Time traveling....

.....with SL 350's. 'Old Blue' and "Old Orange', a tale of two 'identical' bikes...

 

This is a pic of one of my '71 Honda SL 350's...taken around...1988  perhaps...? At this point I was still using this bike on the street. Shortly after, it was stripped down for dirt only with another '71, a blue one. I have owned many 350 Hondas, and still own several 350 Hondas. My second bike, after the  first bike I owned which was a '69 CL 175 K3, was a used '71 CB 350. Rode it for several years then moved up to a '71 CB 500.  It's interesting how people are acquiring  Honda 350's to restore or turn into 'Cafe Racers' or odd ideas of a 'Flattrack' look. Not putting anyone down for that, just that for me they were affordable and fairly reliable bikes over the years. And too ,people are also turning them into 'Classic' Racers. I tended to lean towards a 'Cafe-Racer' style in those days. Most of the guys I worked with in the 70's had 'Choppers', or 'Customs'.

Speaking of really identical bikes,Norman of 'You can't tour on a Single' and Iain of 'Auld Kawas and Stuff' both recently purchased CL 350's. It was not a model imported to the UK. They are both based in Scotland. Interestingly they have found bikes of the same color and year, I believe. I never owned a CL model, but several friends of mine did. They have a larger front wheel , different exhausts, pegs, tanks and side covers...but are very similar in spec to the CB models. By the looks of them they are in pretty good shape for the year that they were built. You can follow restoration progress on their blogs, which have links here at this blog.

The early SL 350 was based on the CB/CL frame and motor. I owned and restored a 1969 SL 350 in the 70's and sold it.  The '71 SL 350, and later, had a completely different frame, engine castings, no electric start, transmission gearing differences and so on . They were tuned differently with smaller carbs and were more 'user-friendly' on the dirt. I have three of them now. One is in near running condition (the originally orange one), the blue one is in pieces here and there. The 'Blue' one was thrashed so hard by my friends and myself that it has broken motor mounts on the cases and the frame. The 'Orange' one is still trucking along. It was always slower but it got you there. The third one has a running motor, that curiously has a replacement engine case that has the previous owners name stamped where the engine numbers would go. Speaking to the brother of that man, the one who sold me the bike, it goes back to the time when dirt bikes were not required to be registered. He broke the original cases and when he installed the new cases he only had a set of letter stamps, so he stamped his name in the cases. It will be interesting to see what DMV has to say, for these days dirt bikes are required to be registered...

Yeah, it was 1988 when I took these pics. This is a shot of "Old Blue' next to a CB 100 that was turned into an of off road bike. The camo '68 Bug was given to me by a friend who had turned it into a flat bed pickup truck. I ended up trading it for a BSA B-40 motor that will be the basis of a trials bike, some time...

A friend of mine who used to go dirt riding with me named the bikes 'Old Blue' and 'Old Orange'. After the blue one was retired when the motor mounts expired...the orange bike acquired the blue tank, when it's tank became too rusty and full of holes to continue. Jay then started calling this bike 'Blorange'.

'Blorange'

This pic was taken in 2012 . This is the orange bike now sporting the blue tank.It also has a swap meet find recovered seat and some Dunstall 'clip-ons. At this point I was thinking of changing the tank to one off of a CB 500 twin...and going towards a 'Cafe' style. Thats the CB 550 now wearing a swap meet early 350 seat that was bought for 2 bucks.

On closer inspection you can see that 'Old Blorange' has suffered the passage of time, and being stored outdoors under a holey tarp...

Rust never sleeps...

Time for a new air cleaner...

This bike and I survived being run down by a three quarter ton van about 13-14 years ago. Bike had a bent frame which I straightened. My bent frame I wonder about...still have aches and pains from that one. It was hit and run...(yes I still harbor ill thoughts towards the driver of that van...)

The disc brake front end is from a CB 350G model. I added the disc brake when I had a side car attached. The sidecar was attached when I was hit by the van. It probably saved my life, since the rig behaved like a small car and spun before it threw me off. Without the side car I might have been drug under the front of the van with the bike...?

Last year I had the fantasy of getting a bike together for the Moto Melee run. As it turned out my '71 SL 350 was too 'new', and some unexpected dental problems put the kibosh to those plans. This year I might try again with an older Honda 450 I have. It's a 1969 'Black Bomber' that needs some attention, but would qualify as far as  the age requirement. So now I'm wondering if I should complete my "Cafe' plans for 'Blorange'...or return it to dirt service...?

A 'trading' card that came with a stick of chewing gum.

A Honda ad from 1971

The 'Duke', on a '69-70' SL 350 Honda...

To be continued...

This just in, another 'tough' guy on a Honda SL...Chuck Heston in 1971's 'Omega Man' Lot's of guns and zombies in sunglasses...

Sneaking in another pic for 'Mr.Combo'. I believe this is a bike I've been hoping to catch at it's home garage...on the way to my WiFi provider (McD's)...I spot this half a block from my place....