Copyright (c) umgweb.com 1998
I intended to be first among UMG punters with a piece of prose on the Honda CB350SG, the latest reincarnation of the unfairly despised Superdream. However, someone got there first and painted a generally favourable picture. Nevertheless, I still feel my laboriously word processed spiel is worth reading so if you're sitting comfortably....
This bike is certainly not the stuff of which tall motorcycling stories are made but that's natural really - I mean, the bike is reasonably quick and very reliable, so it's not particularly exciting. But hang on, I'm a London rider trained in the art of despatching and urban rat race survival. Motorcycles are my only form of transport. It's usually wet and cold. The roads are falling to bits. This isn't Route 66 but Hanger Lane. The Honda begins to make some sense.
I've done 14000 miles from new so far on the CB. Originally, it was destined for despatching. I bought it because it's a relatively simple machine and thus a candidate for self servicing (after the warranty expires). Also, with such a successful pedigree, the old 400 Superdream was very reliable, I reckoned on it not suffering terminal internal destruction too rapidly - a useful quality in a despatch bike. However, my despatching job came to an end and I decided not to sign up for any more torture. I got a much less frantic occupation instead and the new bike breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The Honda has proved itself to be, as they say, an excellent tool for urban use. For me, at any rate, a bike needs good acceleration and really good brakes to ensure survival in London traffic. Okay, it's pretty slow on the motorway if you regard 70-80mph cruising as slow, but it has a fair bit of grunt for getting out of tight spots on city roads.
I find that if you use the gears then the Honda will really bowl along. The power comes on smoothly and immediately, so you can out accelerate all the cars and quite a few bikes from a standing start. More importantly, the bike is well suited to the type of point-and-squirt riding used when cutting through serious jams. And when that taxi in front does a sudden U-turn, the powerful front brakes are useful. The rear isn't actually much cop, at least it won't lock the back wheel, but the front's are really effective; they've saved my bacon a few times.
On more open roads you soon come up against the limitations of this bike. On the motorway, a cruising speed about 10mph over the limit has to suffice unless you want to cane the engine mercilessly. Compared to an LC350 the power to weight ratio is rather poor; as well as developing only 34hp it has to lug around 380lbs. However, it's certainly no slug, it's just that there's little extra power left once you're in motorway cruising mode. In general, though, I think that the spread of available power up to about 85mph is pretty good.
The engine is basically similar to the 250 and 400 Superdreams and will probably fail in the same way. The Superdreams tended to be reliable until everything was worn out at 40 to 50,000 miles, when they were just beyond salvage. Just about every other modern bike in the known universe, when they have one, drive their balance shafts by gear, note the poor old CB's chain, although it is a little easier to get at the tensioner and seems to need less attention than earlier bikes. The 350, having its pistons going up and down together as per old Brit twins, sounds nice and the balance shaft combined with the lack of capacity and low state of tune means it's as smooth as you could want without totally removing all feel of an engine whirring away.
Obviously, I can only compare the CB350 with my previous mounts. And there stands the most uninspiring list of motorcycles this side of the MZ works. For someone like me who has clocked up thousands of miles on the two wheeled equivalents of the Ford Cortina and Transit, and who has had his fair share of anguish, the CB350 is quite a good bike.
To give it its due, reliability has been first rate with nothing failing to work in 14000 miles. The front brake calipers seized up thanks to all the road crud. As a result I couldn't change the pads and had to get the dealer to apply a flamethrower. As I'm sure you're aware, the Japs don't put nearly enough lubricant on the pins with dire consequences when they are exposed to the ravages of a winter on English roads. The calipers now have a tasteful anodised look, but what an expense. More expense was incurred after the thing was blown over by the wind and a few months later an idiot knocked it over while parked. New bars and mudguard please, an astronomical sum plus the dreaded VAT. Still, at least my bike does its crashing whilst I'm not on it.
In fact, parking is the one aspect of London riding I hate the most. People say it's par for the course round here but it's a frightening experience when you look out of the window and find the bike eating tarmac. It's also occasions like that when you find that you can lift almost 400lbs of metal. When it happened the second time, it encouraged me to dig out my Honda H100 and used that for commuting to work.
I soon found that this device got me around London just as well as the CB, so I'm going to sell the latter whilst it's still in good condition and save up for something interesting to ride at the weekends. The CBs, VTs and GTs of this world are the only things for despatching but those days have gone and so I can't see the point in running that type of bike.
Ironically, I took my test on a Honda H100 eight years ago. After a succession of basic but pretty big bikes, culminating in a wonderful working relationship with a huge company CX500 barge, I'm back on a farty little two stroke.
I P Carter
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I was gambling with my life by using a Yam RD350F2 for commuting to work. There was nothing wrong with the stroker twin, other than the heart blasting turn of power come 7000rpm. It was so thrilling that every time I leapt on the bike I wanted to experience it. The nine mile journey thus consisted of insane bursts of acceleration, desperate braking and an excess of narrow squeaks. The traffic density was intense, making the cagers do strange and terrible things.
The RD had quite a lot of torque at lower revs and, at least in stock tune, did not oil its plugs too often when using minimal amounts of throttle. But the call of the powerband was hard to resist and I was becoming very pissed off with the 33mpg economy when caned.
