Hondian: Leaf-sprung Honda/Indian hybrid

Leaf-sprung barn-find… or is it?

It’s funny how certain people in the custom bike world’re, and I don’t mean this in an any way derogatory way, predictable, isn’t it? Okay, so ‘predictable’ probably isn’t quite the right word ‘cos it has a slightly negative context when used to describe people, but it’s the only one I can think of at this precise moment that gets close, so bear with me a sec’, yeah?

At the Ace Cafe a couple o’ three years ago, at one of NCC London’s excellent Diamond Day custom shows, I saw, from the other end of the car park, an old looking, but obviously custom, bike roll in, and thought ‘Ooo!’ and set off towards it. On the way over, though, I got distracted, by someone or something (‘squirrel!’), and by the time I got to it, the rider’d buggered off. ‘Mmm,’ I thought, ‘that’s bloody clever – leaf-spring front end on a little Honda single, done as a flat-tanker… it looks… I wonder, like something Matt’d build’ and looked around for him ’cos I know he’s been to Diamond Day a few times and, relatively speaking, he doesn’t live that far away.

A few minutes later I spotted him mooching along a line of bikes, checking out this and that, so made me way over and said: “I bloody knew that (the Hondian as he calls it) was yours!” He’s had a few bikes now in custom bike magazines over the last few years, both 100% Biker and BSH, the most recent of which was the glorious 350 Ariel in issue 485. He’s a quiet, unassuming, softly-spoken chap who turns out some amazing bikes from the garage next to his house, but doesn’t really make a fuss about them. This one came about because he’d always had a hankering for an old, as in 1920s era, flat-tank motorcycle, but really couldn’t justify spending the kind of money an original one’d set you back, not to mention the potential unreliability and cost of any spare parts required. Clearly then, to his mind, the thing to do was manufacture some kind of replica, but use a more modern, reliable engine.

Initially he was going to use a v-twin engine, probably a small capacity one. He toyed with the idea of a 250 Virago Yam, as one o’ those’d’ve fitted the bill nicely, but balked when he saw the price of one, not wanting to spend that sort of money on something he was only going to cut up. Then a CD175 Honda engine turned up on a mate’s scrap pile, and was secured for just £20 – the decision was made, that’s what he was using.

Closer inspection revealed that it was, in fact, a bit of a hybrid with a CD head n’ barrels on a CB bottom end – something that he felt gave him the best of both worlds: a five-speed gearbox as opposed to the CD’s four, and a single carb head (CBs have dual carbs) for a more period look and smoother running. It was treated to a rebore and new pistons but was, otherwise, in good working order.

He’d also always fancied a leaf-spring front end, a la those made famous by the Indian Motorcycle Company (1901 to 1953) on their 1924-1945 Chief models, and a number of years ago’d found a nice set of leaf-springs on a wrecked trailer whilst nosing around in a derelict barn. He’d ‘liberated’ them, knowing they’d come in handy one day, and they’d been stored under his bench since. For this bike he decided to make an Indian-style front fork, and was pointed in the right direction by his mate Tony Groom (himself no stranger to a bit of custom spanner twiddling), and using a host of old pictures for reference, handcrafted the one you see here in front of you using half of one of the trailer springs.

Incidentally, I don’t know if you know, but leaf-spring technology can be traced, apparently, all the way back to the Bronze Age (2,000 BC to 700BC), first used on horse-drawn chariots, and made from layers of (no shit…) bronze.

Anyway, with the leafer forks made, designed to accept a 19-inch pre-unit Triumph (front) wheel, enhanced with extra ventilation/cooling holes in the drum brake body, he then fabricated a suitably olde-worlde tank (described, somewhat unkindly I feel, as ‘something of a breadbin under the top tube’… not Matt’s one in particular, I must stress, just flat-tanker tanks in general), adding a brass cap and fuel-tap he’d picked up on his forays into autojumbles, and then, with an early RD Yamaha rear wheel n’ drum brake (again, modded with extra ’oles) for t’ back, set about making a frame with a top-tube that went over the tank in the correct style.

Once that was done (he says blithely glossing over months of hard work…), he was really pleased with the way the bike looked. At this point he could’ve given it a suitably era paint scheme and I’m sure it’d’ve looked great, but he wanted it to look like a genuine barn find, so some parts were left in the garden to rust, and most of the others were painted in Rustypaint (a product that rusts instantly when sprayed with an activator – you get it from www.rustypaint.com), followed by a coat of Indian red, rubbed back suitably. The result, as you can see, is that it does indeed look like it’s been recently dragged out of a barn and just got running.

He reports the bike rides really well and handles nicely, probably helped by its reasonable rake and trail (31 degrees and five inches), and it’s been ridden to various bike meets/shows over the summer where it usually causes a mixture of amusement and confusion. It’s picked up a pot or two as well – which it deserves to!

SPEC:

Hybrid Honda 175cc engine (CD175 top-end on CB175 bottom end, one-off air-filter, one-off exhausts), oneoff single-downtube rigid frame (31-degree rake/ 5-inch trail), H-D Road King pillion foot-boards on one-off mounts, Triumph pre-unit 19-inch front wheel/ drum brake (added ventilation holes), one-off leaf-spring front suspension (Oilite bushes on shouldered bolts on all pivots), one-off petrol tank with brass cap/tap, Lycett saddle, Triumph rear mudguard (modified), one-off battery tray, early Yamaha RD rear wheel/drum brake (added ventilation holes), minimal loom, autojumble headlight, repro’ vintage rear light

FINISH:

Rustypaint/Indian red/pinstriping/graphics by owner

ENGINEERING:

Bike built & all work by owner

THANKS TO:

“Tony Groom for fork construction advice/donation of front tyre; & Darren Buckley for the engine & mudguard…”