jay_lael

We just had our Columbia Observed Trials association year end awards, and darned if the Hodaka and I ended up third place advanced for the year 2020. I even won two events outright. Super happy with it.

Thank you! This is the third paint scheme since it was built. I had to sell my 2013 OSSA 300 factory, and I still had the matching clothes, so... This Hodaka is probably more reliable anyway. I paid about $9000.00 for it, and it soon became an orphan. I thought I would keep it for the rest of my life, but that turned out to be unrealistic. This in now my only modern bike.

Refurbished and improved, the Sherco Hodaka is better than ever. I hope these pics will load.

Marty attempting to win the highlander award on the new bike. The sections were just a bit dry!

The Highlander award.

Thanks guys, for the kind words. Yes, Marty loves the new bike! He had nothing but praise for the bike. He ended up second in his class at the trial, and the golf scores figured in, he was fourth overall in the combined golf/trials match. Maybe some day the Highlander award, which is a three foot sword, resembling excalibur, with two golf clubs and some handlebars, artfully welded together, will reside in his office, but not this year.

The Suzuki special lives! This Saturday, Marty will attempt to win the Highlander award, at the Terrebonne, Crooked River Ranch, AHRMA trial. This contest averages riders on their trials results, and golf scores. Good luck Marty!

of side panels, and inner mudguard are taking shape. Still have quite a bit to do.

Progress has been slow, but I spent a few days just doing the footpeg mounts, and brake pedal, cable etc. I am looking fwd to working on it some more this weekend.

The steering angle has been corrected from somewhere around 29 degrees, to 25 or 26 depending on the tube depth in the clamps. Around these parts I have never seen anyone bend one of these things steeper, but I personally did that to a poor overworked Fantic 240, which handled absolutely terribly after ramming the bike into a log whilst hauling ass through a place called Jordan meadow, in the VMC Terra Nova 200 mile enduro in Canada. The aformentioned dentist is very unlikely to ride this way, as he is a timid intermediate who wishes to ride a very cool bike, and has the means to get one made for him. The swingarm pivot has been moved toward the engine as far as I could get it, thus the need to extend the swingarm, in order to get back to somewhere around a 52 inch wheelbase.

In my part of the world, there are no Whitlock frames or Beamish Suzukis to be had. My dentist who happens to be the best dentist I have ever seen, has commisioned me to build a custom Suzuki special. Here's what I've come up with so far. I will be finishing up the front skid plate bracket arrangement, doing footpeg mounts in the proper location and side panels, before stripping it down to finish all the welding, and paint it polish it etc. I plan to paint the frame silver, and do a two tone paint job on the tank, in the original pattern. Considering a nice burgundy metallic on silver for the tank, with polished alloy side panels. I will be soda blasting the entire engine, to bring back a nice silver matte finish. In return I will be getting top notch dental care for years to come.

I do not have the "hot start button" hooked up right now. I simply unplugged the tail light, rerouted the tail light connector (bike side) to a location where I could get ahold of it. It's zip tied to my left frame rail. The OE tail light connector and wires have been attached to my 12 volt rechargable battery, via some long red and black wires, so when you connect it, the entire electrical system is powered up. BTW you may have noticed the bike's power supply is at about 14 volts when the engine is running. This momentary application of 12 volts seems to not only prime the fuel pump, but also seems to inject fuel. I suspect it is engineered to do so. Leaving the 12 volt connected actually seems to cause the bike to start hard and run too rich at first. I wish we could get real info on this system, but since it is shrouded in secrecy, we will have to figure things out for ourselves. I have access to a lab scope, so at some point I will have more solid info on how this damn thing really is engineered to work.

I had tried the 9v with a button, on my 2013 factory 300. It made no difference to starting that I could notice. I fitted the bike with a 12v and ground supply via a 12 volt battery for working on Montesa 4rt. It plugs right in to the tail light connector, thus powers up the ecm and all. I found the fuel pump is energized for a brief moment when the battery is connected. What also happens on the 300 racing, is the injector delivers a priming pulse or series of pulses. The connection of the battery causes this to happen instantly. Pressing the "priming button" will will run the fuel pump, and seems to flood the bike, as does having the battery connected while kicking on the starter arm. If I simply connect the battery momentarily, upon cold start, then kickstart the bike, it lights off in 3 kicks. When hot, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes one kick, sometimes three. I never use the battery except on cold starts after an overnight sit. So it's possible the 300 has had the software changed, to cause this momentary priming injection as soon as voltage reaches a certain threshold. The net result is, the bike is difficult to start. What I have decided is that this bike works so damn good that I will happily live with it's shortcomings. Sorry if this is off topic, but the question has been asked so there's my opinion on it.

Ooops. My bad.

The top edge of the exhaust port controls when the port opens. If it had been raised higher the "power band" would be higher in the rpm range with a slight increase in higher end power. By lowering the bottom edge of the port, and narrowing it slightly, they have increased the duration of the exhaust exit time, and narrowing the port incdreases the velocity of the gases as they escape. I suspect this mod would provied quicker low end response. A true tuning expert, such as Jon Stoodley could explain this more clearly. I'd be curious to hear how the two barrels compared in actual real world testing.

Got a chance to try out the Saracen/Hodaka and she works pretty good. Thanks Charlie! Bet you'd love a ride on the Wolverine I built then.

Sounds like you have all sorts of fun bike work ahead. Keep us posted on it, please. Glad to help if I can.

So I am the proud owner of a 2013 Factory racing 300, and the clutch does drag a bit. It's not as bad as my old Maico square barrel, but it's close. The lever adjustment if tightened to about 1/8 inch or less, of play at the push pin on the mc. It feels normal but you have a hell of a time finding neutral with the engine running. I love the bike, so much so that I am putting up with the dragging clutch, but it sure would be nice if it worked more like a Sherco/Beta/Montesa clutch. I don't know if that's actually possible or not. Is it? Does anyone's OSSA clutch really truly not drag? I am using very light gear oil, (about the thickness of sewing machine oil), before you tell me that's the problem.

I think it looked something like this originally. When I bought this one it was a bare frame. The rest of it I dreamed and schemed up from E bay and friends.

That is the exhaust pulse accumulator, named by it's inventor, the late Harry Taylor, "The Zit". It increased torque by a noticable amount, and is part of the HT3 exhaust, developed by Harry Taylor and sometimes available through Strictly Hodaka. Harry was one of the premier two stroke tuners in the history of the world.

So here are some pics of one of my creations. It has been an amazing machine to ride and very much worth the effort of building it. It has been an incredible amount of work to get it this far, but I have found it a worthwhile job, to say the least. The custom engine work includes a case port at the rear of the cylinder, and all kinds of trick mods done by Rich Gagnon, of Rich's Taylor'd porting of Utah. This is quite fast for a 125. I suspect it could hang with a modern 125 in a drag race. It even has Harry Taylors picture and sgnature on the gas tank! Anyhow thanks for taking a look at her.

As I was saying before I was interupted, the wheels are Rickman Hodaka. The micro metisse had a smaller rear hub than the Saracen came with originally, so it required same custom spacers. Mounting the Penton forks to the Saracen frame also required some custom machine work to get things to fit together. It has loose balls and races lifted from the Penton, and machined adapters that permit the Penton races to press into the Saracen frame. The swingarm bushings had to be fabricated from bronze material. I was able to mostly evict the whitworth bolts from the machine, using metric fasteners almost everywhere. The exception is the swingarm bolt, which is an amazing piece of work. The chain adjustment on this bike is easier to do than any bike I've ever seen! Just takes a minute and there's no messing around with alignment as it stays spot on!

My apologies to the original creators of the Saracen for this sacrelige, which I can't help myself for doing. I've been busy putting together this great bike, so I figured it's time I shared a few pics of it. It's been lovely to ride. I adjusted the steering head angle somewhat steeper from about 28 degrees, to exactly 24.5 degrees. I redesigned the lower frame cradle, to convert it to a flat bottom, so it will sit on a box without tipping over, and obviously got rid of the Sachs engine, so it required some changes to get the Hodaka engine to fit. This is a very special piston port Hodaka trials engine, which began life as a 125 cc Wombat, but this one has heavy flywheel, lower internal gearing via primary gear from an Ace 90. This required a hybrid crankshaft, comprised of 125 Wombat LH crank half, and Early Ace 100 type RH crank half, which has been welded to prevent the crank from slipping out of alignment. The genuine NOS Sammy Miller muffler was a rare thing to find, and really sets the look of the machine, in the late 60's to early seventies. It has nos girling dampers, ceriani forks from a 1972 Penton MX-er, which is fitted with only one spring, to make the front end soft enough for trials. I'm loving this bike!

OK, I read Andy's tutorial and here it is, the latest photos of the Sherco/Hodaka Hybrid.

Gosh, as you can see it's been years since anyone showed interest in my little world of Hodakas. I have been continuing to develop the bike and have recently repainted her in more conservative livery. It has a glossy black frame, redone nice silver plastics, and a red coil and shock spring, plus a red Hodaka emblem on top of the tank. I recently had the pleasure of winning my class, senior advanced or expert support, depending on who is doing the talking. The engine has not fractured it's mounting bosses, and the frame has no cracks after some years of hard use. The skid plate is bent upward a bit, but the bike is running better than ever. I recently switched to 100-1 fuel mixture and the new red coil is an attempt at hotter spark, as the bike has has some plug fouling issues, which can be rather inconvenient in a trial. I was very gratified to jointly (with the guy who drilled all the holes in the cylinder, my Uncle Whitey Hartman of Clarkston Washington) receive the Henry Koepke award for innovation and engineering, at Hodaka days, voted on by the club members. Our names were engraved on the beautiful display trophy at the Athena public library, in Athena Oregon, the birthpolace of Hodaka motorcycles. I also built several other Hodaka specials since this was written including a Saracen Hodaka Hybrid, circa 1970, which has been coming along quite nicely. It is a piston port job, with alloy tank, fenders, (mudgaurds) and it looks like it came from England in the late sixites or so. Love the bike with Rickman hubs and steel rims, dunlop tires and ceriani forks. I won a trial in vintage this summer on four points, but the results did not show it, for political reasons within the club apparently or just apathy. Anyway, I am still on the planet and riding, building bikes when I can, and have a beautiful new wife I aquired in a swap for the still not running Aprilia TXT. Good trade I think!