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Reader David C. just reminded us that we had committed to featuring the occasional motorcycle and this is the one he recommended. It is a 1968 Honda CB350 and it supposedly sat in a barn for many years. Everything has since been gone through to make it a runner. There is no shortage of these because the CB350 was actually one of the best selling bikes ever. Still, it can be hard find an unrestored solid example today. This one is in Virginia and is listed here on eBay where bidding is currently at $910 with no reserve. Thanks David!
Seems like all the money for an unrestored runner but what do I know? I can say that I learned to ride on a CB 175 of similar vintage though…
Seems like a nice find. A bit of tank sealant, a fuel filter and down the road you go!
~ its not a big motorcycle
just a groovy little motorbike,
fond memories,
… til the guy in the Mustang did a left turn.
I own a 71 Honda CB350 in original condition, paid 300 bucks for it, the gas tank is pretty bad on this one, the close ups show the rust around the gas cap. looks like it was in a barn judging from the aluminum erosion, the caps on top of the carbs are very pitted, they were chromed if I remember correctly. The handlebars are what were called Z-bars, not original to the bike. These bikes are going up in value, this is a first year production. I had a buddy in high school that got a 1968 CL 350 new when we were juniors, it was a big bike to us, so they always reminded me of those days, When I ride mine, it is like a bear on a bicycle. Still pretty fast, and I have two into one megaphone exhaust, that was on it when I got it.
Definitely Z-bars. Something reminiscent of some of the custom bike builders of not too long ago. Personally I preferred the Drag Bars, even on my (mildly) customized Harley.
I remember when the CB/CL 350 came out. A couple guys in school bought them. i remember them being harder to kick over than my BSA 500 single. Maybe a good thing that they relied primarily on electric start.
Didn’t a couple of guys (their names are on the tip of my tongue) win the Baja 500 on one of these in ’68 or ’69? It was almost completely stock save for some suspension changes.
i remember that there were a lot of cl/cb’s in our town back then. all of ones i knew about were riden hard and put away wet, but that did not seem to hurt them much. great find
Sold for $1,406!
Greetings,
this bike, to me, was the death knell for much of the british and other independents manufacturers motorcycle industry. it was theirs to lose unfortunately. honda raised the bar by providing motorcycles that ran with little quality and mechanical issues. they weren’t perfect by any means but thy raised the bar.
the early seventies found honda 750/4 being competitive with a variety of marques that eventually lost market share to honda.
triumph, bsa, harley davidson, were the benchmarks for big bikes in the states,yes i left some out sorry italy.
take any of those bikes and at the time, if you looked at a 3 year old model, it seeped, it brake far too many times when compared to the japanese counterpart.
always wondered how much of the camaraderie of that period of riding had to do with riding with enough marque appreciating people that gave the group a rolling spares department that allowed regular forward motion.
like all bikes so don’t hammer me.
harley’s and brits from the same year, put 5000 miles on them and then compare with a honda from the same era/same mileage, the honda was cleaner and most likely had less maintenance costs. strange because honda introduced more novices to riding which should have had the effect of more maintenance costs due to their inexperience.
it wasn’t all bad, competition made some of the brands step up their game but unfortunately was the beginning of end for some smaller companies.
the harley v-rod was a direct response to the tourers that the japanese industry introduced to the states, albeit a little late. harley is more responsive now and a better company because of it.