When a one year old Honda CB350S was advertised at a bargain price, I went for a look and decided I had to have it. The owner was so desperate for a quick financial fix, that I knew if I hated the bike I could just sell it on at a large profit. The Honda felt more like a CD175 than a 350 after the RD, but it was very relaxed and easy to ride, with none of the twitchiness of handlebar that afflicted the Yam, admittedly at somewhat higher speeds than the Honda could entertain.
About the only thing that the two engines share is a similar capacity and two cylinders. Even then, the Yam's pistons move up and down alternatively, whilst the Honda's plod up and down together. The latter characteristic is shared with a myriad of old British twins and would result in characteristic vibration had not Honda fitted a chain driven balancer system. This hideous mechanical abortion (just about everyone else uses gears) cause problems on high mileage engines.
The CB350S motor harks back to the Dream and Superdream design, with three valves per cylinder. Developing just 34hp it's very lowly tuned for a modern Japanese engine, which is apparent on the road. There's bags of pulling power from low revs, but it seems to disappear just where the Yamaha is beginning to take off. So mild is its nature that the bike would be ideal for 125 graduates as they are unlikely to get themselves into any tricky situations.
I soon adapted to riding the Honda to work, its sensible nature working its magic on my senile delinquency. The trip to the office took no longer, though, because the CB was that much easier to control and manoeuvre that any speed lost to the flat out bursts on the RD were easily made up by the bike's ability to slip through incredibly small gaps. As the months went by the traffic became ever heavier and I was thankful to be spared the wrist ache than resulted from low speed work on the Yamaha.
Not surprisingly, given its paucity of power, the CB was a bit lost on fast roads. It had the ability to cruise at 70 to 80mph, come what may, but was often reluctant to put 90mph on the clock in unfavourable conditions. Rather too much work on the not particularly smooth six speed gearbox was needed to maintain 90mph for any length of time. In neutral conditions it was possible to do 95mph, but a bit of a following wind or slight downwards gradient was needed to crack the ton. A couple of times I cursed the machine for its lack of acceleration from 80mph when on the motorway. There are circumstances where a violent burst of power can safely put you out of the path of insane cagers.
Producing nearly twice the power and weighing over 50lbs less at 320lbs, this was not a problem the RD350 had. It would accelerate hard all the way up to 115mph, putting an extra 10mph on the clock under kind conditions. It could not be called relaxed touring, though, the chassis always felt as nervous as the motor and the thin fairing vibrated so much that it wore through the plastic at a couple of mounting points.
The Honda had a more comfortable seat and riding position, though that would not be the case if it were capable of the Yam's turn of speed, when the slight racing crouch of the RD would win out. Two strokes are supposed to be simple, but the RD defies that logic. Induction is aided by reed valves, the exhaust features powervalves and the top end is watercooled. Suddenly, the four stroke twin Honda begins to look the less complex.
Whereas the Honda suffers from its cam and balance chains, the Yamaha has to put up with seizing powervalves and short lived pistons (as little as 15000 miles). The stroker is the simpler to maintain, with its total loss oil system and lack of valve clearance adjustments, although like most strokers, spark plugs can need replacement after just 2000 miles! Both manufacturers have been making twins since the sixties, but whereas the Yamaha has gained power, lost weight and become more durable, the CB350S would have trouble matching some of Honda's better 250s.
The CB motor is yet another variant on the Superdream theme, with the same cheap and nasty looking engine cases and peculiar three valve head which appears to offer no benefits on the road over either the older two valve designs or later four valvers. If it had been any good it would have been adopted by the rest of the Honda range.
Neither of these machines was very old or done more than 10, 000 miles when I bought them. I was therefore pretty miffed come the first autumn rains to find that corrosion was breaking out on both machines. I'd settled nicely enough into using the Honda in the week and the Yamaha for long distance stuff over the weekend. My mates all rode fast bikes and it would have been ridiculous trying to keep up with them on the Honda. So both bikes were getting as wet and cold as their rider.
The CB was the first to show signs of wear and tear, with paint falling off the frame, rust blotching the swinging arm and the exhaust being reduced to the dark red finish of ferrous oxide. I'm not a completely useless bugger, so it was out with the sandpaper and paint cans. Blow me if the damn thing didn't throw off all the new paint and start rusting again within a matter of weeks.
About the only good thing about the amount of oil the Yamaha spews out is that it keeps the silencers in good nick. The frame was more resistant to corrosion than the Honda's, it took a whole winter for patches of rust to break out. The paint on the petrol tank was poor, though, peeling off where a few drops of petrol spilled.
Neither bike is too hard on consumables, the Honda being the better by the odd thousand miles and not being so sensitive to worn tyres. They both have too many discs with calipers that are ferociously attacked by winter salt. I've never kept notes, so can't be too precise - figure 12 to 15000 miles for chains, pads and tyres. The only major difference in consumables is that the Honda doesn't need a set of sprockets every time the chain is changed.
Another big difference is fuel, the Honda managing 50 to 62mpg, whilst the poor old Yamaha does 30 to 45mpg. I've averaged 55mpg on the Honda and slightly better than 35mpg on the Yam. This difference is understandable as I tend to thrash the RD and ride the Honda in a sensible manner. Neither bike could be called economical, though, I think that the fuel consumption of modern bikes is way over the top. Given the Honda's mild nature, I would have expected 80-90mpg!
