Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

1973 HONDA CB350 FOUR

Is this, Honda’s original mini super-four, the real-deal or a bland sham? Steve Cooper investigat­es.

- WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: GARY CHAPMAN

Steve Cooper reckons it’s a mini-marvel!

Few motorcycle­s from the 1970s seem to get more back-handed comments than Honda’s smallest four. To be honest the bike generally lives in the shadow of its more boisterous cousin, the ubiquitous CB400/4. That machine is, if you believe the pundits, the one you need to own. Its imperious qualities somehow lift it above its stink-wheels peers, raised on a platform where it doesn’t even need to be as fast as them simply because it’s somehow – well, just better. At the risk of alienating 400/4 fans worldwide this is emphatical­ly hogwash. Honda needed a viable middleweig­ht sports machine badly by 1975 and didn’t have one. The K series 350 twin wasn’t capable of being breathed on with any real likelihood of besting the competitio­n and with nothing else ready in the wings the only option was to revamp the 350/4. The company’s focus on cars had left them sadly lagging behind with little significan­t investment into the motorcycle division. The very fact that Honda latterly rapidly dropped the four in favour of the twin pot 400T Dream goes some way to demonstrat­e just how much of a stopgap the 400/4 machine was. Fast rewind to the glory days of the early 1960s and Honda is riding high on a wave of GP successes. Twins, fours, fives and even sixes are overawing fans around the world and success is being reflected in the showrooms. However, there’s one thing missing, a road-going analogue of what’s doing so damn well on the track. Behind the scenes Honda is working on the CB750 and pretty much just as the factory pulls out of racing the bike hits the streets thereby keeping the company firmly in the public eye. The press go wild and it’s a shrewd calculated move by Honda while they diversify into car manufactur­er. Up to this point (1969) Honda has hardly put a foot wrong and always managed to keep two steps ahead of its competitor­s but it suddenly goes pear-shaped. Their main rivals have upped the ante and their various 250-350s are seriously good, what’s more rumours suggest one or more may be about to deliver a high-tech 500. Honda is stung into action and rapidly brings forward the smaller fours it’s been proposing to follow up with post CB750/4. In truth even the mighty Honda Motor Company had finite resources and launching a trio of fours together would have been asking too much. The CB500 is now generally recognised as the best of the bunch but you cannot help but wonder how much more successful the 350/4 would have been if it’d been launched alongside the 750. Such a move would have been delivered multiple body blows to Yamaha and its nascent YR5.

It would have hit Kawasaki’s A7 Avenger, Bridgeston­e’s GTR 350 and Suzuki’s T305 Raider too. A pair of fours that reflected the company’s racing successes might very well have cleaned up. But enough of history lessons and ponderings, let’s get down to business. In camera today we have a serious piece of eye candy and no matter what marque or brand your loyalty goes to there’s no arguing just how cute the CB350F looks. Our test bike is all original, authentic and unrestored with only a few spots of surface rust beginning to make an appearance on the frame; as a restorer’s reference it’d take some beating. This model is allegedly Soichiro Honda’s favourite road machine and it’s not hard to see why. From his personal perspectiv­e the engine is the epitome of quality, four-stroke, and miniaturis­ation and arguably, here, Mr Honda has finally eclipsed the companies who had initially inspired him. This was a series production, road-going machine that out trumped the precision hand-built race bikes of NSU, Mondial etc. Who wouldn’t be proud and pamper their baby? To this end the bike is gifted a unique set of four exhausts. This is as ostentatio­us as it is irrational given that either a 4-1 or 4-2 system would have boosted mid-range power and shed some mass. On paper and on the road the tiny engine is hardly overburden­ed with power. But four chrome cans and the side panel badges both shout to the world that this is something truly unique and special. And to further underline this fact the bike is probably unique among Hondas of the period in featuring metal flake paint. Take a close look at that red paint and there are real, glitzy, flakes beneath the red top coat lacquer; surely a sign of special status? Elsewhere the bike looks essentiall­y standard Honda fare with shrouded forks and shocks and sensible effective mudguards. Look a little deeper and you’ll see that the ignition lock has its own dedicated chrome cover. Also the bike runs a disc front brake when in reality a Twin Leading Shoe unit would be perfectly adequate: favouritis­m or happenstan­ce? The jury is still out on that one. Everything about the bike is twee and diminutive befitting its claim as the world’s smallest road going four of the period… well unless you look at the rear light which is a clumpy affectatio­n forced upon the bike by target market USA regulation­s. In the saddle the high US spec bars don’t feel as awkward as they look from the side lines and the dual seat is more than capable of carrying two lithe twenty somethings. Looking forwards, the clocks scream 750/500 four and carry a similar set of idiot lights between the bar clamps; possibly unnecessar­y on a 350 but huge bragging rights. Obviously never cheap to make there’s few concession­s to cost cutting even if you look hard. The headlamp shell, a basic moulded black plastic body, is about the only obvious one I can spot. Peer down either side of the tank and there’s little evidence of the motor’s numerous pots. If you didn’t know you could honestly think it was a wide twin… well until you press the starter button. The bike fires up with a loud bark out of all proportion to its size. The motor sounds crisp, quiet and efficient but then, after all, it is a Honda. Light clutch, into first with a handful of revs and the bike is away. The experience is all about revs and their maintenanc­e, the more you have the better the bikes goes. With peak torque of 20lb-ft made at 8000rpm and maximum power of 34bhp just 1500rpm beyond this the motor and gearbox get a good work but this is not an issue simply because they were made for that purpose.

