1972 Honda CB350K4
Q:
I am the lucky owner of a 675 miles from new CB350K4 US import. As you can imagine it’s been in storage since it arrived in the UK. I want it on the road in spring and as it is 46 years old it needs a good clean and sort out. The need for new tyres has opened up a can of worms however: it still wears the original Bridgestones, which look perfect, but will be dangerous! My problem is that the skinny 3.00 and 3.50 x 18 tyres seem to have been ignored by the top tyre manufacturers. I am faced with a choice of Bridgestone BT45S or Avon Roadriders, which is what I prefer to use, but they only come in metric tubeless sizes. To get a tyre in imperial sizes, it would appear that I have to buy some cheap Chinese rubbish from an auto jumble. Is it possible to do a feature on this in a future issue? Tim Abrams
A:
Your choice is wider than you think. Assuming you do not need the original look with old-fashioned tread designs, it would be possible to find the correct combination of width and aspect ratio in metric sized tyres to fit but rather than doing the calculations (I shall look at that in a future article) you will find a range of Imperial sized ones if you look around. I have seen tyres from Heidenau, Bridgestone, Michelin, Pirelli, Metzeler and others in your Imperial sizes, but one which is particularly recommended for classic bikes is the Metzeler Perfect ME77 which comes in 3.00 and 3.50 widths for 18in rims. The cost is about £55 each before fitting.