Honda CL350 - CL450, show us yours..

Man, I love the "scrambler" look of these old CLs... I noticed a CL350, green, sitting out in front of a garage down the street from my house. Looks like it hasn't been registered for a while but it's all there, complete, just looking kinda sorry and neglected - tires are flat, license plate about to fall off, dusty, etc...

There's no "for sale" sign on it but I am really tempted to go knock on the door and ask if they would consider selling it. If the price is right and there is a title I would definitely take it. Would it be rude to just walk up, knock on the door and ask if it's for sale? Never tried this approach before so I'm not sure what to expect but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

i think thats a fine approach. if its a gated sort of situation with a big dog you might want to try just leaving a note like: "hey, I like these honda scramblers, are you interested in selling? call .." on the bike.

Here's my CL450. I think its somewhere in Europe now.

My 68'. The PO did a lot of work getting it right. I traded straight across for it with my KLX250. We both felt like we were getting a deal.

If I do any mods, (which of course I will ) I'll keep the stock parts. They're too good to chop & grind. I'm thinking desert sled style. Maybe bob the rear fender, smaller taillight, something custom using the stock seat pan, I'm working on a heat shield for the pipes right now. Think I'll stop about there.

I feel like I'm riding the granddaddy of my XR650R when I take this thing for a ride.

You are going to need real foot pegs. If you start to ride this off road.

You're pretty lucky to have that taillight on the bike it belongs on! Check out the smaller Bomber taillights and then look at the 71-> tail lights. While the earlier ones look super cool, they are hard to see and the one you have (and I also have on my 350) is a great balance of style and function. The 71-> ones, of course are hideous!

Here's mine... or more accurately, was mine, since I sold it last year to a buddy who pestered me to sell it to him for 5+ years. He gave me first right to buy it back if/when he sells it.

NOS hippy tanks on an original low mileage K4 that I bought from a guy who had it in his living room. I added the K5 seat/grab rail and longer rear light stems. Only other changes were a slightly larger rear tire (the front is still the original), a NOS clutch cable, carb rebuild, and new tune-up parts.

This bike ran like a sewing machine - quick, peppy and fun with a great sound!!

Here's another pic:

and another:

last one:

That's a wicked paint job, did you just dip the tank in a vat of (deliberately) poorly mixed paint?

I didn't do it - that is a factory Honda paint job. I don't know how Honda did the paint, but your guess is what I guessed too. The "yellow" swirls are actually Honda's "panther candy gold" metallic and the "black" swirls are more a dark metallic purple - it really pops in the sun! The other Honda color combo for Hippy tanks is blueish/pupleish swirls mixed in with metallic silver.

The story is that Honda made these in the early '70's as an accessory given all the 350s being made into choppers. These tanks come up on e-bay every now and then - the last ones I saw were about 6 months ago and NOS and they went for like $700 including side covers (silver and purple). I got these (NOS) on the bay about 10 years ago when I was working on rebuilding another CL350. When the low mileage bike showed up locally, I bought it and put the hippy tanks on it.

MAN!!! That"s a farout paint job. I just love it.

I showed that picture to my daughter, and we both think the swirling is done similar to how Easter Eggs are dyed and then given that swirled look. It's been a couple of years since we've done it but as I remember there is a color packet that is oil base is poured into a cup of water and given at light stir just before the egg is dipped and slowly pulled out of the water When the egg is taken out it has a look that is surprisingiy like the hippy paint job. Far out man.

That's pretty cool about the hippy paint job on the 350, I've never seen one like that before they must have not made many.

I really like the gas tank on this one

Found this on the Honda Twins Vintage forum:

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/mcy/2524820815.html

Purple Swirly!

"Vintage Honda CL350 Flying Dragon Paint Set in The Original Packaging from Honda Motor Co. from 1972"

I found this the other day and can buy it for less than $500. It's all there just not all assembled, engine is stuck....

Ran when he put it away

That's a CL450, which is rarer (more valuable?) than the CL350. The exhaust pipes alone, if they look as good at 6" as they do 10' (actually, besides the obvious missing pieces, the bike looks pretty good at 10'), are worth the $500 if you part it out.

If you want the CL450 hippy tanks, see current e-bay ad here or as shown below (only $1000 starting/opening bid :eek1)

hadn't seen that color combo before - suhweet!