As mentioned, the best description I can manage of the RD's chassis is nervous. It doesn't wobble in a big way, like some older strokers (who mentioned H1's?), just a bit of handlebar twitching under acceleration and a slight amount of weaving. The rear shock is still OE despite the 32000 miles that are on the clock, which may explain a lot as they often lose damping before the guarantee expires and were never first rate even when straight from the crate.
One up to the Honda, its twin shock arrangement feels tauter and hasn't needed any attention( with 29000 miles done), whereas I have had to put in two sets of swinging arm bearings and one set of linkage bearings on the RD. Not an easy job as there was a lack of grease, leading to everything seizing in position. If I'd left it any longer I would have had to replace the shafts as well.
The seals in both sets of forks are still there, but both front ends feel less taut than they should - harsh use of the powerful brakes on either leads to some wild pogo-stick actions at low speeds. I've still got both bikes, they run okay but look rather tatty. The Honda runs better than the Yamaha, which has become very temperamental of late, often refusing to start and misfiring in the wet.
I've not impressed with the longevity of either. The Yam is good for disipating the blues and the Honda is fine for slogging into work. It's possible to tour on the CB but a bit boring if you do any motorway work. They will both have to go soon, I want to try a big four next.
Alan Lewis
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People love to hate the Honda Superdream, but I've always been a fan of the breed - cheap and cheerful but also just fast enough to be useful out of town. So when a newish Honda Two-Fifty turned up at a bargain price locally I could hardly wait to break into my piggybank. There was never much wrong with the appearance of the old CB250N, I liked the very mild custom shape of the new 250 even more. The twin cylinder engine still lacked the brutish lines so beloved of ancient Brits but it was a neat compromise between street cred and practicality.
The engine had only a single carb and about 20 horses to play with. 20hp from 250cc? Pretty pathetic for 1993 but this was the recession and those nice men at Honda were evidently going for the money-wise, for once. Low seat height, compact riding position with bars a little on the high and wide side for my taste but very comfy during my first roar around town. There was a bit more power at low revs than on the rather gutless old CB250N but the same whirring noise as the balancers set to absorbing the vibes. A few hard core throttle roll-ons revealed not much in the way of arm wrenching acceleration.......but the speedo would flick around to 75mph without much hesitation.
The single front disc didn't appear to work the first time I grabbed the lever. Before I had time to drop a load, some braking was found by straining my right hand. Whilst the brake wasn't very strong it was quite sensitive, so in the wet was relatively safe. Given that many a 125 graduate will be seen roaring around on these devices, it's probably slightly better than having some hugely powerful twin disc set-up that just needs the slightest finger pressure to burn off a layer of rubber. On the other hand, it needed a good sense of co-ordination to pull up sharply in an emergency - matching down-changing with rear and front braking forces could produce some quite spectacular stopping distances.
The bike had already done 4500 miles when I got my grubby hands on it, the front forks already showing a little sloppiness under heavy braking or energetic cornering. Weighing only 300lbs, there was never much doubt that I would get the better of the donkey. Steering was easy, especially in traffic when it was rather relaxing to have such a laid back riding position (as long as it didn't rain when one's crotch ended up looking like it was full of piss) but above 50mph there was a certain amount of vagueness to the steering. It was not the kind of bike that could be steered within an inch of the required line, needing quite frequent corrections.
After 3750 miles the twin rear shocks started to jump around rather a lot. They had been quite firm under solo use, but sticking the girlfriend on the back had the mudguard dragging on the rear tyre. I was not that surprised by their early failure. The local breaker let me sniff around in his Dobberman's droppings until I found a pair of the same length. These must have come off some mammoth as they did not move unless the bike was thrown off a hump-back bridge at 70mph, when the whole machine lurched and twitched wildly when it remade contact with terra-firma. Still, I always knew exactly what the rear tyre was doing.
These rear shocks made long distances something of a pain, not that the bike was particularly well set up for use as a tourer. If I wanted to do long distances at high speeds the Honda was useful for riding to the local rail station but not much else. With a maximum cruising speed of 75mph there was not much point going anywhere near motorways and even fast A-roads had cagers into operatics on their horns. I did slog the bike up the A1 once, droning on for most of day, just stopping every 150 miles to sort out my muscles and fill the tank with petrol. The best that can be said for such excursions was that the motor was tireless, feeling unburstable.
It was on the A1 that I found out the top speed - a long straight stretch, downhill all the way with a following wind with my head down on the clocks - 88mph. Normally, it proved impossible to budge the speedo needle past 80mph, however much throttle abuse was attempted in the lower gears. Once past peak power the engine just died a death as if someone had turned off a switch. Even when furiously caned in this manner, the bike still turned in a respectable 70mpg. 80mpg was easily achieved with the slightest amount of throttle restraint and when in a quiet mood better than 90mpg was possible.
The Honda was conducive to sane riding. The beat of its ever so quiet exhaust, its riding position and mild power delivery all tried to rein in my madder instincts, and often succeeded. I enjoyed many a nice amble through the countryside in the quiet of an early evening or morning, especially in the autumn or spring when the tourist hordes were still madly trying to juggle their finances ready for the summer onslaught or just recovering from their binge.
The only time the Honda really frightened me was when overtaking some car on a narrow road with obscure forward vision. Doing that at say 70mph left little additional acceleration should, as quite often happened, a vehicle suddenly appear coming in the other direction.
Once, I'd just pulled level with one of those Volvo hearses, glancing over at the driver I saw this gorilla type grinning hugely. I only saw what was so amusing him when I looked up to see a bloody great artic lumbering around the corner. The cager had speeded up a little leaving me stranded on the wrong side of the road. I twitched almost as greatly as the Honda as I took a firm grip on the bars and rode straight off the road, having to keep accelerating to miss the front of the lorry. I could have tried to slow down but I suspected that the gorilla would have amused himself by braking with me!
Hitting the grass at 75mph was a pretty harrowing experience for one so young as myself. I killed the throttle as soon as we cleared the front of the lorry and put some pressure on the back brake. The bike rocked from side to side as it skidded over the soft earth, going into a wild circle at about 60mph. I wrenched the bars into opposite lock and put a boot down (I'm a keen speedway fan). I held the bike like that for a while, almost grinning, thinking I was going to hold it. Some hope! At about 45mph the front wheel hit a chasm in the ground and flipped the bike over. I let go of everything and went flying through the air, end over end a couple of times, coming to land in what smelt like the remnants of a septic tank.
I cringed, braced myself, thinking that the lumbering Honda was going to come crashing down on top of me. After a few moments I realised it wasn't and dragged myself out of the stagnant pool. The Honda was about fifty yards away, embedded in a hedge with the engine still stuttering away. Bloody hell, my skin was raked by the brambles as I pulled the CB out. Damage was mostly cosmetic with only bent bars, pegs and indicators that needed kicking straight. The twelve mile ride home was traumatic and I was only allowed back into the house after I'd been hosed off!
Still, the crash had shown that the frame and forks were basically good stuff, for handling had not deteriorated after that experience. Perhaps because of all the crud that had filled them, the calipers needed a strip down a week later (with 12,300 miles on the clock). There was a lot of corrosion and the seals were on the way out. As there was only about 1mm of material left on the pads I judged it an opportune moment to replace them. The rear chain was still okay, it had another two stops on the adjusters before it went off the scale, actually lasting all of 16000 miles before I finally tired of the 100 mile adjustment sessions. I dare say, had I been desperate to save money, I could quite easily have got another couple of thousand miles out of it by taking a couple of links out. The sprockets looked okay, so were left alone. I had enough experience of pattern sprockets to know that it was better to stick with the originals until the last moment.
A winter's worth of salt had been ruinous to both the chrome and alloy, but nothing that a salvage operation with Solvo and elbow grease could not cure. Before the off-road fracas, the paint had been better than I'd expected but the bike really needed but never got a respray - I just touched up the worst of it with red paint that was not a very good match. With 19000 miles done the exhaust became rather loud, a sign that the baffles had gone, and started backfiring on the overrun, but I rather liked the gruff noise and it did not affect the carburation.
The bike came with new Avons, which had held the road well and were still not worn out by the time the exhaust started to fall apart. However, with just 2mm of tread left I had some pretty heavy slides during the rain lashed days of spring. When in London for a day, the greasy roads took both tyres away from under me, the bike lined up for a fortuitously slow corner. The police officer under whose boots we scraped to a halt was not very jolly about the matter, having jumped a foot in the air after being awoken from his reverie. He had his notebook out before I'd even managed to pull the bike upright. The rotter was muttering something about it obviously being a case of criminally negligent driving until I went into my upperclass-twit voice (being a bit of a mimic) and he decided to let me off with a warning.
So, a newish set of Michelins were bunged on courtesy of the breaker who was in such shock after someone had hacked his canine to death he only charged me a fiver. He must have known something I didn't as they were worn down to the carcass within 5000 miles. With 24000 miles achieved, the top end had become rather rattly, which was probably quite understandable as all I'd done to the motor was change the oil every 1500 miles. The noise was dramatically reduced after the valves were given the correct clearances but I could swear that the camchain was beginning to sound like it was due for replacement. Vibes had become quite noticeable if the bike was slogged flat out up inclines and the like, previously the buzz had been so mild it had faded into insignificance after the first couple of months.
The Honda was not yet two years old and still worth something on the secondhand market, so for the next 2500 miles I restrained the right wrist and rode sensibly, ever on the lookout for a suitable replacement or trade-in deal. But nothing came up and I grew bored with riding slowly; by the time the clock was nearing 30,000 miles I was back into full thrash mode. The chainsaw noise that came from the top end, combined with fuel that was nearer 60 than 65mpg, indicated that some serious attention was required. I would have got away with a camchain swap I later found out but when the breaker had a 500 mile, one month old, badly mangled CB250 in stock it was more than I could resist to buy the motor for a price that caused me to doubt the machine's provenance.
The exhaust is full of patches, the cosmetics are tatty, the front brake gummed up but the new motor makes the machine feel really good again, so I will have to get around to fixing the other faults. Don't be put off the Honda by this tale, I am guilty of shameful neglect of my motorcycle and the little 250 has proved a nice highway companion. I'd love a 150mph missile but there's no way I can afford the running costs, even the economical CB250 stretches the pocket on occasions. All you old Superdream hackers rejoice, in a few more years there will be a whole new breed for you to abuse and neglect!
