CT70
- Thread starter von
- Start date
If it's a silver tag, then it was manufactured in 1969 and the model is K0. Honda didn't declare official model years until the feds required it, in 1975.
Take a close look at the seat pan. If it's an original ST, the toolkit holder is retained by 3 M6 hex nuts. If it's welded, someone swapped a later seat for the original. These early seat pans are rare and fragile, so look closely for small cracks. They'll need to be welded. Otherwise, they'll rapidly spread until the rear section of the pan nearly breaks-off and sags onto the tail light bracket. Pan repair is a bit of an art but, not rocket science.
The speedo may be repairable. New HL shells can still be had, OEM are $45 plus shipping. Cables can be repaired however, new reproductions are available for the K0 and in complete sets, if desired...minty-new, plug & play.
Take a close look at the seat pan. If it's an original ST, the toolkit holder is retained by 3 M6 hex nuts. If it's welded, someone swapped a later seat for the original. These early seat pans are rare and fragile, so look closely for small cracks. They'll need to be welded. Otherwise, they'll rapidly spread until the rear section of the pan nearly breaks-off and sags onto the tail light bracket. Pan repair is a bit of an art but, not rocket science.
The speedo may be repairable. New HL shells can still be had, OEM are $45 plus shipping. Cables can be repaired however, new reproductions are available for the K0 and in complete sets, if desired...minty-new, plug & play.
You are correct but it continued on well past the end of the ST era. I've seen this with other K0s, including late-production...VINs in the 263xxx range. Never been sure when the transition was made, most likely when Honda consolidated PNs. The CT70 K0 HL bucket is virtually identical to what was used on a number of other models, like the S90. There are others, including models that never saw US shores, many of which had more wiring than the CT70.
