cb350f build/entry : part 1

Here's my cb350f. It had been sitting in a friend's shop for a few years collecting dust in a corner. He said it hadn't ran since he had it and probably hasn't in about 3yrs or so before he got it. Since the motor would kick over and seemed to have decent compression I figured it would run. He told me $75 but ended up just giving it to me to get it out of his shop.

When I got it home I poured some gas down the carbs, hot wired the ignition, and got it started. While it was running, even though it ran like total shit, I ran it through the gears and all was good. Game on.

A quick trip to the tube bender with some 7/8 dom and some bars were whipped up.



Some 1/2 aluminum and some time with the bandsaw and mill and some rearsets were starting to take shape. Next I knurled some round bar stock for the foot pegs.





After trimming the rear of the frame off I bent a piece of tubing to round off the back of the frame. I added the sheetmetal to serve as a floor for the tail section.



The tail section begins. I looked around the shop and dug up a piece of rear fender that was left over from a previous chopper build. After narrowing it a few inches and beating it with a hammer and a few minutes on the planishing hammer it was finally starting to take shape.







So I got excited and pushed the sides in on the original tank. A thin layer of bondo in the newly formed areas, some rattle can primer, and it was ready for paint. There was a paint shop across the street so I had them mix up a rattle can of Subaru red, gave em $16 and away I went.

Now for the seat pan. The pic doesn't show it but I put three spikes on the bottom of the pan that fit into holes in the sheetmetal part of the frame. These keep the seat from sliding around since all that will be holding it on are some snaps. Also, now you can see the reverse meg mufflers I had made. I also had to make the collectors for it since the old mufflers were rotted off. Oh yea, the rearsets are now finished also.



Long story on the tail light. I used an after market harley lens and guts but had to custom machine the housing out of steel so Ii could weld it to the tail. (the Harley one is made of aluminum)



I had just barely enough of the $16 rattle can to paint the tail. I loaded the bike up and took it to my buddy Kyle and we went to work on the seat. I did the foam and he did the stitching on the leather.





Headlight mount. Since my headlight mounts were bent and pretty crappy I removed the fork covers and made these out of aluminum tubing and 1/8 sheetmetal.



I was going to make my own velocity stacks but decided to take the easy way out. I ordered a set from Dime City Cyles as well as a regulator/rectifier (I didn't want to have to run a seperate regulator)

I whipped up a custom wiring harness for it that is very minimal. The Ballistic battery is mounted inside the tail. 80 amps out of a battery that is 2"x2"x3" CRAZY! Even though it will crank the bike it is kick only. After rebuilding and syncing the carbs, installing new plugs and adjusting the points it runs like a champ, even though it does smoke.

Tim Davis