Hi everyone, very excited to be here. (Skip to next paragraph if you'd like to get to the point.) I'm very new to motorcycles and have just received my Motorcycle license. I'm very drawn by the Cafe Racer Community and because of that, I decided to buy a 1972 Honda CB175, for two specific reasons. 1) I have heard that this bike is easily converted into a cafe racer and 2) I wanted a bike that required maintenance because I wanted to gain actual motorcycle engine knowledge. I wanted to fix the bike up myself.
I bought this bike off of ebay. My seller is a motorcycle dealer, 97% of the items on his shop are motorcycles and he has A LOT of positive reviews from people who have bought motorcycles from him. He told me that the bike turned on fine and ran well. When the bike was delivered, I could not get it on for a while. And finally it turned on, only to die very quickly. Do I think I got scammed? No, I do not think so because the seller was in constant contact with me, even after receiving my money, and he tried his best to figure out the issue, but in the end he was not able to help. I tried to turn it on again with some of the tips the seller gave me. Ignition on, petcock to on( or reserve if low), choke all the way closed, and hit the electric start. I was able to get it on again while on reserve, and it stayed on! I let it sit for a while, then when I went into first gear, the bike shut off immediately. (Maybe because I left the choke closed? not sure). But after that, Ive been unable to turn it on. I've heard that it is common for old motorcycles to suddenly stop working, so I was not too discouraged. And plus, this is what I asked for. I wanted a motorcycle that would require me to learn how to service it. So I went to youtube and started to learn.
I cleaned the fuel tank, and then cleaned the petcock. I had then cleaned the carburetors. I tried to turn it on, but no luck
. The next day, I checked the sparkplugs and compression. All seemed to be working fine and so I tried again without really doing anything else to the bike since the day before and for some odd reason, it turned on and it sounded good! Unfortunately whenever I let go of the throttle, it seems like it wants to go and die out, and sure enough, without any throttle, it will eventually die.
The first video is what the bike normally sounds like when trying to turn on. The second video is the couple of successes I've had. The bike dies in that second video from a couple of reasons. 1st, the battery is dead so I have an antigravity battery attached to it. When the bike turned on I thought I should remove that battery, and my bike ran out of electricity. Other times the antigravity battery would shut off by itself. (BTW the battery worked fine when the bike was delivered. Stupid me accidently killed it off. I don't think the battery is the issue.) Other times it's cause I start to open up the choke and it cause the bike to die. And other times the bike dies cause I stop giving it throttle.
Any ideas what the issue might be? I wonder if maybe when I checked the spark plugs, I wiped them and they were then dryer which allowed the bike to actually turn on? So maybe I may just need new spark plugs? I'm also thinking I may just need to fix the ignition timing. The last thing I'm considering is checking the float height. When I cleaned the carburetor I didn't mess with the floats or checked their heights because I'm uneducated right now in how to adjust them. Will an incorrect float height cause the bike to not turn on/ not stay on?
btw, the first video attached is actually the second video to be filmed. So the bike performed worse after it had successfully turned on a couple of times. My dad said that this is because the spark plugs become too wet with gasoline. Let me know if this is correct. first video - normal start up second video - successes (The links are for unlisted youtube videos).
I bought this bike off of ebay. My seller is a motorcycle dealer, 97% of the items on his shop are motorcycles and he has A LOT of positive reviews from people who have bought motorcycles from him. He told me that the bike turned on fine and ran well. When the bike was delivered, I could not get it on for a while. And finally it turned on, only to die very quickly. Do I think I got scammed? No, I do not think so because the seller was in constant contact with me, even after receiving my money, and he tried his best to figure out the issue, but in the end he was not able to help. I tried to turn it on again with some of the tips the seller gave me. Ignition on, petcock to on( or reserve if low), choke all the way closed, and hit the electric start. I was able to get it on again while on reserve, and it stayed on! I let it sit for a while, then when I went into first gear, the bike shut off immediately. (Maybe because I left the choke closed? not sure). But after that, Ive been unable to turn it on. I've heard that it is common for old motorcycles to suddenly stop working, so I was not too discouraged. And plus, this is what I asked for. I wanted a motorcycle that would require me to learn how to service it. So I went to youtube and started to learn.
I cleaned the fuel tank, and then cleaned the petcock. I had then cleaned the carburetors. I tried to turn it on, but no luck
. The next day, I checked the sparkplugs and compression. All seemed to be working fine and so I tried again without really doing anything else to the bike since the day before and for some odd reason, it turned on and it sounded good! Unfortunately whenever I let go of the throttle, it seems like it wants to go and die out, and sure enough, without any throttle, it will eventually die.The first video is what the bike normally sounds like when trying to turn on. The second video is the couple of successes I've had. The bike dies in that second video from a couple of reasons. 1st, the battery is dead so I have an antigravity battery attached to it. When the bike turned on I thought I should remove that battery, and my bike ran out of electricity. Other times the antigravity battery would shut off by itself. (BTW the battery worked fine when the bike was delivered. Stupid me accidently killed it off. I don't think the battery is the issue.) Other times it's cause I start to open up the choke and it cause the bike to die. And other times the bike dies cause I stop giving it throttle.
Any ideas what the issue might be? I wonder if maybe when I checked the spark plugs, I wiped them and they were then dryer which allowed the bike to actually turn on? So maybe I may just need new spark plugs? I'm also thinking I may just need to fix the ignition timing. The last thing I'm considering is checking the float height. When I cleaned the carburetor I didn't mess with the floats or checked their heights because I'm uneducated right now in how to adjust them. Will an incorrect float height cause the bike to not turn on/ not stay on?
btw, the first video attached is actually the second video to be filmed. So the bike performed worse after it had successfully turned on a couple of times. My dad said that this is because the spark plugs become too wet with gasoline. Let me know if this is correct. first video - normal start up second video - successes (The links are for unlisted youtube videos).
