Topic: CB350F Cafe Project - First Rodeo

[jlaxrips]

I've always been interested in building a motorcycle, so two summers ago I finally purchased a bike that I thought could eventually work for a project. When I was younger I wanted to build a bobber but after my taste changed a bit and I looked at tons of bikes online I decided to build a cafe bike.

The bike I purchased was a 1972 cb350f with just over 15,000 miles. I didn't know much about them but it seemed to run good and I liked it a lot. Picked it up for $750 - it had apparently been gone through recently for the guys son to learn on and ran fine.

After a few hundred miles the bike started pissing fuel out of the carbs so I looked into it. Turns out the tank was rusty and had caused the issue (according to a friend). I took the tank off and intended to fix it, clean carbs and ride the bike. A few hours later in my garage it was completely apart and this build began.

I haven't shot enough photos along the way but have a bunch so I'm just going to post them and you guys can let me know what you think. I've been away for work for half of the build so it's taking forever, but I hope to finish it in the next few weeks.

[jlaxrips]

I didn't really have a clear vision of what the bike was going to look like when I started so I just made decisions on the fly. I guess it's nothing really complicated so that wasn't a big deal.

Really like the lines of the stock tank and wanted to keep the pinstripes so I did that but switched up the colors.

I am not a really mechanical person so I called in a lot of favors from friends to help me through the whole process. They were all immensely helpful.

[jlaxrips]

The motor looked to be in relatively good shape compared to a lot of stuff I see on here. The old owner had done a bootleg silver rattle can job on it while still in the frame so I wanted to strip that all off and get it looking fresh again.

The bike was also blowing some smoke so my older brother advised that I rebuild the top end. I ended up using the existing piston, with new rings and fresh valves from a shop in the Netherlands. I couldn't find replacement pistons and didn't want to pay to have them made.

[jlaxrips]

A friend of mine hooked me up with his buddy who powdercoats stuff. I brought him my frame, wheels, hubs, center stand, triple trees and motor mounts to be done in straight black. He sandblasted everything and coated it.

I ended up deciding against having the guy do my frame and swingarm. It was going to be out of my budget. Another pal who works at a dodge dealer said a guy in the body shop would paint them for 100 bucks, so after chopping a bunch of the brackets and the passenger peg mounts off I had him spray them in matte silver.

[jlaxrips]

At that point a matte silver and straight black color combo was where I was headed.

I decided that I'd clean and polish the motor to the best of my ability and paint the head & cylinders black.

After stripping them, scrubbing and prepping I sprayed them with black engine enamel. I'm hoping it holds up.

Once that was finished up the parts all went to my friend the Dodge mechanic (he also works on all of my motocross bikes) and we did the top end. Pictures from that are apparently on my old blackberry somewhere.

[jlaxrips]

Here are the parts back from powdercoat. I forgot I also had him coat my seat pan because I wasn't sure what my plan was for it at the moment.

[jlaxrips]

Hubs

[jlaxrips]

triples

[jlaxrips]

I had been polishing the valve cover and side covers while my friend had the motor. Then once it was all back together I started polishing all the other surfaces.

Pretty amateur polish job but I think it came out alright given the tools I had and time I put into it.

I had the fork covers and headlight ears painted flat black by a friend who was painting and striping my tank.

Rebuilt the forks with the help of Wingman who sent me some parts I needed. As it turned out the previous owner stuck a damper back in that was seized at the bottom of its stroke. Once that was done I put it all back together and onto the frame.

[jlaxrips]

I order a new set of spokes from www.motorcyclesolutionsllc.com and set about building the wheels. Unfortunately I became extremely frustrated with patterns I thought were correct but didn't end up working. That's probably what I get for not taking any photos of the wheels before cutting them apart.

My older builds MX wheels and tried to help but couldn't crack the code either. Eventually with help from sohc4 and a local vintage bike shop they got finished.

Then my brother mounted up the tires. They were on the bike when I bought it and pretty much new so I figured why not. Plus I like the nostalgic look they have.

[jlaxrips]

After that I built the rolling chassis, finished cleaning up the motor and mounted it in the chassis.

The red bungee was there because I lost the hook for my center stand. Ended up ordering one for a 750 and using it. Now I've got to fab a stop for it since my passenger pegs and muffler are no longer there to stop it from springing up into the brake arm then swingarm..

[jlaxrips]

At that point I had to take the thing outside and let it see the light of day for the first time in a year or so.

