Honda CB350 K4: The Rack Takes Me Back

Growing up in Kuwait during the 1970s, Anwer Khan clearly remembers street vendors visiting his neighborhood aboard Honda CB350 motorcycles. With a rear rack and basket tied down with rope or bungee cords, peddlers would ride in on the machines and sell candies or other treats to the local children. It’s a memory Anwer holds close to his heart.

“It reminds me of my dad, it reminds me of my neighborhood and my childhood,” he explains. “There are very few things in life that attach you to a certain timeframe, and a Honda CB350, every time I saw one, it took me back to Kuwait and I remembered my childhood days in the hot sun, no shoes and no worries.”

Anwer’s motorcycling adventures started when he was 10 or 11 years old. His older brother had a Honda XL185, and his group of friends all rode. Wanting to be included in the fun, Anwer harassed his father for a machine. He laughs, “My father finally broke down and got me a little Honda Z50. My brother and I were always around people with bikes, and my passion for motorcycles really grew from there, including getting on the XL185.”

In 1988, the Khan family emigrated to the U.S., landing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anwer was 17 years old and by the time he was 21 he’d graduated from college. And he wanted another motorcycle. However, his father was adamant his sons wouldn’t ride in Wisconsin due to safety concerns. But in 1995, Anwer found himself at a Honda dealership, “Just to look around.” There, a salesman showed him the lineup, and they landed on a CBR600F2. “I really liked the bike, and the next thing I knew I was signing paperwork all without my father knowing. I was riding it home, freaking out about how I was going to show this to my father.”

He parked the CBR on the driveway, and his father soon noticed. Asking who the Honda belonged to, Anwer confessed it was his. “He didn’t say anything to me, but I could see he was disappointed. Eventually, he got over it, but since then I’ve never been without a bike,” Anwer says, and he’s owned several over the years. But he never forgot the Honda CB350s of his youth, practical, utilitarian machines that were commonly seen in Kuwait.

Enter the Super Sport

Honda introduced the CB350 Super Sport in February 1968. It was launched alongside its CL350 Scrambler sibling, a bike described in the May 1968 Cycle magazine as a “competition-styled street machine,” rather than a true dual-purpose motorcycle. They continued, “Of the two, the Super Sport is the more appealing,” and although that’s a subjective observation, they favored it as the CB makes three more horsepower than the CL – something that comes down to the exhaust system.

The CB350 and CL350 models were to replace Honda’s 305cc twin-cylinder CB77 and CL77, but the machines were all on the showroom floor together in 1968. That was the final year for the 305s. Cycle said the 350’s engine, which is actually 325cc, “is massively constructed, put together with a vengeance.”

Like most all other Honda twins, the 350’s engine features an overhead camshaft. The cam is driven by an endless chain that travels around centrally mounted sprockets on the 180-degree crankshaft and the camshaft. Cam chain tension is provided by an adjustable spring-loaded roller. While the 305’s cam rode in ball bearings, the new 350’s cam rotated directly in the aluminum end caps of the head. This feature can present a problem to present-day builders, as there is often galling found on the cam surfaces upon disassembly. With an oversquare bore and stroke of 64mm by 50.6mm, the 350’s compression ratio was 9.5:1.

Straight cut gears with a staggered tooth arrangement take power from the crank directly to the toothed multi-disc clutch basket, then to the 5-speed transmission. Honda graced the stout lower end with four main bearings, three roller bearings and on the drive side, a ball bearing. The crank assembly, Cycle noted, “… looks to be bullet proof. Each connecting rod rides on its roller-bearing crankpin between two massive flywheels, and the whole assembly, complete with rods and bearings, weighs an even 20 pounds. And, lord, is it ever well-balanced.” The CB350 made 36 horsepower at 10,500rpm.

In the earlier 305s, the engine was a stressed member in a tube-type frame. For the 350s, Honda married pressed steel stampings with tubes. The stampings create the backbone and lead back to the rear shock mounting points, while the round tube forms the lower rear subframe, engine cradle and single front downtube. The top end of the engine is rubber mounted.

Sparks are courtesy of coil and battery, with timing provided by contact points mounted to a centrifugal advance plate. These are accessible under a pressed steel cover on the left side of the cylinder head. Power supply was generated by a 12-volt alternator while air and gasoline mixed in twin 32mm Keihin constant-velocity carburetors. Paper air filters reside under the plastic side covers — metal on the K0 of 1968, plastic on all others up to the K5. Instruments included a separate tachometer on the left and a speedometer on the right.

By 1972, the year of our feature bike, details had subtly changed on the CB350. The gas tank, with a new flip-type cap, was a different shape and the paint had been altered, as had the seat. As well, the rear tail/brake light was larger, but for the most part, Honda knew it had a good thing on its hands and left the basic ingredients alone. For 1972, the CB350 could be had in Gentle Maroon Metallic, Candy Gold, Candy Bacchus Olive or Light Ruby Red. Fenders were chrome, and the bike still rode on 18-inch front and rear spoked wheels with drum brakes. A front disc brake was added to the specifications in 1973 — last year for the model, and a new warning lamp cluster went between the gauges.