Mark Riverson
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The Honda CB450D was far from my first choice of machine, but a non-running, two year old for £400 seemed too good a deal to miss. The vendor was desperate to off-load the rotting heap before its resemblance to a motorcycle disappeared under the layer of corrosion resultant from it being dumped in his back garden. He was vague about the cause of its demise, reckoning that one day it had simply refused to start. Sure, sure.
The good thing about this deal was that I only had to push the bike half a mile to my home. I'd taken the chain off and removed the front disc's caliper to aid the ease with which it could be rolled along. Despite only weighing 400lbs quite a lot of effort was needed, the tyres not holding much air causing excessive drag. The rubber was down to the carcass but the breaker threw in a free set of slightly worn Dunlops when I gave him £375 for a running CB450D motor.
It only took a week to put the Honda back on the road. Quite good going, as I'd stripped most of the bits off to clean and paint ‘em up. The engine came out of a 23000 miler but I'd heard it running and that told me it was as free as rattles as you could hope for this final incarnation of the ubiquitous Superdream. For 1993, 43 horses from 450cc is not too impressive, with neither an excess of torque nor exceptional frugality by way of compensation.
The best description of the revived Honda was torpid, both in its acceleration and handling. The former wasn't helped any by a horrible gearchange that made noises like a seventies BMW and had all the precision of a 50,000 mile Benly I once had the misfortune to own. Handling varied between mush from the shot shocks (obviously a relative of the old Fade-Very-Quickly units) and arm shaking from the ineffectual front forks, but it never seemed really vicious. As someone who had fallen off a CD185 when the shot swinging arm bearings had allowed a terminal speed wobble, I was quite happy with the CB450's relatively mild wanderings.
The engine wasn't what you'd call smooth or sophisticated, in fact it felt just like every other Superdream motor I'd come across that had done more than 20,000 miles. Rough at tickover, it smoothed out a bit between 2500 and 7000rpm then went into the kind of frenzy associated with old British twins. Where it differed, was that it could be caned along at 10,000 revs in third or fourth without falling apart under you.
The Honda would still put 100mph on the clock after relentless caning on the throttle and gearbox. I felt like a couch potato with bits of my excess flesh splayed all over the place as I got my head down. In this crouched position vision was a bit limited and the awful row of a madly twirling motor and rotted exhaust gave me an instant headache. Sighting what looked like a police car up ahead I grabbed the front brake lever, only to find that it came back to the twistgrip with only the mildest of retardation. I floated past the car, which turned out to be a civilian, at 85mph.
Back home, I tried to bleed the system only to find the bleed screw corroded or glued in (I'd previously just pulled the whole thing off and wedged it between the top of the guard and forks). Simple enough to fix, drill through the old screw then after bleeding put a self-taping screw coated in Araldite into the hole. Probably not the safest repair in the world (not recommended - Ed) but it worked fine for me.
Even with all the air out of the system, some half worn pads and a Bullworker inspired grip on the lever, retardation was never going to melt the tyre, but it seemed well matched to the minimal front springing and slightly loose feel of the forks. I was surprised that their pitted chrome didn't lead to the seal leaking, but this, I later found, was due to a complete absence of damping oil. It fooled the MOT inspector but I was forced to replace the rotted silencers with a pair of baffleless CB350 units that the local dealer was off-loading for a tenner the pair. They were new, found in the depths of his storeroom when he was having a clear out. They made a muted roar but improved the carburation at low revs.
The CB450 is rather more a CD type machine than anything else and Honda would've done better if they had marketed it as such. It certainly can't compete with the likes of Suzuki's GS450E or Kawasaki's GPZ500. Mine was giving only 45mpg even when used mildly, even new ones don't do much better than 55mpg.
The front brake caught me out once in town, when it failed to pull up the bike within fifty feet from a 40mph emergency stop. I hit the pedestrian at about 10mph, the old dear having stepped on to the crossing as if she owned the whole world. She toppled over, the front wheel running over her leg before I could finally stop the wobbling Honda. A couple of other women went into uncontrollable hysterics whilst her husband was so enraged that he tossed the bike off her with such violence that I was sent sprawling. The day grew worse when the cops pulled up but after two hours of begging and pleading they let me off with a caution, as the old dear had survived without any broken bones.
Out of curiosity I'd stripped down the old motor, the cause of the failure being a snapped camchain (at 29000 miles). That had caused a valve to hit a piston, which sent bits all around the engine. There wasn't much that could be salvaged. Honda were king of the pricks re camchain tensioners, with my motor rattling away merrily as 28000 miles was achieved. I let the local back street bodger fit a replacement (£55) but it only diminished the rattles by a marginal amount. At least the valves were in proper adjustment.
The chassis was passable after I'd patched it up, wasn't too affected by riding through rainstorms or on salted roads. The chain, though, was a bit of a chronic problem, already having a couple of links missing when I'd bought the bike. Even a mild twelve mile commute needed an adjustment, the back wheel ending up all over the place after a week. I splashed out on a new chain but the sprockets were so far gone that a mere 1000 miles had that chain in the same state as the original.
