Hi guys...

[Digity]

So it seems i've caught a bug....after seeing all your beautiful bikes and wanting a cafe racer for a long time I decided to hop in...I've previously had mostly sportbikes, most recently a 600rr and a 90s MC21 nsr...BUT I just picked up a 1973 Honda CL350 over the weekend...and am excited to get to work... It needs a few things to get going, but first off I have a few questions
1. How do I lower the front forks and how much is 'too low', I plan on getting some shorty shocks for the rears eventually
2. I want to change the front wheels, I'm not a big fan of the 19" front wheel the CL comes with..question is, is a CB 350 front wheel compatible, what other wheels are?
3. I'm looking at the exhaust format, I kinda like the high pipes, but prefer the side by side stock look...anybody have these around?!?! they are hard to find!

Anyways thanks !

 

[78kz]

Welcome. How about some pix of what your starting with? 8)

As for lowering the front, you can probablly loosen the tripple clamps and slide the forks up in the clamps. Your handle bars may not allow you to do it too much, but it's a cheap and easy way to lower the front. You will want to lower the rear by about the same amount, or you will change your steering geometry.

I raised my forks about 1/2 ~ 3/4 of an inch (that's all my bars would allow) without lowering the back, and have not really felt much difference in handling.

 

[Tim]

Get rid of the stock bars and go with clip-ons, then you can lower the front end to your heart's content.

Is this what it looks like? Is it the rim size you don't like? I think pretty much all the early Honda's are 19" front wheels. You'd likely have to lace a new rim to it. If you could find another 18" rear wheel, it might lace up to the front drum brake properly. Do you want the vintage look of the drum or performance of disk brakes?

 

[DrJ]

The only compatible CB350 18" front wheel is from the 72. It will have the same drum brake and axle length. Pre 72 CB350s had a narrower front end therefore shorter axle. If you go for the wheel swap I suggest you use the 72 fender or there will be a bigger gap between the tire which doesn't look as good. It's kinda backwards what you're doing, a lot of builders want their CBs to look like CLs with the high pipes. You seem to want to go the other way. If your CL sausage pipes are in good shape I wouldn't chuck them, they highly sought after. Biggest drawback though is the weight, they're extremely heavy. But there's another problem if you want to install the standard down swept pipes. The foot peg mounts don't have the space where the pipe will need to go through. They're different from the CBs. You would need to swap that too. I'd say keep the CL mostly original, they're much more rare than the CBs.

 

[locOleoN]

So it seems i've caught a bug....after seeing all your beautiful bikes and wanting a cafe racer for a long time I decided to hop in...I've previously had mostly sportbikes, most recently a 600rr and a 90s MC21 nsr...BUT I just picked up a 1973 Honda CL350 over the weekend...and am excited to get to work... It needs a few things to get going, but first off I have a few questions
1. How do I lower the front forks and how much is 'too low', I plan on getting some shorty shocks for the rears eventually
2. I want to change the front wheels, I'm not a big fan of the 19" front wheel the CL comes with..question is, is a CB 350 front wheel compatible, what other wheels are?
3. I'm looking at the exhaust format, I kinda like the high pipes, but prefer the side by side stock look...anybody have these around?!?! they are hard to find!

Anyways thanks !

Welcome to the site.. you'll find a bunch of guys & gals here that have been infected with the cafe virus for many many years.
Needless to say, there are alot of experience and ideas floating around here!!

Just ask and post pics!!

Cheers
locO leoN

PS. DrJ is the resident cb350 Jedi Master....

 

[ProTeal55]

Welcome to the madness !!
I lowered the front of my bike about 3'' by pushing the forks thru the trees, and about 3'' out back by going with a set of 11'' "short shocks" to replace the stock ones...

I wanted a funky/different exhaust on my CB450 so I took stock CL/Scrambler headpipes and welded
on some Triumph TT pipes to finish them off. I filled up the space that was once their with the factory sidecovers with the pipes..Def. draws a crowd wherever I go ;D

 

[Digity]

So I went on a spree...jeez..take the credit card away from me...I picked up
1. Clubmanracing.com ducati replica seat (same as proteal..the owner is a gem of a guy)
2. Clubman bars (off of egay)
3. Chrome headlight w/turn signals (old was was cracked)
4. Brake lever (mine was busted)
5. Sidemount licence plate w/built in tail lamp
6. Cafe style bar end mirror....
7. Tiny battery from an electric car (brother-in-law had one laying around)

Today I Changed the fuel lines to the carbs with nice braided ones, hooked up a old battery and tried to start the sucker to no avail...so I printed out a copy of the wiring diagram to see if any wires had been disconnected or whatever...there were a wire hanging that i had no clue what it was....I will get my camera from work and get some pics once everything is in order

man....this project is going to get more expensive! i'll try to document everything as much as possible in the projects forums..

 

[DrJ]

The battery doesn't have enough amps to crank the starter. Did you try kickingstarting it? I doubt you can get away with that small of a bttery. Good start though!

 

[Tim]

You will find on some of these old Hondas extra wires that aren't connected to anything. They accomodate different lighting and other requirements in different markets around the world, future functions, etc. etc. It may be designed to be left disconnected.