OK, here you go.
1973 Honda CB350 four resurrection.
I got this bike for my 16th B-day in 1976. This was my only transportation while I was in high school. It was a great bike and just what I needed. After some years went by I got married and had to work all the time and hardly ever rode it. I had to move out of town for several years due to job requirements so the bike sat in my parents’ garage under a sofa bag.
Some 25 years later I bought a house with a garage and decided to retrieve my bike.
I was quite upset to find that my dad had removed the sofa bag and put it on his riding lawn mower. At some point he had the garage painted and my bike was covered in over-spray paint. (Son of a ….) ! I brought the bike home and covered it and there it sat for another few years. I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands and decided to see if I could get her running again. I had (at that time) more money than rebuild experience so I started to ask around at motorcycle shops about restoring it. Everybody said the same thing, (it will cost more to rebuild than it was worth and finding parts would be impossible). (Bummer).
The bike was in great shape, I decided that I had nothing to loose. I started to work on the things I felt I could do myself. The first item was the gas tank (look at all that rust inside). I tried that kreem stuff. It worked great. Next, remove all that over-spray paint (many hours of tedious work). I bought a new battery, bought a new clutch pack disc set, changed the oil and filter, fuel line, carb rebuild kits, new floats and it still leaked gas, 7 or 8 times I removed the carbs and finely found the problem. (All four over flow stems had hairline crakes, so I drilled them out and replace them) That was the first of many very steep learning curves. I rebuilt the front brake caliper and installed new pads and shoes, new front and rear inter-tubes and special ordered (period correct) tires, (I had no confidence in those 35+ yr old rubbers). New drive chain, front fork oil, air filter, spark plugs and WOW it started right up. How cool was that? I was surprised at how scared I was just riding around the neighborhood. People are F-ing crazy. I was almost killed twice the first month of riding it. That must have been why I stopped riding.
I found a place that would inspect it and I got the tags and the cheapest insurance I could find. That little bike is now street legal and runs pretty well all things considered.
I wish I had found this web site when I was in the rebuild process. What a cool place.
I am now in the process of trying different things to patch the big rust holes in those factory original 4 to 4 pipes. JB Weld worked but didn’t last. I am now using aluminum exhaust tape so far so good.
It is not as fast as I remember but it sure gets there in a hurry, but I guess I am about 100 lbs heaver now.
I am sorry for the long post, I am just so excited to find others that think these old bikes are still just too cool.
Thanks for the site and I will be watching.
PhilipB.