The pattern chain and sprocket set I bought proved even more defective. Both sprockets were manufactured out of true, resulting in a terrible grinding noise every time I went above 40mph. If I wanted to go that slow I would've bought a C50. I put the old sprockets back on for a couple of weeks until I turned up a used set out of a low mileage, crashed CB450. Even then, chain wear always seemed heavy, taking only 7000 miles for me to have to repeat the process.
Throughout all this the Honda ran on tirelessly, coming to life after about 30 seconds on the starter on even the coldest of winter mornings and grumbling up the road. It would sometimes stall dead at junctions if I didn't keep twitching the throttle like a sixteen year old moped merchant (remember them?) and the caliper would seize up about once a week, but a few gentle kicks with my size 10's usually sufficed.
With 40,000 miles drawing close I was congratulating myself on lots of cheap motorcycling. I thought I'd celebrate by giving the tank, plastic and guards a going over with the spray gun. Deep blue went on without any problems but a few days later fell off the plastic. The seat took that as an opportunity to split and the rear shocks threatened to collapse. Slightly used bits from the breakers sorted these minor quibbles.
Better weather encouraged me to use the Honda more and more. It seemed to thrive on revs and speed, if you ignored the vibes and weaves. It was pushing the limits of the whole device to cruise at 90mph for a couple of hours but I got away with it many a time. It was pretty exhausting, with only marginal comfort and excess of numbed extremities. It all depended on what you were used to riding, the parade of old hacks that had passed through my hands made the poorly constructed and badly worn Honda seem like a state of the art motorcycle. Stop laughing, out there!
Come 46000 miles the marginally maintained motor began to smoke heavily and rattle so loudly that peds turned round searching for a particularly far gone metal band. Some frantic phoning around the country located a nearly new engine a mere 220 miles away. I was determined to check the motor before I bought it, so rode the sick CB all the way there at less than 50mph; took eight hours. Just as well that the engine was a good ‘un because the old one wouldn't have got me home.
Only took 90 minutes to swap motors and I persuaded the breaker to throw in a front end off another CB450 which had blown its guts. It was cheaper than buying a new front tyre, mine down to about 1mm. The motor was brilliant (perhaps it was just the contrast), being smooth and almost powerful, putting all of 110mph on the speedo, which immediately had a fit at such an outrage, the needle spinning madly until it went dead. Oh well. There wasn't much else on the bike due for replacement, so I had a pretty neat package ready to run for the next year or so.
The CB450's probably a bit too basic for some tastes but I find it a neat enough bundle of alloy and steel, that for any reasonable riding is more than adequate. For around a grand something with a bit of useful life left in it can be purchased. There are enough in breakers (probably because of the minimal front brake) to be able to keep regenerating them as the engine and chassis wears out.
John Watts
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It's always been strange that Honda, inventor of the modern, high revving vertical twin, should've produced such a series of dogs in the seventies and eighties after perfecting the form in the late sixties. The editor still goes on at length about the 1965 Honda CB450 whilst few people have a good word for the Superdreams. Okay, newish ones might be quite useful but they lack both character and performance.
Honda's latest middleweight twin is totally new, sharing nothing, not even the chain driven balancers, with the Superdreams (thank god). It harks back to the original CB450, with an 180 degree crankshaft and twin cams but strangely develops more power (57 horses) at lower revs (8000rpm). Its more modern design is evidenced in its eight valves, single balance shaft and watercooling, though the latter is not immediately evident in the finned barrels and cleverly hidden radiator.
This is an engine formula used in the popular GPZ500 which develops slightly more power and has a usefully protective half fairing. The Honda's styling could be called modern retro, a blend of curved lines and classic silhouette. It's the kind of bike that race replica riders can yearn for but inevitably any prolonged exposure to a naked motorcycle at speed will have the rider screaming for some full dress tourer, especially in a wet and cold English winter.
Any reaction to a motorcycle is dominated by its riding position. BMW, for instance, have got away with murder for years just because they produce supremely comfortable cycles. Here, the CB500 will win many friends, having a natural riding position that allows fast cruising without undue discomfort whilst not sending me into a screaming fit after an hour or so battling through the snarled up battleground known as our capital city.
The CB500 immediately impressed me with its easy going nature, within five minutes it had become an old friend. It should make it as a perfect despatch bike, as long as no mechanical nasties turn up. It feels lighter than its 375lb dry weight, a figure that is no way impressive for a 500cc twin, or for a 57hp machine - British twins had the same power and weight some 30 years ago (and better economy).
What the old twins lacked, of course, was both the build quality and pure civilisation of the Honda. As well as an easy running motor the CB500 has a very slick six speed gearbox, although first was largely redundant and top turned performance rather constipated. I wouldn’t like to run the engine below 2000 revs in the taller gears, though, like the GPZ500, such lack of thought makes the chain feel like it's trying to leap off the sprockets - alas, Honda couldn't be bothered to equip the bike with full chain enclosure.
Twisting the bike through gaps in tight traffic was dead easy, the steering's light and precise, a function of both low weight and good geometry, with none of the suicidal tendencies of the Superdream, which just loved to fall into low speed corners. A bit of care was needed with the single front disc when banked over in slow speed corners as it would try to flip the wheel up, reminiscent of the old GS550, but the Honda's lightness meant it was easy to get back into control.
