Vintage Dirt Racing on a 350 Honda Twin

[LC Garage]

These SL350's are like stray cats and dogs, they just seem to find me! I was on the phone with Tom Street, legendary rider for Pow-Roll "back in the day" and it turned out he had a couple of spare old SL350's that needed a home. He said one of these bikes had been his brother's and Tom had built it up years ago with a 435 cc kit! That was all I had to hear, we made a deal right then, now I just have to figure out when I can get over to Bend and pick them up.

Here is a picture of the two bikes;



I'm going to need to start clearing out some of the extra SL350 stuff in the near future, if any of you have any parts needs, please let me know. Prices would be reasonable.

[Ladybug0048]

Cool. New toys. You better get busy so you have one of them ready for the Desert 100.

[LC Garage]

Originally Posted by Ladybug0048

Cool. New toys. You better get busy so you have one of them ready for the Desert 100.

D100 on an SL350? I'll leave that craziness to OC, I'll be riding my trusty little TTR 250 (now with steering dampener), Goal #1 is to do the 50 mile loop in under 3 hours, Goal #2 is to try and keep up with that old fart Don Housley!

If things get really insane, maybe Luke will attempt it on his new 4 cylinder Franken-bike, that would be something to witness!

[Ladybug0048]

Ah darn, I thought you would be doing the D100 on an SL350. You motocrossed on your SL350

Luke needs to do the D100 on his Frankenbike, it will need a preride before the M1K and that's a good preride for it.

Come on guys, give me something fun to watch.

[oregoncoast]

[LC Garage]

Long past time to quit yappin and start building this motor!

Pulling it from the crate it rode in to Cabo and back;





Removing the intake and exhaust storage plugs;



Tear down in sequence;













This motor was extremely clean inside, looked really good. Pistons said .050, so its been freshened at least once before.

Here is a quick shot of all the new goodies that have been gathering for the last year;



From left to right are; big bore gasket kit from Bore-Tech, Sudco Mikuni kit, HD clutch springs, battery eliminator from Oregon Motorcycle Parts, 67.5 mm cylinder, Polish poly cam chain tensioner wheels, ring sets from the Greek, big bore pistons and the trick cylinder head rebuilt by Owen at Graves Propane.

[oregoncoast]

looks great...now don't lose my crate and storage plugs...gotta pull my motor here pretty soon for a once-over

[TwinDuro]

Also, those are two very nice SLs Rick! I like the matching paint on both bikes... I believe Honda refers to that factory color as "Candy Panther Gold," but it will forever be known in my mind as "Candy LSD metallic green."

Oh man... A 435cc kit?



Sweet mother of pistons!

[TwinDuro]

Originally Posted by Ladybug0048

Come on guys, give me something fun to watch.

Challenge accepted! 1970 Honda Trail 90 on the ironman poker run it is!

[LC Garage]

Originally Posted by TwinDuro

Challenge accepted! 1970 Honda Trail 90 on the ironman poker run it is!

Trail 90? Another ADVRider oldskooolridz rode one of those last year, go here http://advrider.com/forums/showthrea...t=d100&page=11 his comments are third from the top.

The D100 is similar to riding/racing in Baja, once you've done it you can't wait to go back and it's always in the back of your mind.

[Chobro]

Originally Posted by LC Garage

Polish poly cam chain tensioner wheels,

Can you tell me about the tensioner wheels? I just bought a KA slider from BoreTech along with a new chain. Thought about making new wheels but figured less moving parts would be better (making them woulda been cheaper tho!).

[LC Garage]

Originally Posted by Chobro

Can you tell me about the tensioner wheels? I just bought a KA slider from BoreTech along with a new chain. Thought about making new wheels but figured less moving parts would be better (making them woulda been cheaper tho!).

hey Chobro, I found them on ebay and then did some net searches and found some of the cafe guys are using them. I do believe the KA is the state of the art tech for this application, I'm doing some things on the cheap and wanted to try an alternative that was durable but a little cheaper than the KA. I'll get some pics and post more info in the morning.

By the way, I was quite surprised at the great condition the stock wheels were in, this motor may have been fresher than I realized.

[LC Garage]

Here is a pic of the new roller kit alongside the old set up;



Here is a link to where I found this kit on ebay;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TENSIONER-SE...8&cmd=ViewItem

A lot of technical information as to why this material and set up should outlast stock. NOTE: I'm building my motor for a vintage MX bike that gets ridden about two or three times a year and in reasonably short bursts, unlike a road race motor that turns 10-12,000 rpm for extended periods. If you have a street or dirt type application these wheels might be ok, but for roadrace you would probably want the KA.

I have been getting technical advice from one of the ADV inmates (Mr Fast), we raced with Mr Fast and his son Azcagiva in Mexico, they have a super fast SL350 set up for the desert as well as CB350 road race bikes so they are the authorities on this. I do believe they run the KA setup.

[Chobro]

Thanks LC, might try those on the next one. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, those SL350s are super cool!

[oregoncoast]

dibs on your old chain roller That thing looks perfect!!