Project 1970 Honda CB350 — Part IV

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by Richard Backus
Rust, anyone? The original seat pan on our CB350.

The is the fourth in a series on our 1970 Honda CB350 build project. Read Part I, Part II and Part III for earlier stages of the project, and Part V, Part VI, Part VII and Part VIII for the later installments. You can also watch video of our Honda running for the first time.

Last issue, we told you about a broken mounting lug on the lower left of our 1970 Honda CB350’s engine. That broken lug was something of a mystery, as there wasn’t any indication how it might have happened. Thanks to a reader with experience in the matter, we’re pretty sure we now know what caused the break.

Former Honda CB350 owner Bob Sheehan wrote in to tell of us of his identical experience with his 1972 CB350, on which he’d mounted a set of crash bars. Bob told us that the left side crash bar mounted to the frame up top and the lower left engine mounting lug at the bottom. Following a left side crash, he discovered his engine mount was broken, even though at first it didn’t appear his bike had suffered any damage. “It looked exactly like the photograph of yours,” Bob wrote.

Looking through the pile of parts that came with our Honda (which, you might recall, was partially disassembled when we bought it), we found a set of crash bars, with evidence of road rash on the left crash bar. Mystery solved. Clearly, our Honda suffered the exact same fate as Bob’s. Who knows what kind of damage the Honda would have received in the absence of the crash bars in whatever fall it suffered, but it’s somehow ironic to think they played a role in its damage.

Moving forward

  • Published on Feb 5, 2016
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