HONDA CB 350
TALES FROM THE PAST
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| HONDA CB 350 |
This
bike is certainly not the stuff of which tall motorcycling stories
are made but that's natural really - I mean, the bike is reasonably
quick and very reliable, so it's not particularly exciting But hang
on, I'm a London rider trained in the art of despatching and urban
rat race survival. Motorcycles are my only form of transport. It is
usually wet and cold. The roads are falling to bits. This isn't Route
66 but Hanger Lane. The Honda begins to make some sensa I've done
14000 miles from new so far on the Honda. Originally, it was destined
for despatching.
I
bought it because it's a relatively simple machine and thus a
candidate for self servicing (after the warranty expires). Also, with
such a successful pedigree, the old 400 Superdream was very reliable,
I reckoned on it not suffering terminal internal destruction too
rapidly - a useful quality in a despatch bike. However, my
despatching job came to an end and I decided not to sign up for any
more torture. I got a very much less frantic occupation instead and
the new bike breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The
Honda has proved itself to be, as they say, an excellent tool for
urban use. For me, at any rate, a bike needs good acceleration and
really good brakes to ensure survival in London traffic. Okay, it's
pretty slow on the motorway, if you regard 70-80mph cruising as slow,
but it has a fair bit of grunt for getting out of tight spots on city
roads.
I
find that if you use the gears then the Honda will really bowl along.
The power comes on smoothly and immediately, so you can out
accelerate all the cars and quite a few bikes from a standing start.
More importantly, the bike is well suited to the type of
point-and-squirt riding used when cutting through serious jams. And
when that taxi in front does a sudden U-turn, the powerful front
brakes are useful. The rear isn't actually much cop, at least it
won't lock the back wheel, but the front discs are really effective;
they've
saved
my bacon a few times On more open roads you soon come up against the
limitations of this bike. On the motorway, a cruising speed about
10mph over the limit has to suffice unless you want to cane the
engine mercilessly. Compared to an LC350 the power to weight ratio is
rather poor; as well as developing only 34hp it has to lug around
380lbs. However, it's certainly no slug, it's just that there's
little extra power left once you are in motorway cruising mode. In
general, though, I think that the spread of available power up to
about 85mph is perfect for the sort of use my machine gets,
especially in view of the frame and suspension set up.
The
bike feels very solid and stable, no doubt due to the sturdy (albeit
garishly painted) wrap-around tubular frame. The ride is usually very
comfortable until the road surface declines to Westminster standards.
Of course, the suspension is not exactly in the TZR class. On wide
bends it's okay but on tighter corners the rear end can chop about a
bit if you take them too rapidly. Still, this Is a sensible, boring
bike and not an outrageous state of the art two stroke (I wonder what
those things are really like to ride). In general, the Honda behaves
predictably and has a nice feel. The riding position is just about
right and the seat remains comfortable over quite a distance.
You
can do about 150 miles between petrol stops and not suffer any pain
in the butt The petrol consumption is not marvellous. I'll be the
first to admit that such a basic, low powered engine as this should
return better than 50-55mpg. The CB350 is sold on the cheap,
reliable, workhorse ticket so why doesn't it do 60-70mpg at least? In
fact, running this machine may be less expensive than many other
bikes but it certainly ain't cheap. Spares and servicing are anything
but! The tyres I fitted - Metzelers and then Michelins - are
certainly not in the bargain basement class but then I always like to
spoil my bikes. A dealer service costs about fifty notes excluding
extra items like pads, chains, etc. Every new Jap bike over lOOcc now
seems to cost the earth to buy and run, so I guess that's why many
unfortunate souls are forced to make do with 450 year old CD175s
and MZs. I'm just thankful I was able to afford a new bike in the
first place.
Talking
of gigantic expenses, I replaced the sprockets and chain at 13500
miles which I suppose isn't too bad considering I'm no slouch off the
grid at the lights. I used original sprockets and an RK open 0-ring
chain. At the same time I took the wheel up to the local tyre fitters
where they put on a Michelin M48, the third rear tyre, the last being
a Metzeler which didn't last very long at all. Last but not least, I
took off the swinging arm and greased the bearings and bushes. Phewl
€120 worse off as well! I'd like some aftermarket shocks as well to
replace the knackered FVQs but I'll have to write to Santa for those.
The engine is basically similar to
the 250 and 400 Superdreams and will probably fail in the same way.
The Superdreams tended to be reliable until everything was worn out
at 40 to 50,000 miles, when they were just beyond salvage Just about
every other modern bike in the known universe, when they have one,
drive their balance shafts by gear, note the poor old CB's chain,
although it is a little easier to get at the tensioner and seems to
need less attention than earlier bikes.
The 350, having its pistons going
up and down together as per old Brit twins, sounds nice and the
balance shaft combined with
the lack of capacity and low state of tune means it's as smooth as
you could want without totally removing all feel of an engine
whirring away. Obviously.
I can only compare the CB350 with
my previous mounts. And there stands the most uninspiring list of
motorcycles this side of the MZ works. For someone like me who has
clocked up thousands of miles on the two wheeled equivalents of the
Ford Cortina and Transit, and who has had his fan share of anguish,
the CB350 is quite a good bike.
To
give it its due, reliability has been first rate with nothing failing
to work in 14000 miles. Thi front brake calipers seized up thanks to
all the road crud. As a result I couldn't change the pads and had to
get the dealer to apply a flamethrower. As I'm sure you're aware, the
Japs don't put nearly enough lubricant on the pins with dire
consequences when they are exposed to the ravages of a winter on
English roads. The calipers now have a tasteful anodised look, but
what an expense More expense was incurred after the thing was blown
over by the wind and a few months later an idiot knocked it over
while parked.
New
bars and mudguard please, an astronomical sum plus the dreaded VAT.
Still, at least my bike does its crashing whilst I'm not on it.
In
fact, parking is the one aspect of London riding I hate the most.
People say it's par for the course round here but it's a frightening
experience when you look out of the window and find the bike eating
tarmac. It's also occasions like that when you find that you can lift
almost 400lbs of metal. When it happened the second time, it
encouraged me to dig out my Honda H100 and use that for commuting to
work. I soon found that this device got me around London just as well
as the CB, so I'm going to sell the latter whilst it's still in good
condition and save up for something interesting to ride at the
weekends. The CBs, VTs and GTs of this world are the only things for
despatching but those days have gone and so I can't see the point in
running that type of bike.
Ironically, I took my test on a
Honda H100 eight years ago. After a succession of basic but pretty
big bikes, culminating in a wonderful working relationship with a
huge company CX500 barge. I'm back on a farty little two stroke
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