July 25th, 2025
On a car, the throttle is controlled with a pedal; if you want to go faster, you “Step on it!”. But on a motorcycle, the throttle is controlled with the handgrip on the right side of the handlebar. You twist the handgrip to increase or decrease the throttle. There’s a cable that runs from the handlebar grip down to the carburetors; turning the handlebar grip opens up the carburetor, giving more gas to the engine. But there is one cable and two carburetors, so the throttle cable on the CB160 has a splitter underneath the gas tank that allows the one cable from the handlebar to handle two cables going to the two carburetors. (Aren’t electric vehicles so much nicer than these old internal combustion machines?)
For some reason, the original throttle cable didn’t quite fit the repaired handlebar unit. I fiddled around with everything I could, but it simply wouldn’t fit. I’m sure that I could have gotten it working, but that old cable was pretty ratty, bent in one place, and suffering from a hole in its protective cover in another place. Moreover, it seemed rather tight, as if there were some rust inside. I could have cleaned it with some WD-40 and some new oil inside, but I found a vendor selling a new one for $12, so I decided to take the easy path.
Alas, the new throttle cable was much too long to fit into my machine. I experimented with various curves and bends in the cable to get it to fit, but it was at least 12” longer than the original cable. After much experimentation, I gave up on it and returned to the original cable. It had some flaws, and I wasted