The Great Honda 200 Story
An Article by Alan Clarke, typed up by Slave 1 - Nicola Clarke, adapted for the web by Slave 2- Jamie Clarke, with pictures from Marge Clarke.
If you are wondering what this is all about here is a brief explanation. Around Christmas / New Years 2000/2001, I (Jamie the webmaster) found a burnt out bike in the woods. This lead to a very prolonged attempt to make a bike that once finished is great and has a successful competition record. Read on for more info on this Honda 200 (aka Bitsa, Ponsit, F1 car, etc).
Part 1
Never look a gift horse in the mouth, or how Scrooge built a Christmas present that took 6 months!
This story starts during the holidays between Christmas 2000 and New Years day 2001.
During a post Christmas walk in the snow Marge, Jamie, and two of our neighbours were 3 or 4 miles from home, deep in the woods below the Robin Hood pub when they came upon a very sad looking burnt out motor cycle that clearly had been there for some time (Yours truly was at work, unfortunately).
Remember that snowy Christmas / New year period of 2000/2001 ? This is me kitted out, on the way to the pub.
When I got home that evening I was told about the 'find' and I suggested that Jamie, Matt Sheppard and his friend could do worse than drag the bike out of the wood and up to the Robin Hood pub where I would help them by collecting it in the van. The following evening Jamie advised me that by the time they had got to the bike, attached the rope and started pulling it back towards habitation, where enthusiasm was slipping and within just a few metres of starting, the joint decision was ' **** it ' and they left it, making there way back to the Robin Hood pub for liquid refreshments.
The following day I was not working and decided to investigate this matter further so persuading a very reluctant daughter and unsure son to join me in yet another foray to the woods. We drove as far as we could and with our winter gear on, we went walk-in off into the woods, to get a grasp of the task ahead you must imagine a narrow woodland path, sloping downhill, rutted and criss-crossed with tree roots winding through quite thick wood lands. We went on for probably the best part of a mile only for Jamie to announce 'it's gone', as he searched around the area where they had left it only the day before. I looked around and could clearly see tyre tracks in the surrounding snow, and they were going away from us further downhill towards the M2 motorway/Channel tunnel rail works.
We set of again following the wheel marks and about 250 metres further on we found the very unhappy looking remains of a Honda 200cc twin. The engine was complete and kicked over but the rest of the machine was very sad, it had clearly been crashed and furthermore being set on fire had damaged the air cleaner/seat area. Nicola then notices that the rope Jamie had been telling us they had left on the bike had gone, so how would we get it back? If dad wanted to! In my mind I could see this engine, with it's electric start powering some form of off road bike that we could all play on, so with editions of scrap heap challenge, in my mind I was determined to get the remains back if possible but how? We had not bought any spare rope as we had been assured that the boys had left some attached. A quick look around revealed a tree covered in creepers. These were pulled of and crudely tied to the bike, then with Nicola and Jamie pulling like ancient slaves and yours truly both pushing and steering we finally some one and a half hours later got the remains back to the van. After loading it in I treated both 'slaves' to more liquid refreshments, they surely deserved it.
Having got the sorry heap I striped the engine out of the frame, tipping the water out of that had collected in the crankcase and put all the bits away for later use.
It was whilst doing this I remember that some years ago, Sidcup club president had done a deal with Eric Dadd that had involved an early YZ125cc Yamaha moto cross bike, a quick trip to Eric's revealed that he had still got the bike though it was in lots of bits, but he was willing to do a deal, what had I on offer? Typical Eric never one to miss an opportunity. At about this time Jack Pringle had told me of a 250cc BSA engine he wanted to sell, A quick phone call and a deal was done, Eric got a spare engine for his trials bike, Jack had his £70 and I had a 1981 125cc Yamaha. The big question then was would the little Honda engine fit into the Yamaha, the answer was yes, but it would involve more work than I had anticipated, even at that stage.
There is more to come soon (with more photos). There are action shots of this machine completed on the Timber Woods Long Distance Trial pages, and at the August Closed to Club.