1970's CB350 Flat Tracker

[randommayhem]

I posted a WTB ad on CL for and engine for my bobber project and I got an email from a guy who said he had a old CB350 and an extra engine for $100. I went over there yesterday morning and saw this, a 1970's CB350 flat tracker. The guy said it was bought brand new in 1972(? not sure) and built up as a flat tracker so it was never ridden on the street. I originally wanted something I could take the engine from for my bobber but this is too cool to take apart so I'm just gonna through everything and get it running.

 

[Kev Nemo]

Love that paint! Switch out the seat, chain, tires, throw on a small headlight and trailer tail/brake and you're golden ;D

 

[randommayhem]

I also need to go through all the electrical and get some new coils for it because I'm not getting any spark and I need to get a new top triple tree .

 

[teazer]

Please throw that fugly seat away and fit a nice trim XR style flat track seat. Great start though. You could fit a set of later forks and Fat bars just to add some street cred and a set fo AVON Distanzias

 

[Kev Nemo]

k70's for the win and period correctness-those Distanzas are for supermotards

 

[teazer]

Nah.
K70s were a cheap tyre used by Brit bike makers on cheaper models that would never be raced or run hard. Thinks like old Matchless plodding singles. That's the problem with having been around all that time, I have a different perspective.

Motards run slicks. Distanzias are actually an on-off road tire that I happen to think looks aggressive on a bike that's pretending to be a dirt racer. Of course real dirt track tires would look even better

 

[Kev Nemo]

So you raced in the 70's-awesome! I'm guessing from your spelling of 'tyres' you're in the UK. Here in the states, they raced k70s on dirt track.
That's weird that you say that about Distanzas; when you use the popular search engine Google, Distanzas come back as supermotard tires in several popular motorcycle catalogues like JC Whitney: http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADFA_en&wrapid=tlif12843873160062&q=avon+distanzia+motard&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=gzKOTJL_M4P-8Abz-_n1CQ&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQrQQwAg
I guess they have a different perspective.

 

[teazer]

Kev, It really comes down to what looks right to each of us. To me K70's look old school al right but remind me of boring bikes. That's because I grew up in the UK and we all fitted K81-TT100's or AVon GPs to our cafe racers. We didn't have dirt track racing in teh UK - it's an American thing.

Avon describe Distanzias as ON-Off road http://www.avon-tyres.co.uk/motorcycle/distanzia.

I like the way they look, but others may not.

BTW I raced Vintage in Australia starting in 78 on a T120 and later with CB77's and a CR93 and after that on a few different TZs and in the Aprilia Cup series with AHRMA. Lots of fun and scary moments. I'm better at building bikes than racing them though.

 

[Kev Nemo]

...BTW I raced Vintage in Australia starting in 78 on a T120 and later with CB77's and a CR93 and after that on a few different TZs and in the Aprilia Cup series with AHRMA. Lots of fun and scary moments. I'm better at building bikes than racing them though.

Nice! Please post pics if you have them-we LOVE vintage racing stuff around here! ;D

 

[teazer]

This is turning into a bit of a hijack, but try this one. It's a CB72 with 350 kit and everything has been modified in some way or another down to the wheel bearing spacers. You don't need big dollar workshops or huge budgets - just a vision and lots of hard work.

 

[randommayhem]

This is turning into a bit of a hijack, but try this one.

Don't worry about it, I've been pretty busy lately with school and stuff but I started to get the new front end together and figured out some electrical, I'll try and get some pictures later.

 

[teazer]

Cool. That's an interesting time piece.