The CB350F gets slated because it’s not super feisty but making this judgement misses the point. It’s the experience, the sensation, the phenomenon you’re chasing not the absolute numbers. This is four microscopi­c pots working in the guise of a race engine but not attempting to be one. Know this and you’ll enjoy the marvellous spectacle; ignore and you’ll come away disappoint­ed. What no one can deny is the howl of that exhaust system. I’ve no way of measuring decibels but I’d wager the 350 is louder than its half litre big brother. The sound sends shivers down my spine and at the owner’s behest I worked the engine through the gears, savouring a truly rare experience. Sorry 400/4 owners but you’ve never heard the like. Once again I come back to the premise that Soichiro Honda made a point of ensuring his baby’s exhaust note was just that little bit special. In terms of usability the motor is as happy at low speed as it is being thrashed and although it’s not a slogger low revs and high gears are easy bedfellows. Opening the throttle at low speed reveals a beautifull­y carburated bike that’ll do almost anything you ask of it. My only negative is that with four slide carbs with twin cable push/pull control the throttle was a little heavy. The period road testers spotted the bike’s propensity to vibrate and it’s affecting me as well. At 6000rpm there’s a pronounced buzz going on and for reasons that aren’t clear it’s the right side of the bike that seems overtly afflicted yet a grand later all is smooth and harmonious, strange! This annoyingly also happens just around 60mph and precisely where you don’t want it but that said it’s easy enough to ride through it. Knock it down a gear, open the taps and you accelerate past the vibes into a sweeter zone. And of course the motor never, ever, shows the slightest hesitancy, distress or protest. Post evaluation my notes somehow failed to capture the correct references necessary to describe the motor but upon reflection I finally sussed it. Honda’s CB350F feels like a pair of expertly combined CB175S motors and if you know anything about small Honda twins you’ll appreciate just how much of a compliment this is! Handling is of the period and of the time; the suspension is on the soft side and a little underdampe­d but ridden within the bike’s terms of reference it’s totally acceptable. It’s not a Yamaha YR5 and therefore doesn’t have a chassis with GP credential­s but it’s not supposed to be, the Honda is a tourer after all. In fact the closest contempora­ry I can think of is Suzuki’s sublime GT380 and again this is a substantia­l compliment from my own

“The experience is all about revs and their maintenanc­e, the more you have the better the bikes goes”

personal perspectiv­e. Honda’s pivoting caliper brake system comes in for regular criticism but on the 350/4 it’s reliable and effective. Feel and feedback aren’t up there with, say, the twin piston unit from an RD350 but the unit is more than capable of hauling the bike down from speed. The rear drum is both simple and effective, end of. The CB350F is fascinatin­g. It should have been a runaway success yet it wasn’t. What is apparent is that, in isolation, the CB350F offered four-cylinder motorcycli­ng in an extremely manageable package. In principal this was four-cylinder motorcycli­ng anyone could access. It may not have lived up to the expectatio­ns of its creators in terms of sale volume, but possibly that was never really the idea anyway. Maybe, just maybe, if the premise was simply to prove they could make a good 350/Four, I’d argue they were bang on the money.

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 ??  ?? Oh it just begs you to rev it... Hard!
Oh it just begs you to rev it... Hard!
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 ??  ?? So much better than its critics would have you believe!
So much better than its critics would have you believe!
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 ??  ?? Sixties Japanese miniaturis­ation at its best.
Sixties Japanese miniaturis­ation at its best.

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