High speed braking wasn't a problem, with a mere top speed of 115mph and maximum cruising speed of 85mph, and only 375lbs to stop, the single front disc was still able to squeal the tyre. Backed up by a simple rear drum that was as much a joy to behold as it was to use (after suffering chronic caliper seizing in the past).
It's a set-up copied from the old GPZ500 which now, to its shame, sports a disc rear brake. Unlike that bike, the CB has a better pair of forks which resist the twisting action and have better damping, although more miles may well show it up as a load of crap. Twin rear shocks, in the mild conditions resultant from low weight and moderate power, work just as well as most mono-shock set-ups and, obviously, don't suffer from the linkage wear problems.
I really couldn't find anything wrong with the handling. It didn't wander at 90mph, could be thrown over until I thought I was going to scrape my knees and was so easy to chuck through a series of bends that I left my mates, on middleweight fours, for dead.
I was a bit disappointed with the top end performance. Felt more like 47 than the 57 horses claimed. Where, for instance, the GPZ500 was just getting into its stride at 85mph, the Honda was beginning to lose its puff. Breaking the ton wasn't particularly hard work but after that the bike just didn't want to accelerate rapidly, probably a result of its nakedness and the exponential effect of aerodynamic forces on the power output. Those who like cruising in the 90 to 100mph range will find the GPZ500 much more useful.
Such high speed abuse would get the fuel down to around 40mpg, against just over 50mpg for more moderate use. Achieving 55mpg required the kind of restraint that has you kicking the shit out of next door's dog upon return in sheer frustration. This is not progress, but with a four gallon petrol tank range is quite acceptable, with the nice riding position and good saddle I was quite comfortable doing 200 miles in one go and as much as 800 miles in a day. I was still quite coherent and quite able to hit the disco in the evening.
The only slight intrusion to my comfort were patches of vibration, mostly between 6000 and 7000 revs. Given the fearsome reputation of old British twins, that could only safely be used to half the Honda's 10,500 revs, this was nothing to worry about and could, at worst, be eliminated by a bit of action on the gearbox. Honda twins have something of a bad reputation, at least once they have done 25000 miles, but most of the CB500's engineering has been taken from their four cylinder bolides, which should make this one rugged enough. I've done 7000 miles without any cause for concern.
The Honda follows the standard set by the bigger bikes in regard to fit and finish, with excellent switches and an ease of control that would not worry a 125 graduate. The only sign of wear so far is on the matt black silencer which has a few patches of rust that keep coming back even when rubbed down and painted over. Oh, there was also a little rust on one of the welds on the upper section of the frame, which is square section, unlike the round lower half (one is easier to weld, the other nicer to look at).
The Honda lacks a hard edge, the kind of cammy power so beloved of old Bonnie owners, and even the CB450 or GPZ500 twin, and it would be easy to dismiss it out of hand as being bland. Too easy, for it's the kind of bike that's great fun to ride despite the obvious lack of gut churning power. It'd just about hold its own on the motorway, but anything with the slightest curve in it really gets the adrenalin going and proves that motorcycling isn't about excess but finesse!
It's also cheap to run, easy on tyres and chains, with minimal maintenance (valve sessions every 15000 miles, only two carbs and a single disc). Yes, ultimately, it's a complex watercooled eight valve engine, but that shouldn't matter because modern motors are so durable that they don't need much serious work.
It's easily the best Honda twin yet, although they could probably have made it ten years ago if they wanted to. It shouldn't take them long to come down to two grand on the used market, at which point I'd say buy if you like the style, for it has more substance than most such devices.
Kev
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When every muscle in my body was strained by the contorted riding position, when every ounce of power was extracted from the little vertical twin mill and when there was a strong following wind and downwards descent, then, and only then, would the speedo slowly click up to a 100mph. I found that out within the first hour of ownership and it was to define the very nature of the CB350S.
The whole bike felt very nervous, as if there was not enough rubber to hold the 380lbs in check, but it was weaves rather than wobbles, white-lining rather than trying to throw me out of the seat - the bike lacking, absolutely, any vicious traits. The worn out tyres didn't help but even when later endowed with reasonable rubber top speed excursions were always rather edgy.
80 to 85mph cruising was relatively easy to maintain, without any contortions and precious little vibration or floating about, as if this was the bike's most natural, most settled, speed. Below 50mph in top the engine grumbled away and between 50 and 75mph there was a little residual roughness, confirming that the engine had its roots in the 1978 CB250T Dream (Nightmare in impolite circles) rather than the brash, brave, high tech nineties.
The later CB400N took the Superdream design as far as it was possible, given the constraints of three valve heads, chain driven balancers and poor build quality (as in using the cheapest engine components you can get away with). The CB350S's stab at sporty styling hid a 34hp engine that the UMG quite correctly describes as bland.
But that doesn't mean it isn't fun, does it? Well, yes it probably does, but that doesn't stop some people. Revved until it died, a finale it never quite managed despite a rather desperate feel, the Honda was able to navigate quite ephemerally both through town and along country roads. Partial thanks were given to Koni-Dial-A-Ride shocks but mostly it was down to low weight and, on my own modest part, an excess of madness, being pissed off with work (boredom), enraged at the girlfriend (elephant-like) and furious at England (weather, people, etc), all my angst and horror were taken out on the percolating Honda.
