1974 Honda Chaly

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avai007
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1974 Honda Chaly

Post by avai007 »

These little four stroke mini bikes are popular in Japan and command their own clubs and events. There is also a strong following in Europe for this family of bikes, which include the Honda Monkey Z50, Honda Dax, Honda Cub and this interesting model, the Chaly. 'Chaly' is a Romanization of the Japanese slang word for 'bicycle' (chari, with a hard 'ch', this model name is pronounced 'sha-ree'). The legend goes that it was the sister model to the Dax and Monkey but featured a semi-stepthrough pressed frame to suit the rice paddy wives of the 70's who were a little shorter of leg than the average Japanese biped. The upshot: the bike is tiny.

In New Zealand these Chalys were almost all sold to golfers as the it was one of the few small bikes with tyres wide enough to be allowed on our courses without damaging them. True to form, this particular one came with a big round pad (Patented-Anti-Divot) welded to the side stand and a towbar for the club carrier.

So we started with an original Honda Chaly that had never been on the road, still had its factory tyres on it, and was asking for a bit more bling and power. We should oblige...

We stripped it of all moving parts, and sent the frame, swing arm and suspension parts it to have the golf ball dings touched up before painting it all in a custom colour.

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This colour was made from Range Rover gold and Porsche silver. Golfing heritage, luxury car colours - the future looks bright.

Every part on the bike is reconditioned or replaced. Layers of Chamberlain and Otahuhu links humus heritage are removed, and the chain and various bolts are replaced.

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The tyres shown below are the original, factory fitted Inoue Rubber Company (later to become IRC) tyres, incredibly old and still usable. They make condoms now. Just kidding.

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To accentuate the bike's small stature and relatively big wheels, we work on fitting wide rims to it. The factory alloy rims are bolted to aluminium four-point hubs. The replacement wheel rims are made by Japan's G-Craft, beautiful creations in A5052 alloy for extreme strength and corrosion resistance.

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These are about 40% wider than standard and take a 110 wide tyre. We have chosen the Ceat Rio tyre, a Pirelli brand with a nice street tread with a strong construction and good tarmac grip.

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Sifu
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Post by Sifu »

Thats a great restore you did there! Im in the process of restoring a chaly myself.

Do you have any other spare chaly parts laying around that you're selling off?
avai007
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Post by avai007 »

Thanks! The only spare part available is a front fork set, good cond in green. Nothing else sorry. Get a new thread started and some pics up of yours as you go through!
scootling is all good
Sifu
idling along
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Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2009 5:26 pm

Post by Sifu »

Fork sets? As in the lower forks as well?

Im needing the lower part since I bought a chaly with bent lowers. Could you PM me a price you're wanting to let it go for?

And if you know where I can get some other replacement OEM parts for it please let me know! They're such a rare bike nowadays :(

Thanks! :)
avai007
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More chaly modification

Post by avai007 »

After the new rims, tyres and tubes go together its time to start fitting to the Chaly!

We unbolt the old rim from the 4-point hub centres and fit the new. The rear wheel is first to receive its new bling. At the same time we remove the old shocks, note how high the bike is here with standard length shocks:

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and now we replace those with 40mm lower versions. These are a lot stiffer, required so that the rear mudguard doesn't hit the tyre.

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While these G'Craft rims fit perfectly on a standard Chaly, once the lowered suspension goes on the shocks are too wide for the chain guard so we remove that. The chain is a Japanese RK 420.

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scootling is all good
Therug15
kickstarting
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Location: Auckland

Post by Therug15 »

Very cool bike. I was in a few days ago with a friend who is looking at buying a scooter when I saw this beast out on the floor. Next thing i know I'm racing home to buy one. Ive got one coming up from Christchurch next week - then, let the fun begin! Im already looking into re-power options!
ae86guy
If I'm not posting I'm scootling
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Post by ae86guy »

Nice bike
niftyfifty
AF18ZX
Polini Corsa 72cc
Malossi full circle crank
Rare Scorpionpipe
Portedcase
CT intake 24mm oko
Disk brake swap
Top speed 115kmh(so far)
still needs lots of tuning
avai007
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Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland
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Chaly now sold! next project starts soon

Post by avai007 »

The Chaly is sold, keep an eye out for the next project...

Its a close relative of the Chaly - Honda Z50Z from 1971!! Our friends at Kitaco (Japan) are kindly digging out all sorts of fantastic parts for this puppy.

This will also be a fairly involved project as there are heaps of parts missing. See the new thread on this forum...
scootling is all good
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