Greetings from Northwest Arkansas! New to the community. Honda CL360.

3663 Views 15 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Cloakedsphere, Sep 5, 2014

BLyon

Discussion Starter · Sep 3, 2014 (Edited)

Hey all, new to the community, and motorcycles in general.

In a nutshell, I'm one of many new guys I'm sure you've seen roll through here. Little to no experience in working on motorcycles,
and fairly new to riding them. I picked up my first bike, a Honda CL360 Scrambler about a month ago, and use it primarily as a
commuter to work. Pardon the low quality photo. I can see about getting some higher res shots later.

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She runs pretty clean, and is in overall great shape for the year. (A little dusty under the seat however, and needs some TLC.
But hey, I see that as character and potential.) I'd give a parts rundown, but it's almost entirely original. The mufflers and filters
are about the only aftermarket parts.

As for where I'd like to take the build, I'm aiming modestly with a simple change of seat, bars, and mirrors first, as well as
swapping out the headlight and housing for a halogen bulb setup for practical my-light-is-dim sort of reasons. Any other ideas
for additions/ modifications would be much appreciated! It's a blank canvas at this point.

Glad to be here, and I'll have my eyes and ears open. Hope I haven't stepped on any toes already, as I know us knew guys
can occasionally.

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1 - 16 of 16 Posts

hillsy

· #2 · Sep 4, 2014

If that bike was mine I'd just clean it up and ride it as is. You have to respect the fact it has survived 40 years without being butchered.
Go and find a crappier one to cut up and modify.

*No toes were stepped on in the making of this post*

BLyon

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 4, 2014

Haha glad to hear. I honestly plan to keep it close to its original state, as I hope to pick up some antique plates at some point. Just not a huge fan of the stem mirrors and moto/dirt bike style bars. I'll probably opt for a set of drag bars, as they come fairly close, and aren't as aggressive as other cafe bar styles.

Someday I'd like to take it apart just to treat the engine case to a good sonic bath, and maybe treat some minor rusting here and there on the frame. (Nothing major of course, or I wouldn't have invested in it.)

Cloakedsphere

· #4 · Sep 4, 2014

BLyon said:
Haha glad to hear. I honestly plan to keep it close to its original state, as I hope to pick up some antique plates at some point. Just not a huge fan of the stem mirrors and moto/dirt bike style bars. I'll probably opt for a set of drag bars, as they come fairly close, and aren't as aggressive as other cafe bar styles.

Someday I'd like to take it apart just to treat the engine case to a good sonic bath, and maybe treat some minor rusting here and there on the frame. (Nothing major of course, or I wouldn't have invested in it.)

Thats funny. I have never seen a dirtbike with those types of bars. I think the dirtbikes you're looking at are genuine P.O.S's. You can have bar-end mirrors put on for real cheap.

CAPTAIN AWESOME

· #5 · Sep 4, 2014

Where in NW Arkansas are you?

FYI, you don't have to keep your bike original to get antique tags. In fact I don't think they would even know what to check for even though the law says otherwise. As long as you have one vehicle with standard tags, anything else that is within the year range can get antique tags. It's that simple.

As for handlebars I recommend a superbike or euro bend to the drag bars. That's just personal preference though.

BLyon

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 4, 2014

Cloakedsphere said:
Thats funny. I have never seen a dirtbike with those types of bars. I think the dirtbikes you're looking at are genuine P.O.S's. You can have bar-end mirrors put on for real cheap.

It's the moto-style support bar on the bars that draws that similarity for me. It's thinner sure, but it's there.

For some examples:
1 2 3

Now whether those are cheap model dirt bikes, I can't say. They usually have a cover around that bar regardless.

BLyon

Discussion Starter · #7 · Sep 4, 2014

CAPTAIN AWESOME said:
Where in NW Arkansas are you?

FYI, you don't have to keep your bike original to get antique tags. In fact I don't think they would even know what to check for even though the law says otherwise. As long as you have one vehicle with standard tags, anything else that is within the year range can get antique tags. It's that simple.

As for handlebars I recommend a superbike or euro bend to the drag bars. That's just personal preference though.

As it just so happens, I'm right there in Bentonville with you! Thanks for the heads up about the tag situation as well.
I really should have looked into the process before I snagged my regular tags, but I was just in a hurry to get all the
bureaucratic nonsense out of the way so I could get her on the road.

Also, I do quite love the euro bar style. Been considering it as well.

CAPTAIN AWESOME

· #8 · Sep 4, 2014

I have a pair of black euro bend bars that came with a project recently. If you want to try them out for the price of free let me know. I currently have no use for them.