The poor old thing had already suffered three owners, 20,000 miles and three years of scorn and rejection, since its inception in the final year of manufacture, 1989. Faded was its paint, tarnished its alloy and worn out its consumables when I got my prehensile paws upon it for the mere expenditure of 425 sovs. What had sounded like a terminal camchain rattle turned out to be merely normal engine noise but, anyway, proved to be the opening to a good bargaining point and a bit of verbal hustling that would've made Arthur Daley proud.
The only real sign of its worn state, if viewed through a squint with the Walkman turned up high, was an impoverishing thirst for fuel that harked back to the heady days of the Kawasaki Mach 1, though to the Honda's credit wheelies were only possible with a twenty stone orang-utan of a girlfriend out back whilst simultaneously revving to 20 thou and dropping the clutch dead with the sound of exploding bearings and fractured metal. It could probably be fun whilst it lasted (about ten minutes I'd guess) but becoming proficient at picking up hundreds of bits of shattered motorcycle was not something I wanted to add to my CV.
The 25 to 30mpg turned out to be due to an airfilter that was encrusted with the debris from a nuclear holocaust or at the very least riding the bike through the local gravel pit, which might also explain the poor finish. As the filter fell apart in my hands the easiest thing to do was chuck the whole box, which looked like it would need a degree in engineering or bodging to put back together without taking a hacksaw to the carbs. The engine ran rather well in this decapitated state and fuel worked out at 40 to 50mpg. Still lousy for the performance but short of a long stroke British single from the fifties (that woudn't take the neglect) I doubted if any other hack was going to better it.
A modicum of respect endowed upon the CB worked wonders, and a line of chatter on the credulous (if not crapulous) girlfriend that spending every spare moment cleaning, scrubbing and polishing the bike would work wonders for her diet and muscle tone (well, she couldn't eat when covered in Gunk, grime and old engine oil, could she?) eventually gave a shine that would have BMW executives wondering what the heck was Honda's secret ingredient.
Due to crap mudguards, quite terrible weather and a very knackered drive chain that needed oil faster than a BSA Bantam past its prime, said finish was totally obscured within thirty minutes of taking to the road. Ain't it an unfair world and all! Further, the grime found its way into the front calipers with unerring accuracy, leading to biweekly stripdowns and long into the night swearing fits - I always locked the bigger hammers away first because I knew the way it was going to go. I reckon it's deliberate policy on part of the Japs, an attempt at overstraining the NHS's meagre mental wards!
The braking, when it was working, was better than expected, with the option of smoking tyres or gentle retardation. Safe in the wet and wild enough in the dry to save the sides of countless tin cages driven with the usual mad isolation from reality. The front forks were a bit spindly, shook in the yokes when I really hammered the front brake and would've snapped right off if I ever hit anything solid with a velocity greater than a gnat's fart.
The bike was as manoeuvrable as a lightly loaded wheelbarrow and as accurate as a toy tricycle at low speeds, but came together after about 25mph. The former may've been due to mismatched tyres, poor weight distribution or merely myself still suffering from the night before, the girlfriend driving me to drink as well as to riding the Honda as if I was a demented young thug. Given that in a year's abuse I never fell off I can't praise the little jewel of Japanese engineering enough.
Okay, you can put the sick bucket away - at the time I spent most of my spare energy cursing its lack of acceleration and derisory top speed. It was the kind of machine that made you want to stand up on the seat, moon following cagers whilst tossing grenades at pedestrians; do something, anything, to overcome the overwhelming sense of boredom!
As the girlfriend has yet to complete her course as a mechanic, the Honda received as much attention as I'd give to the homeless vagabonds who've chosen to camp out under the nearby railway arch. That is, the odd kick in the guts in passing, just to show who's boss. Alright, I will admit to the occasional oil change with the cheapest recycled oil from the local car accessory store, but I only did that when I ran out of old engine oil to throw at the chain. Carbs, valves and internal chain tensioners (balancer and camchain both) have never been touched by human hand to my knowledge, probably not since the bike left the factory gates. Why bother when the bugger keeps on running?
When I came to sell the rotten heap after a year there was 38000 miles on the clock. Its advance state of neglect was disguised by a week's worth of polishing from the girlfriend's muscular mitts and syrupy gearbox oil in the engine sump. Bounder, do I hear you cry? Don't panic, it was down to the local dealer, a Walter Mitty type who thinks he's a hero rather than an arsehole.
He whined for a while, sent his mechanic out on the bike to see if he could crash or break it, and failing that happy end, offered me 400 notes. I almost took the money and ran but shouted loudly at him that it was worth twice that, at the very least. We settled on eleven used fifties, so grime encrusted they looked like they came straight out of the back pocket of a miner. He must've wondered what he'd done wrong when I sauntered away, whistling merrily. I bought MCN the next day and ended up with another CB350S with a mere 9000 miles on the clock.
And that tells you all you need to know. As motorcycles go it doesn't excel at all but if you need something reasonable that will run for 20,000 miles with hardly any attention then the CB350S has the goods but don't, whatever you do, bother with high mileage examples!
Jack Lyndon
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