• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Build Thread: CB350 Cafe

What are you using for a battery and electrical system? The alternator is not a 3 phase unit like the later bikes. It used 2 charging coils for daytime and when you turned the lights on it added 4 more coils in the alternator. CB350 electrical system was just barely adequte for stock components. When the CB360's came out with the lights on all-the-time they were always taking the batt down tp the point they would'nt electric start.
 
What are you using for a battery and electrical system? The alternator is not a 3 phase unit like the later bikes. It used 2 charging coils for daytime and when you turned the lights on it added 4 more coils in the alternator. CB350 electrical system was just barely adequte for stock components. When the CB360's came out with the lights on all-the-time they were always taking the batt down tp the point they would'nt electric start.

Haven't considered that. I wanted to use a very small battery and hide it under the seat hump. I was planning on running with kick-only.
 
looks like good fun Gabe.. that exhaust has me droolin... that bike from Ithaca is a very inspiring picture..Looking forward to your progress:thumbup
 
Okay, I bought the frame of a motorcycle today: a '73 CL350. Shouldn't be too different from the CB frame. Charlie picked it as one of his cleaner and straighter frames, even though it looks bent and twisted. Charlie says, no, they're all like that. Crazy way to build shit if you ask me.

Look fairly straight to me. If you are concerned that one of the down tubes is a bit lower than the other, don't worry, that's so you know the 'correct' side of the bike to take the engine out of (or in your case put it in!)

If I had to get new clip ons I would buy another pair from Woodcraft CFM. I ran those on my Triumph and loved them. Now all my older bikes have 'period' clipons, which is just a different word for 'cheap crap'.
 
Yeah, I think I will email Woodcraft next week.

A shout-out goes to Joe (Vintage Guy) who bro'ed me out with a free swingarm in true Berkeley "we're all in this thing together, man" style. Thanks!

Look fairly straight to me. If you are concerned that one of the down tubes is a bit lower than the other, don't worry, that's so you know the 'correct' side of the bike to take the engine out of (or in your case put it in!)

If I had to get new clip ons I would buy another pair from Woodcraft CFM. I ran those on my Triumph and loved them. Now all my older bikes have 'period' clipons, which is just a different word for 'cheap crap'.
 
Saw this in North Beach today:

hey! that's my cb160 rolling chassis i bought for $50. then got a ca160 engine ( single carb ) and box of parts i bought for $80. added $50 covers, $130 in tires, $29 tank badges, $5 can of paint, $100 reupholstery from tony in the sunset district, $10 tail light lens and there she is. priceless
 
hey! that's my cb160 rolling chassis i bought for $50. then got a ca160 engine ( single carb ) and box of parts i bought for $80. added $50 covers, $130 in tires, $29 tank badges, $5 can of paint, $100 reupholstery from tony in the sunset district, $10 tail light lens and there she is. priceless

WOW. Nice Fing work on that, lovely looking bike!

Now who is Tony in the Sunset, and does he need more biz? I've got a few small jobs, including some sportcar seats....
 
WOW. Nice Fing work on that, lovely looking bike!

Now who is Tony in the Sunset, and does he need more biz? I've got a few small jobs, including some sportcar seats....

His number was (415) 531-2917 last time I used him, back in my SF Moto sales days...about 6-7 years ago.
 
hey! that's my cb160 rolling chassis i bought for $50. then got a ca160 engine ( single carb ) and box of parts i bought for $80. added $50 covers, $130 in tires, $29 tank badges, $5 can of paint, $100 reupholstery from tony in the sunset district, $10 tail light lens and there she is. priceless

Quality work man, it looked really great!

Were you parked right outside the Cheesesteak place, Busters?
 
i was parked at cafe trieste. as for tony, you can search craigslist for "upholstery " in the sunset. he is a russian fellow who works out of his gargage and is very fast and reasonable. no more than 1 or 2 days max.
 
Anyone see this on CL? I want it.

1972 Honda cb350 F. Four cylinder, 10,xxx miles. Cafe bike with vintage clip-ons, larger Yamaha headlamp & new cateye rear tail light, Renthal grips, nice comfortable cafe seat, center mounted solo speedometer, filled and pinstripped tank, fork brace. It has entire vintage Jardine exhaust system(sounds so sexy) with new points/condensers/plugs and oil change. The tires are good and it runs and rides quite nicely. Ridden daily/weekly and will cruise freeway speeds all day and then do wonderfully in the twisties. Not beat up or abused, but not a show bike either, just a great little cafe racer that gets compliments all day and gives an "ear to ear grin" ever time that its ridden. Exceptionally fun motorcycle to ride. Ask any questions that you have, thankx.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/mcy/1553246650.html
 

Attachments

  • image 1553246650-0.jpeg
    image 1553246650-0.jpeg
    6.2 KB · Views: 1,003
^^ Yeah, I was sorta drooling at that, but felt that in light of no real performance mods, in addition to all the missing/modified OEM parts, that the price was around $500 too high.



