My New Project: Honda CL360

One of my good friends moved away almost a year ago and gave me a motorcycle. As our conversation progressed over the phone about the motorcycle, I asked what it is was.

“It’s a Honda CL360 street bike.”

“What is that?” My brain was running at full throttle when a poof of smoke rose from my ear. I had never heard of it.

“It is just a little street bike; you have to know about a 1975 CL360. You know about almost everything else.” He said.

“First off, I don’t know about every motorcycle ever produced. I can hardly tell you about the different types of Harley Davidson and much less any thing older than 1989.”

“Are you interested in it or not?” He said.

“Heck yeah!” A free motorcycle who couldn’t pass that up.

The day arrived, when I picked it up with a trailer. Apparently registration ran out on it and he never got it renewed.

“Oh yeah, it has been backfiring when it runs and it does not run very well.” And he failed to mention the fact that it a nasty seventies orange, had old spoke wheels, drum brakes all around, a leaking fork seal and … that’s it… for now.

I was there with a trailer and he had the title. It couldn’t run, so I took it home and let it sit in my garage until the past couple of months where now it won’t start at all. I wish I had a picture of my wife the day I brought it home. It was the look of “Is that a motorcycle and why is it here?”

“It’s my project.”  I smiled with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, frowned a little and said “I hope it was free.”

“It was.”  I said back to her and she walked back into the house.

I began inspecting it to size up my work.  The carburetors were so fouled up the throttle plate would not move. The points are black with carbon. Points?! What the heck is points?  This is the electronic era. Where is the electronic ignition?

I vaguely remember reading about them in my automotive class and I have never ever worked on anything with points. Only the electronic ignition, the wave of the future for 1975.

As I was cursing the fact that it had points and I hadn’t any clue as what I should do about them, my wife returned into my garage. “Are you really going to fix that thing?” She said to me.

“Yes, I’m going to turn it into a Vintage Cafe racer with my own twist to it.”

That is the beginning story of my project bike. As I work on it, I will be posting things about it.

There is just one thing I need for it… a name. Every cafe racer’s bike has a name.  I’m open to suggestions and you are welcome to post any.

Ooh, and here is a pic of what my bike should have looked like but doesn’t:

Uploaded on October 21, 2007 by V-rider of Flickr.com