Crusty 73 CL350

Hi all,

This is my first post & build. I've used this site and honda twins as a reference for the stuff I'm unsure about (happens often haha) which makes me want to post my own progress on here. Hopefully this will provide insight/confidence for people in the same boat as me!

I bought the bike for $200, no title, no key, and not running. Everything seemed to be there, just not actually on the bike. So not really knowing what to look for/check, I loaded it up and took it home. I've had the bike now for 2 months and have learned a friggin ton already. Didn't want to post anything on here until I knew the direction I wanted to go with the bike, which I kinda do now... I'm plannin on making the bike reliable, stripped down, and and a mix between a tracker and brat style ... and the rust/corrosion is staying. I thought this was a "rat bike" but after searching rat bikes all I came up with was a bunch of bikes held together by duct tape. Not really what I'm going for so I don't know what to call it. I planned on powder coating and painting everything originally, but the more I do on it, the more I love the rust. Kinda shows her character. I want the bike to be mechanically awesome i.e all balls bearing kits for stearing and wheels, mikuni carbs, renthal bars, new cables/controls, etc... but not be super expensive. Hopefully this is in the right build section.

Anyway, with all the the parts kinda just slapped on to have a starting picture, here she is:

Stripping the bike down:

First things first should have been doing a compression test at the sellers house, but I took his word saying that it was good... Still haven't done one, but I started with testing the spark once I got it home. Before I could start that, I had to pull the ignition wires apart and figure out what to connect. I bought a simple toggle switch from pep boys and connected wires. In the 'on' position red connected to black, and the two brown wires (one with white stripe) are connected together separately. This is a little confusing, because its the first position on the OEM switch. I assumed first position was park (or something similar) and the second position would be run.

After figuring out the ignition switch, I hooked up the battery, grounded the plugs, found that the starter button isn't working. Probably some kind of short or a bad/corroded connection. Anyway, kicked it a few time. No joy. Traced the wire that is supposed to go between the ignition coils and the kill switch (black with white stripe). This was going to the headlight.... I bypassed the kill switch. Tested the spark, and got a nice blue spark. Success! I got the new mikuni carbs and intake boots and put them on. Made a little makeshift gas tank out of a water bottle and jb weld. Hooked everything up and put a little gas in and with a little idle speed and pilot adjustments it ran!!!

If she's running, thats half the battle. Good deal. I have a 73 CL350 as well. But my project is on hold while I finish up a few other things.

Can't wait to see where you go with this.

That looks like a lot of rusted metal that is corroding into a bike! Hahahahaha. I'll follow this one, my bike is also a mix between brat and tracker style, and also a little ratty (just looks, everything works), it's a Chinese CG125 clone though, but my daily and project bike at the same time. Keep it up dude!

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looks like a fun project. I am just starting something similar with a friend and we are both going for the brat look as well. our bikes are not as fortunate as yours tho. the engines are either half apart or seized. look forward to seeing how yours comes along.