'71 CB350 with GSXR front end and other improvements

I was given two CB350s by my brother.



Lots of cleaning up 40 years worth of crud...



And since inverted front ends from modern bikes are all the rage, why not?




Got a nice set of custom built wheels from Woodys Wheel Works laced up with some 'busa rotors and a bit custom work



And we have, what I guess I could call "rolling stock"!


Retrofitted the tach with LED internals ... got me a pretty neat looking effect.

Other stuff not pictured...

1) Mikuni VM30 carbs
2) Pamco electronic ignition
3) Rick's Stator upgrade

Now where do I find a decent 2-into-1 muffler, in the flat track style??

Oh I like!

Nice. I was thinking of doing that front end to my 73 CB 350 G. Where did you get it?

Nice, love the wheels on the modern front end

Timmy, that tach, led, halo effect you got going looks pretty awesome, i imagine at night thats going to have a pretty cool effect not had by general aftermarket tachs purchased like that.....

And i love perusing through these builds and how some epic things are performed within 2-3 pictures, hahaha, masters in my novice eyes!

big fan of a usd swap.....
ill be watching this.
wheels look great

Holy crap dude! That's sick! I'm attempting to do the same type of thing and was wondering how hard it was for you to get the rear wheel components to work with the stock swing arm? That's where I'm running in to allot of issues. Any chance of some more photos? Love the gauge by the way. Super slick touch.

Dude, lovin the USD swap, plus the tach is pretty rad!

Its a front end from a Suzuki GSXR 600/750. You can use a range of years, but this particular one is 2006, I believe. You can use forks from the K5 or K6. There were different fork color options .. so pick what will match your bike best.

Traveler350 said:

Nice. I was thinking of doing that front end to my 73 CB 350 G. Where did you get it?

Click to expand...

lol thanks! i used a long LED strip and just tucked it in behind the tach faceplate. it basically fits.. and gets me that awesome halo effect. im going to try experimenting with different colors ... this one is a rather strong bluish-green color, but the photo makes it seem more blue than it really is.

Doc_coM85 said:

Timmy, that tach, led, halo effect you got going looks pretty awesome, i imagine at night thats going to have a pretty cool effect not had by general aftermarket tachs purchased like that.....

And i love perusing through these builds and how some epic things are performed within 2-3 pictures, hahaha, masters in my novice eyes!

Click to expand...

i'm running the stock rear-end right now. i'm going to try to finish this bike and get it operational, then i'll start drawing up ideas/plans for a complete rear end swap (with disc brakes).

the stock swingarm will never cut it.. (and it's not that rigid to start with) i'll have to look for a swingarm donor from a more recent bike. if you have any ideas on that end, please share!

gnarshread said:

Holy crap dude! That's sick! I'm attempting to do the same type of thing and was wondering how hard it was for you to get the rear wheel components to work with the stock swing arm? That's where I'm running in to allot of issues. Any chance of some more photos? Love the gauge by the way. Super slick touch.

Click to expand...

Would love some info on the LED tach! I build custom LED arrays for my fishtank so I probably already have all the parts I need.

~oops, looks like I should refresh before I ask questions you already answered.

Here's some additional information regarding the LED gauge.

You'll want a flexible LED strip. 9.5" long will give you a near perfect fit. I ordered mine from superbrightleds.com and this is the exact product (you'll want the 9.45" length strip).
http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/side-emitting/wflb-xx-series-waterproof-led-flexible-light-bar/48/


And here's how it looks when installed in the tach.

Dragonfish said:

Would love some info on the LED tach! I build custom LED arrays for my fishtank so I probably already have all the parts I need.

~oops, looks like I should refresh before I ask questions you already answered.

Click to expand...

That tach is sweet
I bet its blinding at night, you need a resistor in there somewhere I'd say

hahah, i bet you're probably right. ill need to do that.

SONICJK said:

That tach is sweet
I bet its blinding at night, you need a resistor in there somewhere I'd say

Click to expand...

you gonna swap the gauge face out while you are there?! right??! something custom? hahaha!

Looking great so far!

Classic and white would look cool!

timmysf said:

i'm running the stock rear-end right now. i'm going to try to finish this bike and get it operational, then i'll start drawing up ideas/plans for a complete rear end swap (with disc brakes).

the stock swingarm will never cut it.. (and it's not that rigid to start with) i'll have to look for a swingarm donor from a more recent bike. if you have any ideas on that end, please share!

Click to expand...

I've seen people cut down old sing arms off of MX bikes and use them to accept a modern rear tire but I really had my heart set on a swing arm that looks stock. Its more aesthetically pleasing but your right it wont be man enough for the job. You could probably take the existing swing arm and make a box section one using the original one as a pattern but at this point its all pontification.

I had a couple people ask me about specifics on the front end swap. So here's the distilled version.

A lot of those swaps involve a fork from the Suzuki GSXR 600/750 K5/K6. The forks on the GSXR1000 are longer as I'm told and are sprung for a heaver bike. Ive seen a thread involving a Ducati front end though, so thats an option. You'll want to find one with the lower and top triple tree. Although with the benefit of hindsight, its probably far more economical to just find someone selling the entire front end (with brake calipers, cables, controls, etc).

The tricky part of the swap is that the Suzuki stem requires bearings with 30mm inner diameters for both top and bottom. The honda CB350 head has different outer diameters for the top and bottom - 48.5mm OD (outer diameter) and 50mm OD. And in the past it was impossible to source bearings that had 48.5mm OD with 30mm ID, so you had to get a 48x30 one and shim it to fit.

But as of last year, All-Balls Bearings now offers a 48.5x30 bearing. So the swap is much simpler now. Get yourself one of those and a 50x30 bearing.

You also need a metal spacer on the bottom of the fork so that the bottom part of the head on the Honda frame doesnt scrape against the lower triple. 46mm OD, 30mm ID and about 4mm high.

Drop the spacer over the fork stem and on the lower triple FIRST. Then the bottom bearing sits on top of that spacer, and you can assemble the fork in the frame in the same manner as you would if it were on a GSXR. You may be very tight on remaining clearance on the top nut, and you can devise several approaches to give you the extra 3-4mm (shaving down the locking rings or what have you) if you want the top nut to be completely flush with the stem itself when tightened down.