1972 Honda Chaly - CF50 Custom
Written by: C Blackmore.
2014 was a funny year; I'd been living in Thailand for a year; their government had just fallen apart and the military had shut down the city so I left and stayed in the provinces for a while. It was there I saw my first Honda Chaly in person.
An old lady had it sitting outside her house; flat tyres, weathered, looking like it could do with some love. I plucked up the courage in my poor Thai language and asked if it was hers? She said yeah, 'if you can make it work you can ride it around.
Here's the actual bike:
The first Honda Chaly I saw in real life.
So I made it work. There it began, my love affair with the humble Honda Chaly and Small Bikes in general was born thanks to a South East Asian nations struggle with democracy.
Moving back to New Zealand in 2015 I went through a few different Small Bikes, Honda C50, Suzuki FA50, Yamaha V50; but it wasn't until I saw a Honda Chaly for sale that I finally found the pine I had felt in that quaint little province. I immediately put a scooter I had up for sale to fund the purchase.
That Honda Chaly went through a couple of different stages:
The first stage of my Chaly, I rode it like this for a while.
I crashed the first stage, fixed it up with a disc brake front end and some high bars.
It was at Ape Hanger stage that I got onto the incredible Japanese and Thai custom "CDM" (Chaly, Dax, Monkey) builds appearing on the internet. I noticed some people had wider wheels than stock, some were slammed so low they didn't need a side stand, some frames even appeared to be smaller than stock. People weren't holding back and I knew then I needed to take my Chaly to the next level.
In February 2019. I took a trip as Small Bike Stuff to Kuala Lumpur; purchased a Honda Wave 100cc underbone bike; dragged a couple of friends with me to do the same and we rode as a crew all the way to Bangkok. I chose this model knowing that the engine could fit a tonne of Small Honda frames. People have been swapping Chinese made pitbike motors into Small Hondas for years; myself included. While they're a reliable and solid choice; I couldn't help but dream of a bike that was pure Honda all the way through. At the end of the trip I ripped the motor out and got it back home along with a few goodies to pep it up a bit.
It was on this same trip I met Nuttawut Chaikapho; the man behind DKK Minibike:
An hour after meeting Nuttawut. Notice our friend Thomas doing the ‘Chaly handlebar’ pose in the middle.
He had chopped a Honda Chaly frame and it was the first of it's kind I had seen in person. See, in standard form the Honda Chaly is a tiny machine. But under inspiration from the Japanese CDM crowd, Nuttawut had chopped almost 5cm out of the frame under the tank, and another similar amount from the down tube; when re attaching the front end he'd raked it back slightly.
The Thai and Japanese CDM enthusiasts who did this were trying to achieve the lowest build possible. They look absolutely incredible, but I've always been one to want to try something a bit different. With inspiration from DKK Minibike and a few parts from my good friend Yuth at CDM Shop in Bangkok Thailand; I had sourced enough for the bones of a wicked build.
The first fully finished photo. Thanks to Andrew Wilson Photography.
I figured that if you left the stock height forks and shocks instead of lowering the bike, it actually raised the engine higher off the ground while retaining the same ride height. I love a custom bike as much as the next guy but I'm a huge fan of functional so having something scraping the road wasn't quite my style.
I sourced a pair of Honda Dax style mud guards, a new rear rack; I swapped out the original headlight bucket for one from a CT110 Postie bike as they fit an Harley Davidson LED Daymaker headlight. I then modified the tail light to be LED and also added 4 tiny LED indicators. I wanted this bike to have everything working; horn, lights, killswitch; but I needed it to still be relatively clean. So all the controls for the bike are in a single switch block on the left side of the handlebars.
The wheels are 4.7" wide in the front with a disc conversion and 6.1" wide in the rear retaining a drum brake set up.
The exhaust is a Honda Grom/MSX header pipe with a few cuts and a couple of welds to tuck it under neath the motor and away from the brake pedal and kick start. The muffler is a black slash cut cone pipe with a mild baffle. The bike is tiny but she barks like a guard dog.
I spent months wondering about the colour only to choose within seconds on paint day after checking out the colour swatches. A fellow Small Bike enthusiast and incredible painter Matt Smith gave it a coat of 2K and my good friends at Doozi reproduced some 90's JDM Honda Chaly decals to finish of the clean styling.
Over all it's been a journey of blood, sweat and tears. Things weren't always smooth and easy; the engine refresh became a 4 month build in itself. I was forced to source parts from 5 different countries. Due to these motors only having been released in Asia, it was hard to get a solid source to follow for modifying info. It was all learning as I went. The big bore kit ended up needing a new crankshaft from Malaysia with longer stroke. The crankshaft arrived without a crank timing gear which took a month to find in Vietnam. I sourced a new clutch setup from Thailand. I found genuine tappet retainers through Honda in New Zealand and after going to all this effort I found it easy to talk myself into a race head, camshaft and big valve set up which initially was thought to be coming from Malaysia but ended arriving from Singapore. Once the jigsaw puzzle was in one place it still took the help a local mechanic, to help get it built.
Lastly I had my good friend since highschool Kass from KP Upholstery LTD, whip me up an incredible seat using a combination of materials including gripper fabric more commonly found on motorcross bikes.
Originally the motor was 100cc when I bought it in Kuala Lumpur attached to a Honda Wave. It's now 118cc and fairly aggressive but also not so powerful it's unride-able. With such a short wheel base the front end lifts super easily and the whole bike itself can approach triple digits in a pretty spritely fashion.
Photos below by Andrew Wilson Photography
Here's some specs on the motor:
Honda Engine:- 4 Speed semi (revolving)
- 53mm OKO piston
- 53mm OKO barrel
- SHARK racing head
- SHARK oversized valves: 28in; 24ex
- Cardinals Racing Valve
- KW-M Racing Camshaft
- FAITO 2.4mm Crankshaft
- APIDO Racing Clutch Housing
- WAVE Racing Clutch
- Hi-Speed Racing Clutch Plates
- FCCI Gaskets
- Assembled by M.Sisson.
Build notes:
-Seat by Kass @ KP Upholstery Ltd
-Paint by Matt Smith
-Motionpro Quick throttle
-LED Day maker head light
-LED indicators all around
-LED tail light conversion
-Decals by Doozi
-Michelin S1 Front: 100/90-10
-Michelin S1 Rear : 110/80-10
-Custom Powerbomb Header/Slash cut muffler
Thanks to Cdm Shop 4mini; Restomod front shocks,wide swingarm, disc conversion:
- Front: 4.7”
- Rear: 6.1”
A huge thanks to DKK Minibike
Wiring by Dean Welten.
Special thanks to Jeremy Shields, Karl Daniel, Lee Warnock, FOAMERS.
Featured on Pipe Burn: CLICK HERE
