Topic: My first drop/crash.

[loonymoon]

, but I'm not sure how far a 350 will go (without me not being able to walk the next day.)

Well I usually get an aching right hand before anything else....oo-er... I mean the high-frequency vibrations seem to come through the right handlebar after about 50-100 miles of non-stop riding.

It's interesting as the cycle-world road test mentions the vibration on the right bar! Other than that it's ok. You'd have to stop every 150miles or so for fuel anyway.

[Terry in Australia]

Go for it Dave, if I was your height and build, a 350F would be fine for touring! Cheers, Terry.

It's sure tempting. I have a pal at work who works on bikes, etc, and he's trying to get me to chop it and make it a hard tail with a solo seat, replacing the rear shocks to deal with the shift in weight. The question is... would I look like a total clown? 

Well this might offend some here, but the only "Choppable" Jap bikes built (in my less than humble opinion) were the yamaha 650 twin and of course, the mighty CB750. Anything else looks #$%*e. If you're gonna do a proper chop, do a 750 and no-one will think you're a clown, ha ha! Re: the vibration problem, try a set of bar weights and some foam grips. I had the same problem with my BMW R100RS many years ago, but those two items fixed it. Cheers, Terry.

[davebaker]

Glad to hear you are OK and the bike suffered only minor damage. Looks like a nice bike, any other pics?

(a day later, but what the hey.)  Sure thing. I'll snap a few and post em up for ya.

[turtle]

Glad you're OK Dave. I've still got all that fun ahead of me once I get mine rebuilt and together.
Every bike comes with a drop or two built in to it.
Please don't chop it. These old bikes are treasures and becoming pretty rare.
Jane

[Jim Shea]

Carmen,
Foam grips do work, I have just put them on my bike and they feel great..
Jim.

[loonymoon]

Carmen,
Foam grips do work, I have just put them on my bike and they feel great..
Jim.

Thanks guys, I thought there would be a simple solution. At the moment I ride rarely and I don't often ride for long enough to feel the ache....  But perhaps if and when I live somewhere that I can keep the bike with me I'll invest in a pair - the original grips aren't that comfortable anyway.

Dave... Please DON'T chop it! I'm not a fan of chops so I'd say that anyway but I definately think that a chopped 350 would look silly!!

[Jim Shea]

I think that unless the bike is a wreck it should not be chopped!
Foam grips cost about 5 pounds..

[davebaker]

I hear ya loud and clear. No chopping! 

-D

[Terry in Australia]

I hear ya loud and clear. No chopping! 

-D

I would sell it and buy a 400F ...they go up hills good .......

I could never get into the "look" of the 400/4, far too "slab sided" for my tastes (yeah, I know, the F2 is slabby as well, but at least it's a 750) and always wondered why Honda didn't just bump up the capacity of the little 4 piper, and give it another gear?

I've seen 400 and 350 frames side by side and there's bugger all difference, so it's not like you can't make a 350F handle as well, but they were popular in Britain, for sure. Maybe a 400/4 engine in a 350F would be the best of both worlds? I've been offered a 400F for 20 bucks (tatty, but complete) so i might buy it, and look around for a 350F with a buggared engine, ha ha! Cheers, Terry.

[loonymoon]

I've seen 400 and 350 frames side by side and there's bugger all difference, so it's not like you can't make a 350F handle as well, but they were popular in Britain, for sure.

The 400 was popular here in Britain for sure.. I like them but can see what you mean about the slab-sidedness. The 400F is much more aggressive looking than the 350. Mind you the 350 was never officially imported  here so we didn't have the small-capacity pre-cursor for it to be compared to.

I read somewhere that the gearing on the 400/4 is such that you have to work the gears much more than on the 350 to maintain speed, the 350's gears being better spaced. Is this true? I've not ridden the 400 so can't comment. I do keep trying to shift up to a non-existant 6th gear on my 350 though!!

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Carmen, well I haven't ridden a 400/4 since 1977, so to be honest I don't remember, but generally a smaller engine wiil benefit from as many gears that you can fit in the box, as they don't have a great deal of torque to accellerate quickly in higher gears. My little 350F would happily propel me along at 100 Mph, and I'm a little bigger than Dave Baker, but it'd take a while to get there, ha ha! Cheers, Terry.

[Gordon]

I read somewhere that the gearing on the 400/4 is such that you have to work the gears much more than on the 350 to maintain speed, the 350's gears being better spaced. Is this true? I've not ridden the 400 so can't comment. I do keep trying to shift up to a non-existant 6th gear on my 350 though!!

Having had a 350 and 400F, I don't recall needing to shift needing to shift the 400 any more or less than the 350.  The thing with all the sohc/4's, and especially the smaller ones, is that they love to be wound up and so don't need to be up-shifted nearly as early or as often as most people tend to think they do.  The 400F with it's 10,000 rpm redline is perfectly happy cruising along at 6000 or 7000 rpm all day.  But you do get spoiled by that 6th gear!  I still do the same thing on my 750, trying to upshift from 5th.

[davebaker]

Glad to hear you are OK and the bike suffered only minor damage. Looks like a nice bike, any other pics?

Little late on this:

[heffay]

what's under the cover mister sneaky pants?

also, it seems that your cb350f has grown antennae... oh, wait, no... those are just cables.

[davebaker]

Yeah, the PO had chopper cables on it. I still need to replace those.

Under the cover is my father's HD Dynagilde(?), complete with radio and tapeplayer. 

[heffay]

forgot to mention it is a nice looking 350... congrats on not killing yourself!

[davebaker]

  Thanks Heff!

[loonymoon]

forgot to mention it is a nice looking 350... congrats on not killing yourself!

I second that.. lovely bike..!

[Bob Wessner]

As I thought from the glimpse in your first pics, very nice looking bike! The 350 is too small, physically for me, but I always felt they had an aura of elegant precision about them. Perhaps because they are one of the closest models to to Honda's 250 six cylinder racer. Now that was a piece of precision machinery!