Fixer-upper find

Thousands of CB350s were sold worldwide, as evidenced by the popularity of the model not only in Anwer’s home country of Kuwait, but also in the U.S. And that’s where Anwer found a CB350 he could call his own. Sometime in the early 2000s, he was browsing Craigslist and stumbled across a CB350 K4 for sale not too far from his Milwaukee home. It triggered memories, although he never thought about restoring an older motorcycle. He contacted the seller, who said it started and ran but needed some work. Intrigued, he went to see it.

“It wasn’t the cleanest, it wasn’t the most well maintained,” Anwer says. “It had some dings and scrapes, but it was all there, and I talked the gentleman down from $750 to $500.”

After he bought it, Anwer says he rode the CB350 but found there was always something that needed attention. This led him to park the Honda in his garage for several years, until he heard about The Shop in South Milwaukee. Looking to get the CB350 tuned, Anwer handed the bike over. A couple of months later he was presented with a machine that no longer leaked any oil, and it started, ran and rode reliably. From Anwer’s perspective, however, “It still wasn’t the prettiest bike.” He rode it like that for a year but ended up once again parking it in his garage.

Until, one day in conversation with a friend, Anwer was asked what ever happened to his old CB350. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it and was even thinking about getting rid of it. My wife kept nagging me about having junk in the garage and she didn’t like seeing it in there. I always told her it was my collector bike, and she’d say it was my collecting dust bike.”

That’s when Anwer’s friend told him about Brady Ingelse at Retrospeed in Belgium, Wisconsin. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to fully restore the Honda, but I talked to Brady, I sent him some pictures, and we talked about my options — it wasn’t going to be inexpensive, but I finally decided I wanted all the bells and whistles — and that was a nut and bolt restoration. I knew I’d never get any money back out of it, but I chose to invest in it and see what came out of it.”

Anwer waited a year before Retrospeed could accommodate the work, and he dropped the bike off in early March 2021. Brady says, “It’s unusual to find anyone who wants to take a CB350 that far, because there were a lot of them produced, and most just aren’t that interested in a concours restoration. But I understood the CB350 really has a special place in Anwer’s heart.”

He continues, “I knew Anwer had the bike serviced at The Shop, and it was in good running condition when he dropped it off. It looked like it was in relatively nice condition, and I test rode it before we took it all apart.”

When it did come apart, however, it was soon discovered the CB350 had likely been in a collision. The frame, swingarm and handlebars were bent. Brady says the project went from something they envisioned as being relatively simple, to requiring a host of new pieces. Looking for a 1972 frame in a local salvage yard, Brady found eight of them. But they all had a split tube on the righthand side of the frame, down low where it joins the pressed steel of the footpeg mount.

A second for parts

“With the seat off, any moisture finds its way down that tube, and when it freezes, it splits the steel,” Brady explains. At another boneyard, he found the results were the same on a frame left outdoors. “We ended up buying another complete CB350 just for the frame, swingarm, handlebars, and, as it turned out, the lower crankcase half. Anwer’s lower case was blown out where the kickstart is.”

The serial numbers were only 1,000 digits apart between Anwer’s and the donor machine, but that’s inconsequential. Numbers on this era of CB350 did not match. Brady was happy about most everything else on Anwer’s bike, but the seat pan, which was cracked, needed to be repaired. Often, previous owners grabbed under the seat to lift the CB350 onto its center stand — leading to a cracked pan.

Also, the plastic headlight buckets crack in the same place. To remove the headlamp trim ring, it needs to rotate some 20-degrees to clear a tab. Those unfamiliar with the routine generally undo the securing screws and pull on the ring, breaking the tab and cracking the bucket. It took Brady many months to find one that could be properly restored to match the level of detail to which the rest of the machine was being taken.

The engine was stripped to the last nut and bolt, with many new parts used in the rebuild. Many pieces can still be sourced from Honda, while other components are simply unavailable. In the reproduction world, Brady was often disappointed in what he could locate, saying the pieces, such as a repro seat pan, “Wasn’t even close to correct.” Mufflers, however, are replicas from David Silver Spares.

All aluminum was polished to what it would have looked like when the machine left the Honda factory. This means no mirror finishes, just a fine luster. All alloy was polished by Alex Callas. Other finishes, such as the cloud silver on the engine and side covers, is powder coat. Clear powder coat is applied over some of the polished alloy, such as on the hubs and brake backing plates.

Other details, such as the new-old stock speedometer and tachometer, bring the overall restoration to a concours level. The Honda is finished factory-correct, although the ignition trigger is an upgrade from Charlie’s Place. The coils are Dyna and the charging system is from Rick’s Motosport Electrics.

Back in Anwer’s hands in July 2023, he’s put about 100 miles on the rebuild. He’s cautious, but he’s not afraid of what he might do, but what others might do to the CB350. “It’s too precious, and I wouldn’t want it to be stolen,” he says. “If it was stolen, no one would know the true value of the bike.”
Instead of the electric starter, Anwer prefers to use the kickstarter to fire up the CB350. Of the starting drill, he says, “Key in, turn to ‘On,’ fuel on, choke up, kick once or twice and it fires. Choke off, and let it warm up for a minute or two and it’s ready to roll.”

During the restoration, one item was non-negotiable. “That rear rack had to be there, I didn’t care what it took,” Anwer says, and he concludes, “It just adds to the memories, and I will put a milk crate on the back tied down with bungee cords and ride around with it. I don’t care what people will say, that will be my thing. It takes me straight back to my younger days in Kuwait.” MC