2020 WIP Project

Before  January 2020

This little 1972 Honda CL350 was imported into the UK in late 2019 where I purchased it as a ‘barn find’ in January 2020. Originally from Nebraska, the engine turned over and most of the parts appeared to be there and original with a mere 7,350 miles on the clock, however it was clear that it had not run in many years. The plan was to get it back together, rebuild and service everything that needed to be, complete the necessary paper work and get it road legal. With summer approaching, have a bit of fun on it before modifying it into a little green lane scrambler. I really like the high level exhaust line and wanted to retain a bit of the 70’s nostalgia this bike has. As I torn into the bike I realised, although everything was original, it has been completely neglected and could have been sitting for easily 30+ years. It ended up being more work than I was expecting - every seal, bearing, cable etc needed replacing, but overall it scrubbed up really nicely.

Concept Sketch

Current

At the present I have got the bike running and performing great, MOT’d, road registered and have been riding it around the local country lanes. It took a while to get it tuned and running perfectly but I am happy with it for now. The next steps are collecting parts and start modifying it similar to the concept sketch. I wanted to keep it looking relatively OEM with a bit of influence from vintage trails bikes, however I am keen to take any opportunities to reduce weight and improve the bikes capability and reliability offroad.

After the crazy year of 2020, some things have taken a bit longer than I would have hoped, but here it is pictured at the end of summer in its element - country lanes and grass fields.