socalsupermoto Blog

We’ve managed to arrange a saturday supermoto trackday with Adams Motorsports Park. If you’re a working stiff that has been wanting to try supermoto, here’s your best chance! To book just use the pay now button here:

Customer Craig just sent me this sweet pic of cb160 racing at buttonwillow. Plan is to bring this bad boy out to adams so I can give it a go!

They’re looking to increase their grid size. If you think vintage racing might be your bag, here’s all the info:

RACE A 40-YEAR-OLD 160cc MOTORCYCLE?

…ARE YOU CRAZY?

Yeah, we’ve been called crazy more than once, but we sure do have a blast. If you’ve ever thought that it might be fun to get out on a track with a little vintage café racer – well, you’re right!

There are actually quite a few good reasons for racing a Honda CB160:

1. They’re cheap. You can buy or build a whole race bike for what some people with modern bikes spend just to buy a set of billet pegs and a fancy exhaust.
2. They’re pretty common. You can usually find a good one without much trouble.
3. Parts are still available.
4. They use modern tires that cost $70 each and can last a whole year.
5. They’re robust and easy to work on.
6. The tires may be skinny, but a CB160 racer corners remarkably well.
7. They’re cool little bikes and are lots of fun to race.
8. Doing well in a race is more about skill than equipment.
9. There’s a very active community of friendly, knowledgeable, helpful racers.
10. Did I mention that they’re cheap? And fun?

Naturally, there are a couple of downsides:

1. Totally tricked-out 160s see about 14 or 15 horsepower on a dyno. A more typical basically stock bike is probably more like 12 hp. If power is your thing, a small vintage bike isn’t likely to satisfy you.
2. There aren’t many venues left in the Bay Area for organized vintage road racing.

There’s not much to do about downside #1, but downside #2 is something we’re trying to remedy. There used to be a Bay Area-based organization called VMoto that put on 4 races per year in conjunction with vintage car races at Laguna Seca, Reno-Fernley, and Portland. But there weren’t enough people signed up to schedule any events after 2006. We also race with AHRMA, but that organization has few races practical for Californians. That leaves AFM, with about a million 19-year-old sportbike riders and maybe half a dozen riders on vintage bikes at the most. It would be nice to at least get more vintage bikes involved with AFM; it would be even better to get VMoto going again. We also do really fun track days together at local tracks like Thunderhill and Sears Point.

A bunch of people in the Pacific Northwest race 160s all the time. They have an e-mail list on the web called Formula 160 at groups.yahoo.com/group/F-160 . Pretty much any question you have about building a 160 vintage racer can be answered by someone on that list. We in the California Bay Area have also set up a local e-mail list so we can coordinate races and track days. That list is at groups.yahoo.com/group/california160s .

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at CRAIG.HAGGART@YAHOO.COM or CB160RACER@YAHOO.COM . I can try to help you locate a bike, or at least provide encouragement!

Craig Haggart
Sunnyvale, California
1966 Honda CB160 vintage racer
VMoto #77, AHRMA #677, AFM #677R

It’s challenging to ride a slow bike fast, it’s fun to dice it up with friends, and it’s great when your largest racing expense is likely to be the entry fee and gas for the van!

Officially my new favorite motorcycle song (at 47 sec)

Here’s the vid from our last trackday on 2/24. Special thanks to Steve for doing some, ok, all of the work. With the exception of Larry on the husky, and me jumping the tw, it was day 1 on a sm for everyone in the vid.