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SFC_Jeff_Button · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:36 pm Post subject: 1972 Honda SL 350

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This is my 1972 Honda SL 350 "Scout Bike". Notice the black-out marker light on the handlebar, (donated from an M113A2). I was given this bike for free by another soldier here at Fort Irwin, as a basket case. It was flat black, rust and grease colored before I got my hands on it. What the previous guy never knew, was that under the seat was a little compartment that had the original manual, sales slip, ins card, etc... The owner bought the bike new (un-assembled) and put it together himself. He was a seaman on the USS Midway in San Diego at the time.
I replaced grips. levers, controls, cables, front fender, bought a spare eng, (which is in garage still) and painted the nasty tank and side covers with OD rattle can 99 cent spray paint, added the stenciling, and then clear-coated with 99 cent clear. You wouldn't believe the looks and comments it gets on post. I ride a 100th Anniversary Black/Silver 1200 Sportster that has Screaming Eagle Stage I kit and a ton of chrome, and it doesn't get the comments this bike does. I'll probably re-do the paint, but I don't want a show bike, after all, its suppossed to look like a "Scout" type bike, rode hard and put away wet.

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:39 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

Maybe we can "merge" this with the "Not a P-51 but still a fine Mustang" gearhead topic? (Lotsa' fine motorcycles in there, too). I think it's a couple of pages back in this forum, and needs "new blood" like Jeff's....

JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:04 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

- Doug_Kibbey

Maybe we can "merge" this with the "Not a P-51 but still a fine Mustang" gearhead topic? (Lotsa' fine motorcycles in there, too). I think it's a couple of pages back in this forum, and needs "new blood" like Jeff's....

OOOOPPS!!!! Too late!!! Because that Honda deserves top billing!!!!!

Aww, gawdangit.....frikkin' mouse slipped and I accidentally posted another Honda picture.......dangit fer cripes sake, this has suddenly become a totally NEW motorcycle thread.......maybe there'll be an accidental guitar thread by this weekend ....

D'OH!!!

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:16 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

I know what you mean, Stoopy, but....OOOPS!

DANGIT!....I just HATE when that happens....

TWICE!

and even worse, THREE times!

Sorry, People...first day with the new hands...yeah...that's it. Wink

RCAF_Wingnut · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:17 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

Oh wow, Deja vue! I used to own a Honda 350 just like that one, except we painted the tanks and side covers deep metallic blue with white stripes. When I shipped home from the Philippines, I disassembled it and mailed it home. I reassembled it, and put it in a storage shed at my parents home in California, and my dad in his infinate wisdom gave it, without my permission, to my stupid brother-in-law. He moved out of an apartment and left it sitting there. I still want to kick the whoopee out of both of them, my dad and my exbrother-in-law. Fortunately only my dad is still alive to do it to.

That picture brings back a lot of good, and a couple of bad, memories. Thanks.

JG300-Stoopy · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:07 am Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

Whoo......whooooo...Whhhhooops!!! Dang!!! There goes coffee all over my keyboard, and this image is stuck here!

Honda CL450K, not mine but a spittin' image of my old one (except I also had a cool sissybar on it). And interesting differences to SFC_Jeff_Button's 350 above.

You're right wingnut, these pix do bring back lots of memories...mostly good, and very very good as far as this bike was concerned. She was a real sweetheart, honest down to the last weld and reliable. Really find myself pining for her now...(sniff).......

Ascout, thanks for going easy on those HD pix......can only take so much excitement....but you're missing one aren't you? That mostly-white job.....very nice.......maybe you'll be "jinxed" now and another picture will slip out accidentally...oh the humanity.....

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:13 am Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

I don't know nuttin' 'bout no Ascout feller, but I'm bettin' he ain't got the Heritage Softail in his Photobucket account at the moment. OTOH, I might just get worked up looking at these old motorcycles and before you know it, hit the keyboard with my elbow and accidentally display my old wicked rosso 900SS....

Shades · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:51 am Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

My first bike.
Course, it ain't this actual one, and I couldn't find it in the same wine red colour or with the stupid fairing I dumped on the front of it, but you get the idea.
3 cylinder 250cc.
Unreliable as hell, and with a 'tank-slapper' hidden in every corner. It used to smoke so much when I rode it, that people used to call me "Witcheypoo" after the character from the kids t.v. show, 'H.R. Puffenstuff'.
But back then (1978), it would get an 18yr old yobbo up to 90 mph and it was light enough that you could occasionally get the odd wheelie out of it at low speeds. Something that would scare the heck out of me on my heavy-ass VFR-800 nowadays. lololol
*SIGH*

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:14 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

- EURO_Shades

My first bike.
Course, it ain't this actual one, and I couldn't find it in the same wine red colour or with the stupid fairing I dumped on the front of it, but you get the idea.
3 cylinder 250cc.
Unreliable as hell, and with a 'tank-slapper' hidden in every corner. It used to smoke so much when I rode it, that people used to call me "Witcheypoo" after the character from the kids t.v. show, 'H.R. Puffenstuff'.
But back then (1978), it would get an 18yr old yobbo up to 90 mph and it was light enough that you could occasionally get the odd wheelie out of it at low speeds. Something that would scare the heck out of me on my heavy-ass VFR-800 nowadays. lololol
*SIGH*

H1 series isn't it? or was that the 500's? Those were a BFD when they first came out...first production steet bike to to the quarter-mile in the 12's. Not known for long lives, though...

