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Down at the Blue Plate Cafe

1969 CL350

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2020
Total Posts
1,018
Total likes
271
Location
Alabama
Local vintage club breakfast this morning. I rode the ‘69 350 down to the cafe today. Nice turnout of new and old, even an MGA. Last pic is a photo op going back up the mountain on the way home.
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Looks like a great morning! I need to find an older model Honda twin, and open a Vintage Cafe.


Tom - 1982 CM450E
(“Noob”, but learning fast!)
 
Local vintage club breakfast this morning. I rode the ‘69 350 down to the cafe today. Nice turnout of new and old, even an MGA. Last pic is a photo op going back up the mountain on the way home.

Nice group of bikes represented, Euro and Japanese, vintage and modern. Looks like a good time, and as always your bike looks great.
 
Looks like a great morning! I need to find an older model Honda twin, and open a Vintage Cafe.


Tom - 1982 CM450E
(“Noob”, but learning fast!)

You absolutely should, but of course it would be 900 miles away from me... :rolleyes:
 
You absolutely should, but of course it would be 900 miles away from me... :rolleyes:

Maybe... maybe not. The Mrs and I are quite fond of Florida. And, as I also belong to the 50+ club, there’s always retirement and new beginnings.


Tom - 1982 CM450E
(“Noob”, but learning fast!)
 
Maybe... maybe not. The Mrs and I are quite fond of Florida. And, as I also belong to the 50+ club, there’s always retirement and new beginnings.


Tom - 1982 CM450E
(“Noob”, but learning fast!)

Ah, that changes everything... but are you ready for 6 months of sweat (read: 90% humidity) from 2 hours after you get up until 2 hours before you go to bed during every year, with lovebugs to clean off all of your vehicles (so they don't literally destroy the paint) for 4 to 6 weeks, both before and after that 6 months of heat? LOL In return, you get great rural riding roads... mostly flat, but lots of them (at least around where I live)
 
I've gotta say I like the DOHC 750 faked up as an early K. Had a K4 and have always wanted to replace it but prices for halfway decent ones have gone way out of my budget. DOHCs are still pretty easy to come by at a decent price...
 
I've gotta say I like the DOHC 750 faked up as an early K. Had a K4 and have always wanted to replace it but prices for halfway decent ones have gone way out of my budget. DOHCs are still pretty easy to come by at a decent price...

I believe that's a recent CB1100 fuel injected modern bike (look at the wheels), $6k is a low price for one used in Boston, but YES cool K0 camo on that one.

I can't help but wonder what my CB750K3 ($200 purchase in 2001) and CB750K8 ($300 purchase in 2020) will be worth by the time I finish them :whistle:
 
Yep, think you're right. Pretty good job done on it.

Looks like it was a beautiful day for a ride with a fun place to stop.
 
Yep, think you're right. Pretty good job done on it.

Looks like it was a beautiful day for a ride with a fun place to stop.

I almost commented on the early CB750 myself until I looked closer... the giant clutch cover and huge dual discs give it away, but it's quite stealth from a glance and very cool.
 
I almost commented on the early CB750 myself until I looked closer... the giant clutch cover and huge dual discs give it away, but it's quite stealth from a glance and very cool.

The guy who owns the retro-kitted CB1100 also owns a nice ‘71 CB750 and a V65 Sabre.
 
The guy who owns the retro-kitted CB1100 also owns a nice ‘71 CB750 and a V65 Sabre.

Well, I really like that 1100 set up like a 750, I'd have to add that to my list of "when my ship comes in" stuff to buy. Funny, the V65 will outrun the modern 1100, they didn't take full advantage of the technology on the 1100 and I read somewhere it's only rated at something like 90 hp IIRC
 
^^^THAT is very cool. If the pipes looked just a little bit more like the early 750 pipes it would be so stealth most people would totally fall for it
 
The only thing I don’t like about that retro kit is that the tank pretty much rests on the engine head. I don’t understand why they didn’t design it to sit about 1/4” higher. There isn’t even room for the chrome trim to fit at the bottom tank seam.
 
they didn't take full advantage of the technology on the 1100 and I read somewhere it's only rated at something like 90 hp IIRC

Less even. 82 horsepower for my 2013. I improved it a bit with the Tadao exhaust and PowerCommander, but it was still disappointing, at best. The press had all sorts of durability and modern emissions excuses, but I think Honda could have done much better.
 
Less even. 82 horsepower for my 2013. I improved it a bit with the Tadao exhaust and PowerCommander, but it was still disappointing, at best. The press had all sorts of durability and modern emissions excuses, but I think Honda could have done much better.

Can't disagree, their history certainly suggests it. Funny how that works with them sometimes... I guess they realized this was just a retro-modern bike and not some groundbreaking blockbuster that needed to wow people in every way like the CBX back in late '78 or the CB750K0 back in '69.
 
No doubt, very nice and certainly not something you see all the time. I wish more vintage Hondas would show up at my local hangout, but only people who want to talk about vintage Hondas instead...
 
No doubt, very nice and certainly not something you see all the time. I wish more vintage Hondas would show up at my local hangout, but only people who want to talk about vintage Hondas instead...