Geeto67

· #9 · Sep 4, 2014

5

+1 on the euro or superbike bars if you are going to continue to commute with it. It is how I setup nearly ever commuter bike I have ever owned.

I am not a fan of stem mirrors either but mostly because I am tall and all they do is give me a clear view of my shoulders. I usually mount large, old fashioned, rubber mounted, bar end mirrors (not those CRG style small pieces of shit that are literally useless) just because I get a clear look of what's behind me. I rode in NYC, in the heart of manhattan, like this for years and the worst I ever got was once in a while I would catch an SUV side mirror while lane splitting.

for example:

As for the halogen, I don't know if the twins are like this but on the fours if you switch to a halogen you might burn out your ignition lock unless you run a resistor in there because the headlight circuit runs through the ignition switch.

unless you are on your tip toes I wouldn't lower the seat any because it is probably comfortable.

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CAPTAIN AWESOME

· #10 · Sep 4, 2014

Also to jump in on the halogen thing as well, you may want to upgrade the charging system first. They are weak from the get go, and even more so now that they are over 30 years old. Rick's Motorsport has a nice setup, a bit pricy, but worth the money. If you want to try out the halogen before upgrading the charging system, be sure to get a 35w bulb. Anything else will just suck the life out of your battery.

Here's a way to bypass the charging system headlight stuff for the time being: Charging Mod for 360's

BLyon

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 4, 2014

Geeto67 said:
+1 on the euro or superbike bars if you are going to continue to commute with it. It is how I setup nearly ever commuter bike I have ever owned.

As for the halogen, I don't know if the twins are like this but on the fours if you switch to a halogen you might burn out your ignition lock unless you run a resistor in there because the headlight circuit runs through the ignition switch.

unless you are on your tip toes I wouldn't lower the seat any because it is probably comfortable.

That's a clean cb360 there! Very clean. And thanks for the tips! I'll have to look into the electrical before messing with the light. The main reason I'd like to convert to halogen is to get away from the fully sealed bulbs that the bike uses. Not too cheap to replace, and low wattage. I've heard it's a fairly common problem with Hondas of that time though.

BLyon

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 4, 2014

CAPTAIN AWESOME said:
Also to jump in on the halogen thing as well, you may want to upgrade the charging system first. They are weak from the get go, and even more so now that they are over 30 years old. Rick's Motorsport has a nice setup, a bit pricy, but worth the money. If you want to try out the halogen before upgrading the charging system, be sure to get a 35w bulb. Anything else will just suck the life out of your battery.

Here's a way to bypass the charging system headlight stuff for the time being: Charging Mod for 360's

Thanks for the link! I'll have to check it out. Might have to take you up on that offer for the bars demo as well. I'm a tad worried that whatever new bar I go with, it might not fit the throttle. I've heard stories of guys having to grind down the bar a bit to properly fit with their throttle side, and I'd rather not compromise their structural integrity.

CAPTAIN AWESOME

· #13 · Sep 4, 2014

Throttle shouldn't pose much of a problem.

BTW the pics Geeto posted were of a cb750 Honda and a Suzuki gs750.

Geeto67

· #14 · Sep 4, 2014

CAPTAIN AWESOME said:
Rick's Motorsport has a nice setup, a bit pricy, but worth the money.

+1. I did Rick's stuff for the DOHC cb750F my brother now owns, and Oregon Motorcycle parts for the 75 SOHC cb750 and both are far and away better than the stock stuff in every regard.

BTW, capt is right, that is a 73 cb750, not a CL360. I was trying to find pics of the wife's old CJ360T for the same setup but all I had were background pics with the old stem mirrors (still a superbike bar though).

BLyon

Discussion Starter · #15 · Sep 4, 2014

Ah, thanks guys. I can always tell the CB's from the CL's as they have the lower set pipes, but haven't seen many external differences
between the 350's-750's. Would have been able to tell from the side covers, but the bike was turned too far in the images.

Cloakedsphere

· #16 · Sep 5, 2014

BLyon said:
Ah, thanks guys. I can always tell the CB's from the CL's as they have the lower set pipes, but haven't seen many external differences
between the 350's-750's. Would have been able to tell from the side covers, but the bike was turned too far in the images.

We recently used some of the ricks stuff such as stators on our bikes at work. Really great stuff to be honest.

As for the dirtbike bar thing - Those bars are nothing alike. Height plays a large roll. The only MX bars that would resemble the bars on your bike are pit bike bars made by companies like BBR.

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