And where the heck is the license plate??
 
I wondered about the license plate too. Maybe it was removed for pics?

It looks pretty clean. I don't care so much about the missing/modded OEM stuff, if the changes are sensible and relatively easy to fix if needed, and I'd probably do some more stuff to it anyway. But yeah, I'd try to get the price down.

I go up to Sac every week or two. I'm gonna keep an eye on it, and maybe check it out next time I'm up there.
 
Anyone see this on CL? I want it.

1972 Honda cb350 F. Four cylinder, 10,xxx miles. Cafe bike with vintage clip-ons, larger Yamaha headlamp & new cateye rear tail light, Renthal grips, nice comfortable cafe seat, center mounted solo speedometer, filled and pinstripped tank, fork brace. It has entire vintage Jardine exhaust system(sounds so sexy) with new points/condensers/plugs and oil change. The tires are good and it runs and rides quite nicely. Ridden daily/weekly and will cruise freeway speeds all day and then do wonderfully in the twisties. Not beat up or abused, but not a show bike either, just a great little cafe racer that gets compliments all day and gives an "ear to ear grin" ever time that its ridden. Exceptionally fun motorcycle to ride. Ask any questions that you have, thankx.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/mcy/1553246650.html

I've been gazing longingly at that ad for a few weeks...looks like a cool bike.
 
To me, half the point of going with the vintage iron is to stay away from the inline 4. Singles, Twins, Triples (and maybe a Six?) are the kind of rides I appreciate the most.

With that in mind, the 350F is heavier and less powerful. If you are snapping one up, it is really for its obscurity and rareness. I much much prefer my CB/CL350 Twin to the CB350F that we sold a couple years back.

I'd stick with the plan to build up that lovely CB350 of your dreams, rather than inherit someone else's project!

On a separate note, I didn't realize that Charlie laces up wheels. It seems that he is the ONLY person in SF that will do this kind of work. So I basically have 4 options for my GT750 4LS to my shouldered aluminum rim:
1) Charlie
2) Chris @ Wheelworks in Hayward
3) Ship it to Buchannan
4) Do it myself like Twitchmotor

I still need to sell/unload this XS650 Front disc 19 shouldered alum rim and pick up a XS650 Front DRUM 19 shouldered alum rim before I can get that part of the project underway. Perhaps when I have that, I'll also be prepared to do the frame weld reinforcement on the T500 and I can start a 'project thread' for that built to run along Gabe and Twitch's
 
Last edited:
To me, half the point of going with the vintage iron is to stay away from the inline 4. Singles, Twins, Triples (and maybe a Six?) are the kind of rides I appreciate the most.

With that in mind, the 350F is heavier and less powerful. If you are snapping one up, it is really for its obscurity and rareness. I much much prefer my CB/CL350 Twin to the CB350F that we sold a couple years back.

I'd stick with the plan to build up that lovely CB350 of your dreams, rather than inherit someone else's project!

On a separate note, I didn't realize that Charlie laces up wheels. It seems that he is the ONLY person in SF that will do this kind of work. So I basically have 4 options for my GT750 4LS to my shouldered aluminum rim:
1) Charlie
2) Chris @ Wheelworks in Hayward
3) Ship it to Buchannan
4) Do it myself like Twitchmotor

I still need to sell/unload this XS650 Front disc 19 shouldered alum rim and pick up a XS650 Front DRUM 19 shouldered alum rim before I can get that part of the project underway. Perhaps when I have that, I'll also be prepared to do the frame weld reinforcement on the T500 and I can start a 'project thread' for that built to run along Gabe and Twitch's

Yeah, I've never been too impressed with the CB350F, although making a 60s GP racer-replica would be a fun project.

I didn't know Charlie does wheels! Good to know.
 
it turns out that heavily-modified UJMs can mimic a wide variety of faux-Euro race replicas - the "MV"-6 was originally a GS550 Zook:
 

Attachments

  • Honda500-4replica2.jpg
    Honda500-4replica2.jpg
    137.6 KB · Views: 76
  • HondaCBXrepliracerIoM.jpg
    HondaCBXrepliracerIoM.jpg
    37.5 KB · Views: 71
  • HondaReplica4-2.jpg
    HondaReplica4-2.jpg
    126 KB · Views: 74
  • HondaReplica4small.jpg
    HondaReplica4small.jpg
    84.3 KB · Views: 74
  • MV6-Suz550.jpg
    MV6-Suz550.jpg
    136.8 KB · Views: 87
Back
Top