Shades · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:21 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

can't remember the series now, they used to change every few months as they changed the paint scheme lolol.
Yep, in the UK kids used to be allowed to ride 250's with only a 'provisional' licence back then and the favourites were the Yammy RD250 for overall top speed, the Honda 250 SuperDream for "reliability" (which wasn't actually much better than the Yam or the Kwack in those days), or the Kwack for grunt.
The Yammy's lasted forever and are collectors bikes now. The Kwack's were rust buckets but great until they went.
So many kids lost their lives or got injured on them they dropped the size to 125 before the 80's.
Now Aprilia are doing the same with their 125's.

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:54 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

This isn't mine, but mine was identical to it. A '74 Yamaha XS (or TX in some places) 500. They also did a 650 and 750 that we regarded as "a Triumph Bonneville that won't leak oil in your driveway" because they had horizontally split cases instead of vertical (and no Lucas..."the Prince of Darkness" electrics)

I got this when I went back to college fresh out of the Army. I needed a helmet to go get registered and didn't have one yet so I went to my biker neighbor across the street. Classic, always a lot of Harley's and hair over there. He was nice enough to loan me one and when I returned it, a bunch of the "guys" had ridden over. I was regarded with much suspicion as a rice-burner ridin', college-dweeb-with-a-suspiciously-short-reminiscent-of-a-narc haircut until I commented on his oil-on-velvet painting from Vietnam ("and on the seventh day the Lord rested...and out of the gates of hell came the 11th Cav"). Seems he'd been an automotive mechanic on M-48's in the 2/11th. Once it emerged that I'd been a TC with the same squadron, suddenly I was "all right" and they set about to convert me into the Harley fold over the next few months. They were successful about six months later..... Laughing

SFC_Jeff_Button · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:06 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

It seems my "test" photo has snowballed! My first bike was a 1975 Suzuki RV-90, the first balloon tired, street legal (dual purpose) bike. Could hit 48 mph.
Second bike was a 75 Suzuki TS125.
Third bike was a 74 Suzuki TS 250
Third bike was a 1983 Yamaha Seca 750
Forth Bike was a 1979 Honda Gold Wing I restored.
Fifth bike is my current 2003 Harley 100th Anniversary 1200 Custom Sportster with Screaming Eagle Stage One set-up and lots of chrome added with out being to gawdy!
Sixth was the Honda SL 350 above that is work in progress.
My son has a mint 1979 Yamaha GT80 dirt bike that was his first bike 3 yeras ago. I wont ever let him sell it as I did. Some day the grandkids can ride it.
I also have a 1986 Suzuki Quad for each member of my family currently.
A 230 Quad Sport for me
A 230 LT for the wife with racks.
A 185 LT for the 11 tear old
A LT 50 for the 6 yera old.
All are in great shape for being 20 years old and they draw lots of comments wherever we go. [img]

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I pull the quads behind my 1997 Dodge Ram with its 8inch lift, 37inch Super Swampers, and 5.9L eng.
Maybe we do need a "gear-head" thread!!!

SFC_Jeff_Button · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:38 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

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This one is for Doug Kibbey. I had the wife take this at lunch time today. Trying to replicate your photo with your Harley, except for the skin tight black t-shirt, haha.
This is my 2003 100th Anniversary 1200 Custom Sportster. I still want to get different grips, pegs and replace the front rim with a chromed / aluminum one.
Don't let the sunny weather fool you, it was windy and cold. That wind makes it so much colder feeling here in the desert.

Doug_Kibbey · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

Cool, Jeff!
Don't let the "skin-tight T-shirt" fool you...in my haste, I mighta' neglected to mention that pic was taken in 1979.....

As you 'preciate XL's a glance at it from this side gives just a clue to what's inside. Exterior says "bone stock '69" or something. Reality: '94 Evo that got a dealer installed Wisco forged piston kit (1,204 cc's), Andrews cams, Screaming Eagle ignition module. I since installed the Swiss spec sprocket and 125 tooth belt for "longer legs", speedo/tach setup, and Works Performance shocks front and rear...plus steel braided lines everywhere and ditched the stupid vulnerable drain-line-to-nowhere. Rejetted carb, Pingel petcock (with no vacuum valve) and bunch of other stuff. Paint by Mike Berg of Denver. I'll do this and the early before/after thing.

The "two-tone" jugs and heads are a dead giveaway that something is not what it seems...those colors are neve seen in nature.

With stock heads, I got into the high twelve's at Carlsbad raceway...with a crappy RT. With big valves, open pipes and a better launch, I think it's capable of high elevens.

SFC_Jeff_Button · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:50 pm Post subject: Re: 1972 Honda SL 350

This was taken about a year and a half ago. Hard to believe these quads are 20 years old. The other two are in the garage but are in just as good a shape. The wifes quad is also orange in color but the little 50 is yellow. We have a blast riding around the desert on these. Were hoping that when we get to Ft Hood, that there are some good places to ride that aren't to far away to get to. Here, we can just trailer the quads to the edge of the post and ride on all the BLM land for miles and miles in almost any direction.

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