INTRODUCTION

The Honda CB350 (fig. 1) is a very dependable, versatile yet common motorcycle to come by, since there were more of these motorcycles built than any other single production motorcycle.

My decision to build a CB350 for vintage racing came about for several reasons. I had been racing a 1971 Suzuki T500 as well as a 1971 Honda CB450 for a couple of years with moderate success.
In stock form they were relatively easy-to-ride bikes, but once performance changes were made to them they became ever more difficult to ride and maintain. I spent more time fiddling with the bikes than I did riding them. Always — it seemed — I was trading one good working bike for the other; one year the CB450 worked well and the next year it was the T500.

The T500 was getting too fast for the stock frame setup and I couldn't use full throttle on the east bank of Daytona until I straightened out coming to the start/finish line. Additionally, it required serious man-handling to get around the infield.
On the other hand the CB450 was giving me fits, in large part, due to my inability to degree the cams; a job that can be rectified with lots of money, money that could be used towards, let's say "a dependable, versatile and common motorcycle."

The whole point of my racing was to have fun and race with my buddies. I was in different classes than they were and tired at watching them have fun, some on virtually stock machines, like Honda CB350s!

I had found the bike I was going to build next.