Brought to you by www.hondatrail70.com

We started with brand new original Bridgestone tires and tubes. It's no secret, you can still get most of these parts from your local Honda parts dealer.

 I have had every Gypsy with a Honda Mini Trail e-mail and tell me how to take these wheel halves apart.
1. Squirt it with WD 40 let it set an hour then try to pry it apart and squirt it with WD 40 again. Keep squirting and prying for three hours and you should get it apart.
My answer: WD 40 is too expensive to waste. Don't do this!
2. Drive to someone down the street to use special equipment and they can get it apart.
My answer: I live in a small town. I would have to go to Miami to get this done and that's two hours from here.
 I have the solution. With a simple plumbers torch you can heat up each half of the wheel rim. Do not get the wheel halves red hot (it does not have to be this hot). If you do this properly the paint will not even come off. Heat them until you can smell rubber burning and them take a pair of pliers and grab the wheel half.  With your foot on the tire pull the wheel half upwards and the wheel half should come off easily. In 2 minutes and .02 cents worth of propane your old rusted wheel will be free from the tire.
Sand blast each half and primer. If your wheel halves are not that rusty, you may be able to get away with just sanding. Use 400 grit wet & dry sandpaper to smooth the surface then spray paint with the Dupli-Color paint shown below.

Before.

After.

Again we polished the nuts and bolts for each wheel half and all other levers, screws. 

You can buy new wheel halves from Honda for about $25.00 each, but we sand blasted ours and repainted them with "Dupli-Color" silver wheel paint from our local Super Wal-Mart. This is a very close match to the original silver paint used by Honda. 

Dupli-Color Wheel Paint Silver WP 316

New!! Mini Trail Sales Brochures
Click Here

The aluminum wheel hub was polished and  re-painted with a thin coat of clear lacquer paint before assembly.

 This picture shows the re-assembled front wheel after each nut, bolt and lever was hand polished with a stitched buff and tripoli buffing compound. Then re-cadmium plated for rust prevention. 

We have stopped doing our own cadmium plating. We have found a shop in Texas who will do it better for less. 

Click Here
http://www.hondatrail70.com/minitrail50restoration2.htm

The cables were cleaned up with lacquer thinner along with the rubber shock boots. We must say, out of 11 bikes now this is the nicest front wheel we own at the time. 

With not many tools and about 6 hours of work you can make the front wheel of your Honda Trail 70 bike look pretty close to showroom condition. 
Next week the rear wheel.

Honda CT70 Bikes By Year Model:

My 1977 Model Bikes:

4 Speed-Manual Clutch Bikes:

3 Speed-Automatic Clutch Bikes: