Vintage Pit Bike: 71 Honda CT70 Mini Trail

I started working on my vintage pit bike project a few days ago, so I thought I'd share a picture of it. It's a 71 Honda CT70 Mini Trail that I picked up last year.

A friend of mine used to have one when we were about ten years old. I rode it a few times, but then dismissed it in favor of my faster and more badass, yet much less reliable Rockford Chibi 60cc two stroke.

I saw a CT70 for sale on the side of the road last summer and thought it might be my friend's old one, but I was late and couldn't stop. It was gone the next day. I immediately regretted passing it by. Some research on the interweb revealed that these things are pretty collectible, and the search began. Several months later and several states away, I found this one. It was incredibly complete and intact, most likely due to the fact that it was actually registered for many years in Hawaii and probably adult owned.

I removed the carb for cleaning, replaced the bars, shined up the chrome and then sandblasted and painted the wheels. Almost every part is still available for these things. New tires and fork boots should arrive next week and I should be tearing up my lawn in no time!

Cool! I had an SL70 'back in the day', several of my friends had CT70's. I always thought it was neat the way the seat 'flipped' to uncover the toolbox, fuel fill, etc.

Nice little bike - it looks to be in great condition. There are Honda clone engines built in China these days, if for some reason the engine is toast in yours you can pick them up pretty cheaply.

I have '71 Suzuki Trailhopper, which was their competition to the CT70 although it didn't sell very well. Kawasaki also sold a similar minibike back then.

stuart in mn wrote: Nice little bike - it looks to be in great condition. There are Honda clone engines built in China these days, if for some reason the engine is toast in yours you can pick them up pretty cheaply. I have '71 Suzuki Trailhopper, which was their competition to the CT70 although it didn't sell very well. Kawasaki also sold a similar minibike back then.

The Chinese engines are called Lifans. You can drop in a Lifan 150 for a power boost, but a lot of people, myself included, prefer to keep it mostly Honda. You can upgrade to a bunch of different Honda engines, as they put variations of the basic unit in a million different things, like the ATC 110. There are also a bunch of different big bore kits out there. This little engine is like a small block Chevy, with its 283> 327> 350 evolution.

Check out Motoenzo.com . Enzo turns these little engines into works of art.

Those are one of the coolest pit vehicles ever! Looks like you are starting out with a really clean example.

NYG95GA wrote: Those are one of the coolest pit vehicles ever! Looks like you are starting out with a really clean example.

I'm kind of caught in the middle somewhere. On one hand, I'd like to do a total nuts and bolts restoration and on the other hand, this bike has some nice patina. It's really doesn't need the ground-up treatment.

Of course, if I REALLY wanted to do a total restoration...

Very cool! How is that muffler finished? Looks turned. Awesome 70's color too.

sweet. how much did you pay for it?

What you see is the stamped heat shield that's bolted on the muffler. They only used this style on the early ones (69-71).

The original colors were Candy Ruby Red, Candy Gold, and Candy Sapphire Blue. They were painted sliver first and then the candy color was sprayed on top of that. The original paint did not hold up well when exposed to the sun for extended periods of time, and tended to turn back to silver in spots when stored outside (see the photo of my blue frame).

I paid a little more than I wanted to, and much more than my wife thinks. The actual purchase price remains classified. These things regularly sell for many times their original price, which was just a few hundred dollars.

I'll post more photos later in the week when I start to get it back together.

Read all about 'em: http://www.hondatrail70.com/miniBikeBoy.htm

One of my buddies had a green one, what was that color called? Like this:

This is the best pic I could find of an SL70 like the one I had:

Same motor as the CT70 but the SL had a 'real' hand clutch with a 4 speed tranny, CT's were generally auto clutch. Some CT's had a hand clutch, in your pics it looks like the gold one is an 3 speed auto clutch and the blue one is a 4 speed hand clutch.

The green one in your photo is a Candy Emerald Green 70 or 71 CT70H four speed with the hand clutch. That bike, in that condition, would bring about two grand today.

My gold bike is a three speed with the auto clutch, as was the blue one in my other photo. If you look in the background of my second photo, you will see another frame. That one is a 70 CT70H four speed hand clutch in Candy Blue Green. It is currently on e-Bay as a bare frame (I am completely affiliated): http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280242952761&rd=1

The two blue frames are in better shape than the photos would indicate and are good candidates for restoration or Lifan restomods.

Are these bikes also called Monkey bikes?

Generally, a 'Monkey Bike' is a Mini Trail or Z50. Like this:

My brother and I used to share a red one like that. He had it on odd days and I had it on even days. Man, was I glad to finally get a paper route so I could buy the SL70 which I didn't have to share.

Supercharged Monkey Bike!: http://www.mini-cooper1.com/my_custom.html

trail 70s are also called DAX and in Europe the bigger trail 70 frame came with a 50cc motor,

it had to do with licencing regulations for 50cc or under....

those are awesome

I missed out on getting a ct70 a few years back. maybe I'll stumble across one pretty soon. I did happen up on a deal on a z50. it was a fun little project. its not original by any means, more of a resto-mod.

before:

after: