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1969 CB350 Restoration
This is the first bike I'll be working on so I'm starting a thread to keep track of what I've done/what needs to be done and hopefully get some help/advice along the way. I have a pretty minimal set of tools that I use for regular car maintenance and will just be getting stuff as and when I need it. Pretty much a complete newbie when it comes to motorcycle work.
I dont have any grand plans for it yet except to give it a new lease of life for now while keeping everything as stock as possible and use it as a daily commuter (Its < 5 miles to work anyway..). So its not going to be like most of the awesome and inspirational builds around here. But i'll try and do my best
When I got the bike, it was in pretty decent nick. Major issues were:
1) Front brake frozen
2) Burn residue of some sort on the tank. Rather large dent on the right side
3) Original tires. Pretty dry and cracked, definitely not safe to ride
4) Seat foam in pretty poor shape. Cover is decent with one rip.
5) Electric starter not working
6) No main stand
7) One sidecover missing
The good:
1) Most of it is original since it was a one owner bike and not used much. (6764 miles)
2) Starts up with 2-3 kicks and sounds great. Engine compression is higher than spec. (185 psi) but almost exactly the same on both cylinders. Im told this is just carbon buildup and should straighten out soon.
3) No major rusting as far as I can tell. Mufflers are in decent shape too (more on that later). All the chrome is in very good nick too.
Here are some pictures of the condition I got the bike in. Looks like people here love pictures













This is the first bike I'll be working on so I'm starting a thread to keep track of what I've done/what needs to be done and hopefully get some help/advice along the way. I have a pretty minimal set of tools that I use for regular car maintenance and will just be getting stuff as and when I need it. Pretty much a complete newbie when it comes to motorcycle work.
I dont have any grand plans for it yet except to give it a new lease of life for now while keeping everything as stock as possible and use it as a daily commuter (Its < 5 miles to work anyway..). So its not going to be like most of the awesome and inspirational builds around here. But i'll try and do my best
When I got the bike, it was in pretty decent nick. Major issues were:
1) Front brake frozen
2) Burn residue of some sort on the tank. Rather large dent on the right side
3) Original tires. Pretty dry and cracked, definitely not safe to ride
4) Seat foam in pretty poor shape. Cover is decent with one rip.
5) Electric starter not working
6) No main stand
7) One sidecover missing
The good:
1) Most of it is original since it was a one owner bike and not used much. (6764 miles)
2) Starts up with 2-3 kicks and sounds great. Engine compression is higher than spec. (185 psi) but almost exactly the same on both cylinders. Im told this is just carbon buildup and should straighten out soon.
3) No major rusting as far as I can tell. Mufflers are in decent shape too (more on that later). All the chrome is in very good nick too.
Here are some pictures of the condition I got the bike in. Looks like people here love pictures












