Roll...And Stop!

It’s a case of brakes and wheels to get this beauty rolling and stopping right.

- Allen Millyard

After last month’s successful test run of my 374cc six-cylinder engine I’m now really excited to be making a start on the rest of the bike. My aim was to make a six-cylinder RC174 tribute that has the right feel, correct scale, and most important to me the right sound, but not necessarily an exact replica.

I have named my bike the RC374 due to its actual engine capacity of 374cc. The original Honda RC174 was in fact 297cc. With this in mind I needed some nice clear photos of the original RC174 to follow while I was making parts, so as to capture the fine details. My birthday was approaching so I hinted to my wife Tracey that I needed a reference book on the Honda RC174 and gave her a link to one I had seen online. It was a guidebook for model makers, but to me this was perfect because it featured actual close up photographs of an authentic Honda RC174.

When I make a bike from scratch I like to make parts in a certain order, engine first, then wheels followed by forks, swingarm and the frame last. This way I have all the main components to fit into a frame jig while I build the frame. I had recently bought a 1966 Honda CB77 bare rolling chassis thinking that I could use some of the parts. The wheels had twin-leading drum brakes, which looked like they may be usable, also the forks look similar, and with a bit of work could be made to look like original RC174 forks.

The first thing I did was to strip the rolling chassis, making a pile of parts that were potentially usable. The wheels were rusty so I cut the spokes to remove the hubs. The rear hub was basically okay with one exception, it had to be flipped around so that the chain drive was on the left which involved a bit of modification to the brake plate; more on that later.