Tag Archives: Combat Wombat restoration

Combat Wombat Restoration Project

Hodaka restoration

Part 2: Combat Time If you haven’t read Part 1 of our series, where, as mostly Maico restoration guys, we ‘Enter the Combat’ zone with equal parts excitement and trepidation, you can read the first installment HERE. Planning “A little planning never hurt anyone.” I don’t know whether it was the US military or my […]

Restoration Project: Hodaka “Combat Wombat”

Restoration Project: Hodaka "Combat Wombat"

Hodakas incorporated competition-proven frame geometry, while at the same time attending to required street-legal equipment—though with minimalist (lighter weight) treatment. Built from 1964 through PABATCO’s demise in 1977, Hodakas were loved, at least initially, by the press and the riding public—possibly for relating to buyers as riders rather than simply customers—and filled a role in motorcycling not unlike American Motors Corporation in the automotive world: a small energetic competitor nipping at the heels of a sometimes deaf and monolithic establishment.