I bought some cheapie turn signals on ebay and installed them. This gives peace of mind in traffic, especially with police around. It also doesn’t really stand out or look too weird.
Well, here’s Mandy’s CL350 before I return it to her later tonight. I completely cleaned and rejuvenated the bike from not running. The carbs were frozen from varnished gas. New tires and multiple other little parts have brought it back into reliable, safe service.
Some late evening 4th of July shots to show some of the new stuff. Norman Hyde handlebars, re-faced gauges (now featuring both a speedo and tach.) Also a few planes landing at the airport in the background.
I haven’t posted anything lately.. It’s really hot outside, so you can only sneak out at night if you don’t want your vehicles to get tortured.
Tonight was a lazy night. I didn’t feel like riding because it’s so humid. Instead, I decided to tear apart the speedo and tach on the bike because I was tired of looking at mis-matched green. This is just printer paper and my laser printer, so black is my only option for color. That’s fine. I wanted something I could see better at night anyway. I also adjusted the numbers on the speedometer to more closely match my GPS. Just another little thing to set the bike apart from the other Hondas… Also, Helvetica numerals.
These are both in my garage at the moment. I’m working on the CL350 to get it running reliably for its owner. The green CL175 came home with me today from Des Moines.
My Norman Hyde ‘M Bars’ arrived today. So much better looking and feeling than the Renthal dirt bike bars I had on there.
After a few test rides I realized that I’m not the sort of person that feels right riding without mirrors. It just isn’t safe. I don’t care how cool you want to look, I use my mirrors constantly while riding. I had a couple of old mirrors laying around and decided to make custom arms out of aluminum with a die to thread one end. One thing I learned today: Bending aluminum will break if if you don’t heat it with a torch.
The CB350 is wired now. I spent the past two nights soldering and heat shrink tubing things. Some of my most thorough work to date. I also put gas in the tank and popped off the electric starter and the bike fired right away. I’ll probably oil the front forks and ride it tomorrow finally.
Tonight I finally got brave enough to remove the gaiters from the CL350 forks on the front of the project bike. I should have done it last year because there is absolutely no rust or pitting on these forks. The condition of them is amazing, given the history of the donor bike living outside for 40 years. Amazing. I’m really happy I get to keep this setup because of the steering damper on top of the triple tree.
Dinking around in the garage this evening. Getting closer. The fuel tank holds fuel now. the obscure 16x1mm petcocks with 7mm outlets have been installed.
Not much progress tonight but I made a tank hanger to get the gas tank where I want it and I dug a CL175 heat shield out of a box and polished it up. It will actually work on the CL350 pipes OK for now. My secret to making things look more streamlined is to stick smaller bike parts on bigger bikes. CL175 fenders and shiny stuff onto a CB350 has been an easy way to keep things looking stock but a bit more tightened up.
When I see this bike, I have to wonder if they didn’t find a photo of mine on Flickr, haha. A CB350 with CL pipes. My bike is obviously different, but we both chose the same mufflers and both have the Type I points covers which were only present in 1968 I believe.
I’ve included a photo of my bike below:
The CB350 goes (more) Italian with a 1971 Benelli 650 Tornado fuel tank.