Well, talking about them is half the fun. Looking at them is even more fun, and riding them completes the experience...lol
 
Well, talking about them is half the fun. Looking at them is even more fun, and riding them completes the experience...lol

Oh I absolutely enjoy talking about them, but when I'm surrounded by mostly modern bikes and the only vintage bike is mine, and virtually everyone who comes up to talk (which includes almost NO modern bike riders) has no clue even what size it is... :rolleyes: :dizzy:
 
This little beauty showed up at breakfast this morning.

Beauty, indeed!
One, and there are few, disadvantage to living in a very small rural town is not having a weekend morning coffee hangout - though maybe I should widen my riding circle and find one. If we did have one in town, you’d be hard pressed to find anything but HD in attendance… not that there’s anything wrong with that.
(We do, however, have a great dive bar in operation since 1933.)

Tom - 1982 CM450E
 
Beauty, indeed!
One, and there are few, disadvantage to living in a very small rural town is not having a weekend morning coffee hangout - though maybe I should widen my riding circle and find one. If we did have one in town, you’d be hard pressed to find anything but HD in attendance… not that there’s anything wrong with that.
(We do, however, have a great dive bar in operation since 1933.)

Tom - 1982 CM450E

In addition to the CB160, a pretty nice assortment of bikes showed up this morning, some new, and some old. Great group of people, good conversation. Most of them are still nice to me when I ride the old Sportster instead of my Honda 350, too...wink wink

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Great group of people, good conversation. Most of them are still nice to me when I ride the old Sportster instead of my Honda 350, too...wink wink

That’s just awesome, thanks for sharing! I’d switch things up and ride that Sportster, too. I’ve found bikers in general are great people, regardless.
(And I’ve nothing against HD, have some great friends and coworkers who ride them. It’s just a thing around here I guess, like driving a pickup truck, which I do have… Lol.)


Tom - 1982 CM450E
 
I overhear anti-Harley talk in the vintage club from time to time. I can understand some of it because of the ‘Jap crap’ attitude of a lot of biker wannabes, but to me, vintage is vintage, no matter what the brand.
 
I overhear anti-Harley talk in the vintage club from time to time. I can understand some of it because of the ‘Jap crap’ attitude of a lot of biker wannabes, but to me, vintage is vintage, no matter what the brand.

Completely agree, I think it's interesting to see survivors or restored versions of any brand as it was decades ago. And that CB350F above has a vintage 4-1 on it too, my favorite brand from that era, Kerker.
 
vintage is vintage, no matter what the brand.

Agreed as well; same for motorcycles in general. It wouldn’t be much fun if we all only liked the same one!
Who’s to say the new guy on a 2021 model of anything isn’t there to look and learn with real interest, or has a storied history with vintage bikes we’d love to know? It’s all good.


Tom - 1982 CM450E
 
Richard, that's a great idea to do a make-over on a modern Triumph like the Hurricane, they were a cool-looking bike.
 
Another fine morning at the Blue Plate. Different version of my CL350 today.

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It’s pretty crazy that it’s just a switch of the tank, seat/rear fender, and side covers.

That's how easy it is for a chameleon... :) but yeah, the difference is quite significant for it being that simple, which speaks to the combo of parts you chose to do it with.
 
A big turnout at the Blue Plate this morning. Lots of cool bikes, old and new.

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Unfortunately, I'm old enough to remember watching Clutch Cargo, cartoon heads with human lips, quite advanced graphics for pre-computer times...I guess.
Less even. 82 horsepower for my 2013. I improved it a bit with the Tadao exhaust and PowerCommander, but it was still disappointing, at best. The press had all sorts of durability and modern emissions excuses, but I think Honda could have done much better.
 
I stopped by a neighbor’s house on the way home from the Blue Plate this morning to see a couple of his recent acquisitions, take a fresh look at some of his other bikes and visit a while. There’s a lot of money tied up in these bikes. A 1920s Henderson four, a 1917 Indian military model with sidecar, a 1947 Harley knucklehead, a 1913 Excelsior, and a 1916 Harley, which has competed in the Cannonball Run a couple times.

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I stopped by a neighbor’s house on the way home from the Blue Plate this morning to see a couple of his recent acquisitions, take a fresh look at some of his other bikes and visit a while. There’s a lot of money tied up in these bikes. A 1920s Henderson four, a 1917 Indian military model with sidecar, a 1947 Harley knucklehead, a 1913 Excelsior, and a 1916 Harley, which has competed in the Cannonball Run a couple times.

Quite the group of antiques. I've always been fascinated with old inline 4 cylinders, amazing for the day.
 
He started up the Henderson and asked me if I wanted to ride it. I sat on it, but declined the ride. No front brake, rear brake pedal on the right, foot clutch and hand shift on the left…sounds like a risky setup on a very expensive motorcycle that I’d have to pay for if I had a mishap…lol
 
He started up the Henderson and asked me if I wanted to ride it. I sat on it, but declined the ride. No front brake, rear brake pedal on the right, foot clutch and hand shift on the left…sounds like a risky setup on a very expensive motorcycle that I’d have to pay for if I had a mishap…lol

I will say that the first time I rode one of the Police Harleys when I was 22 and starting my new job with the City, it was tricky. Left foot clutch (but at least a rocker pedal that had a friction adjustment on it so it stayed where you put it) and left side tank shift lever. Otherwise it rode like any other bike but of course it did have a front brake. I'd have been tempted to ride it myself, just to say that I did once in my life... but I get the trepidation, especially on such a fabulous antique.
 
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