[jlaxrips]

I guess that post above is the first time you've seen the tank. It is straight gloss black with a sliver pinstripe to match the frame. The stripe is the same pattern as the stock gold one that was there before.

For a while I was looking around the internet at fiberglass cafe seats but couldn't really find exactly what I wanted and sort of felt like making my own. So, I traced a pattern around the seat pan so I could slide what I made over it and mount it to that.

I bought floral foam, glued it together on a cardboard cut out and started shaping. It was a lot of fun.

[jlaxrips]

After the shape was where I wanted it - or as close as I could get it to be - I duct-taped around the whole thing and sprayed it with non stick cooking spray as the mold release.

I went out and bought some fiberglass cloth and resin and gave it a shot. Pretty messy process but I definitely learned a lot and hope to do a lot more of it on future projects.

I did end up having to reinforce the shape form the inside. Here's a look at how it sits on the bike. Still need to figure out exactly how I'm going to mount it to the seat pan.

[jlaxrips]

My Dodge mechanic friend once again pulled through and hooked me up with a guy who was going to do the body work on the seat for me while I was traveling to CA for work. He is actually painting it to match the tank in the next few days.

[jlaxrips]

Planned on buying the small little chrome universal gauges you can find all over the place but ended up using the stock ones. I just stripped the paint off and polished them without taking them apart for fear of f'ing them up.

I think they turned out alright. Like having the stock gauge faces which are in relatively good shape.

[jlaxrips]

Random photo of the carbs.

I used to work at Sport Honda Powerhouse in Metuchen NJ so they cleaned them in their ultrasonic tank for me. I basically rebuilt them completely after that but didn't replace the needles. I regret that at this point and may end up doing so anyway. Thought the original fuel pissing problem was caused by the tips being screwed up but they looked just fine when we inspected them.

I put on emgo pods and hope they don't give me a tuning nightmare like some people say they do.

[jlaxrips]

Here is what the bike looks like now. I basically have all the parts I need to finish but can't do anything while I'm on the West Coast and it's sitting in NJ.

I'm a newb, so a little worried about wiring the bike etc. Definitely going to need some help tuning / syncing the carbs.

Picked up some pretty neat little turn out chrome mufflers to mount on the end of my refinished 4-2s that came with the bike (I chopped of the mufflers that were on them). A guy out here told me that it will be a serious dog and impossible to tune with no back pressure.

Not going to run a battery or electric start. Still need to figure out a taillight and license plate bracket.

[jlaxrips]

I just got word that the body work on my seat is all finished. Now I just have to wait a few weeks to get back home to NJ from CA and try mounting it up. After I figure that out it'll get painted and I hope to make a nice leather seat pad.

Also - thinking of fabricating some rear sets eventually. Maybe using the swing arm pivot bolt and rear lower engine / peg mount bolt as the mounting points for some brackets. Just a thought for now. This was a really rough mock up.

[jlaxrips]

Hi all, finally got my bike wired up, tail section painted and seat upholstered. All that's left is painting my headlight bucket and tuning the carbs.

Took it for a short ride yesterday and it was breaking up bad once under a load -- despite revving up beautiful on the lift. I guess it was too lean. Moved the metering rod / needle to the lowest position and now it's too rich, smoking a bit etc. I'm going to go up a position and hopefully that get's me pretty close.

Any tips or recommendations for tuning the 350 four with pods and really open mufflers?

Thanks! Hope you like it.

-Justin

[jlaxrips]

Three more

[robdrobd]

Hey Justin, you might want to try turning the air screws in a tad to richin it up as well. Sometimes a quarter turn can stop a bike from bogging down when you punch it.

[Spiider]

Nice build! Definitely I'll be watching this one.

I love the small displacement bikes, totally different than the 750...my next build will be a 350-450 but probably a two cylinder.
The 4's are impossible to find up here in Canada.

[jlaxrips]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. Really happy with the way it came out -- looking forward to getting it tuned.

Here's a link to the video I shot the first time we started it a few weeks ago before messing around tuning it:

Cb350f first run

[gus203]

Great sounding bike, sounds like mine did before I quieted it down with some old Harley mufflers I had laying around. It actually runs better with the mufflers on than it did with a more open exhaust. I went up to a 80 main jet and raised the needles up 1 notch and it runs great . I haven't been able to find a big selection of jets for the 350F carbs. Someone else on here said they went to a 85 main and raised the needles 1 notch running Pods and open exhaust.