I got a '71 350 I wanna make into a chopper.... already got a ratty-ass girder for it. I wanna hardtail it, I was just gonna fab crap to the swingarm, etc. But I see on ebay there is a guy who is selling a half bolt-on, half weld on hardtail... he says its for a CB 450 of similar vintage. Will this work on my bike? They guy selling it doesn't know. Are these frames/engines the same? I read something about this someplace, but cannot remember. Thanks, J
It should work, if memory serves. Back in the 80s, I had a CB-350 chopper, and worked at a Honda dealer. One of the mechanics did some work on my bike and said that it had been hopped up quite a bit using 450 parts and a bunch of aftermarket stuff. From what I gathered, there wasn't alot of differences between the 350 and 450 models, other than 100cc!
The 350 was a SOHC engine, the 450 was a DOHC. The 450 was much heavier, about 425 lbs. The frames are definetly not the same, but that doesn't mean the hardtail kit can't be modified to fit. A site clled the Fang may have info or links to some that could get you the measurements that you need to know. Those guys drag race a CB500t, which is essentialy the same bike as a 450t.
Yeah, the 450 was a much taller motor, the frame is taller and different than the 350. 450 was a top heavy bike that didn't steer very well. The 350 was a great bike, revvy motor with great top end, Megacycle makes cams, lots of speed equipment and expertise around, porting, etc. A really terrible chopper motor, no low end torque at all, strictly a rev-happy road race motor, the latest built motors will pull almost 130. A light nice bike that handles well stock. Can't imagine that it would work in a chopper except as a joke. Lots of dirt track boys make frames and hard tails for them, but they aren't all flooby like chopper frames.
My little 350 was a revver, for sure...but it was no slouch on the low end, either! Working at a cycle shop, we always rode bikes to lunch (ours or customers, truth be told!), and the guy who tweaked mine for me rode a stock 600 or 650 Suzuki...I could pull away from him by third gear! My motor wasn't stock, though...I rode many stock CB-350s at the dealership and they were DOGS!
You guys in the land of milk and honey got a 4 cylinder Honda 350 didn't you? We had a CB350 twin in the UK. Same as the CB250 twin, but it had some slightly bigger balls. Never saw a 4 pot 350 here. We than had a four pot 400 a couple years later, and a 450 twin after that.
Its a twin. Rat, its such a nasty delapidated POS, chopping it is gonna be a lot easier than cafe-ing it. Its been sitting outside for probably the last 10 years, I'm not even dead certain it runs, thats why i don't wanna buy a $150+ hardtail that might not fit... I've got about $65 in it so far, which includes the girder I traded a 30pk of Tecate for!! cafe=expensive...
I got a soft spot for the old CB250 twin, as I had one as my first 'real bike' It had full size grips on the bars!!! Before that I had a Honda step-thru piece of shit, that had kiddy sized grips on. Kind of a coming of age thing, a guy thing, getting full size handlebar grips
Hey RatPack, do you know of any places that supply cafe style parts for the CB350's? I have a 4 cly. under construction right now.. PM me if you get a chance or just reply in this post, thx!
I don't know if you actually plan on riding this thing or are building a cruise night show bike, but the lightweight motorcycles tend to get, what's the word... "skittery," when they get hard tailed and springered. Just wanted to get that out so you'd know what to expect... Now Go Build It!
That yellow bike is sweet, but for how much the tank and the clip ons would cost, I'd be halfway to a sportster! Doc, I figure 350 is still too small for the freeway, so ,yes, its gonna be like a street legal mini-bike. Dontcha just run the rear tire with a little lower pressure to take the edge off? I'm not entirely set on running this girder, either. theres a few things about it that disturb me, it may end up on a bicycle! Thanks, J
A 350 is too smll for the freeway???? My wife and I had a CB200 with clip ons, rear sets, alloy rims, 750 front brake, we went everywhere on it at 70 (3 teeth smaller rear sprocket). If you zipped up tight and rode like you should it would sit at 70, but so little torque that if we sat up straight and rode with our jackets unzipped it would only do about 60 with 2 up. Are you a 385 pound biker with 40 pounds of tatoos and a half ton of wehrmacht insignia? Maybe then it is too small... (joke)
I've owned a BUNCH of jap bikes...the absolute best for the buck is the Yamaha xs650. Torquey, light, and loud if you want.
Hey, Ive got an XS500 i]m going to chop... i was just saying the bike is way lighter than say a Sportster of Indian twin and the y bounce aruond a lot even wth a "flat" tire. not what you want to use for a daily that's all. It'll be like "work" keeping it up with the botts dots and rain grooves adding to the bumps. Also, Disatron, It's not a case of being able to go freeway speed out here. There is a growing minority of drivers who think it is great sport to ACTUALLY TRY TO KILL MOTORCYCLISTS with their cars. So you have to have enough reserve HP to get out of the way of anything made on four wheels or plan on riding off the side of freeways and into ditches to keep from being killed. Yes I'm serious as a heart attack. People try to kill you out here and then "Oh, I didn't see him, he came up from behind and cut me off" and it doesn't matter if they're lying if you're dead. That's why years ago I went straight from a 50cc trail bike to an XLCH. The 500 has enough HP to git. 350s do too.
My take is this... I got that cmx 250 barbie bike on the freeway ONCE. It could barely do 70. I've got a severe handicap in that I wear glasses. The helmet squeezes the frames a bit, so if I bounce, they bounce. Couldn't hardly see. Also, the combination of the bike and myself (175lb, no piercings or wermacht!) felt too "small", as in not heavy enough, wheels too small and wheelbase too short. Can't explain it further than that, it felt like a bad idea, so I got off. Bike was great around town. Also, when I drive in the car, I go faster than everything else. Not just cause I'm a speeder, but I find I get into exponentially more difficulty following someone or being boxed in. So on the freeway, I want a severly fast bike, which I know better to ever get onto (I have a little "problem," people like me shouldn't be allowed to go as fast as they want!) or a big heavy one, ~600 lbs. Based on my limited experience of riding a bike around here Part of the adrenaline rush starts when you're lacing up your boots, and I think about whether my own fingers are gonna undo the laces, or the ER or the mortuary is gonna just cut 'em off. I guess I'm starting to get old, I don't feel invinceable any more, but somehow mortality also makes riding even MORE fun.... People here I think are stupider than most... combining that with the fact that Angelenos have a unique and sever brain abnormality... RF from the cellphone reduces the cognitive ability 700% and causes temporary Parkinsons... Motorcycles are a sick addiction to make me want to ride more! My former co-worker who used himself and his 600 to knock 3 illegals, the camper shell, and damn near the entire bed off of the back of a fullsize pickup was tellin me how he's scraping the $ to get another bike... I think he's got some residual brain damage, tho...
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