Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

·.. ..... ~,...~. ,.. ; '\ . ..: ' There are a few minor modifications from stock: frame, wheels, forks, shocks, tank. carb... By John Huetter One curious thing about American Honda is that they seem to have the idea that those grand old four-strokes of the past are also the grand old four-strokes of the future. They beat the other dudes on the market with their "big" single, even if it is a 350 instead of the full 500 that might be. Still, there are few comphunts with the motor itself amongst enduro or traiJriding types who have ridden it. The trick is to make what carries the engine lighter and handle better. Steve Keull is an inveterate four-stroke freak. He buil t a 500 BSA single when he raced TT and HaJf.~le then, feeling tbe wisdom of advancmg age, turned to enduros. Tbe most reliable motor around was, you guessed it the XL350. At least, it was if you w'ere limiting your choices to big four-strokes. Red Line makes a frame that will fit the mutha so the Japanese-American union was begun. Then tbere were some Honda Elsinore front forks added, while the XL front hub was retained in order to drive a speedo/odometer. (The rationale you'll remember, was to build an endu;o bike.) Frankly, the Elsinore forks are too sensitive for the added weight they carry and respond to every piece of gravel, bump, and ripple on the ground. They do work better than the stock XL items. Three different sets of shocks were tried to get the right wbeel clearance, suspend the rear end, and bring the swingarm parallel to the ground, or close enougb for 0 ff-road work. Wbat finally fit were 131'z Inch Curnutts and that's what bounces up and down back there. A set of Andre's CZ replica titanium bars steer the beast around and the regular XL350 instrument is used to tell bow far it is to the next check. Tbe critter runs on Honda rims with a 3.50 Cheng Shin and a 4_60 Dunlop serving as the actual terrain interface. The motor itself was left virtually stock except for the pipe a.nd carburetion. It was discovered, througb trial and error (what the big companies call R&D) that a 32mm Bing centerfloat carb provided smooth, tractable throttle response for the four·banger and more of it. Getting the Bing to fit the frame-engine combination, and then stay on once it fit was another story. The current solution is to suspend the Bing on rubber mounts between an Alex Steel-made alloy airbox and a manifold adaptor also made up by Alex. The airbox is a clean, almost s~ulptured design that has room for an Oiled foam filter and, in a separate compartment! a tool kit. Like to keep tools and stuff m. The most visually striking thing about the macbine is the chromed alloy coffm tank. Alex Steel also produced that reservoir as a prototype for all the XL series Hondas. It holds over three gallons of the increasingly rare stuff and has a reversed flip-up gas cap which some people refer to as a competition type. Its capacity is impressive since the tank doesn't look that big. Tbe profile is pleasing and unique. Steel also built the monster aluminum basb plate. Tbe stock Honda thing doesn't make it. The pipe is a reverse cone megaphone with a giant Skyway sikncer-spark arrestor built into it. A fellow by the name of E.C. Birt was responsible for this item. Betcha didn't know he did four-strokes. Tbe problem that emerged with the flared pipe is its vulnerability to rocks in the even t you should have the poor judgment to fall to the left. It might get redesigned for more tuck-in. So far, the pipe is a one-off desil(n. The seat is adequate for track competition, should one engage in that sort of thing on a Red Line I:J,Q!!-~ 350 bu t needs more pad'ding for "Ii' 'Clown desen and enduro stuff. Let's see, plastic fenders at each end, Magura alloy grips and the new pop in-pop ou t Magura cables for speedee·on-the-trail replacement, and sticky handgrips all relate to provide protection from the elements and manual control over the beast. The machine bas finished everything it's started so far including a 600 mile jaunt through Baja California and is.a stone gas to ride. Next? Make it bigger, of course. What is a piddly 348cc compared to a rock·stomping 410 or so? It's less, that's what it is. To get it started the first time, one floods the Bing and with the throttle closed boots the kickstarter all the way through. (No cbeating.) The motor ligbts off within the first three kicks if you did it right. Wben it's warmed up, first kick wiU do it if you remember it's a respectable sized single and notcb the throttle open a crack at the bottom of the kick arc. Let out the c,lutch, get on the throttle and start shifting. The motor gets happy around third gear and like most big singles, pretty soon you're going a lot faster than it seems. Tben tbrow the Red Line frame over in the corner. Go ahead, throw it over farther. A little more. And you're through the turn smooth as eel snot. If, by cbance, circumstances or whim dictate you should square off the corner, that works too. Use throttle to break the rear end loose, put a foot down and the macbine comes right around to where you want it. The rear end goes just so far and then lets you know it's out there. The handling is virtually faultless reo chassis, but the suspension lets you know when you land from a jump, when you hit a ripple, and all kinds of things you'd just as soon not be reminded of. It will go ungodly fast in a straight, controlled line, comparable to a regular two-stroke 400 motocrosser and it turns con troll ably and forgivingly. The suspension proves tbe only unsettling feature in what you expect to be a perfect bike. Well, it's not perfect. It's just very good. As a reflection of off-road four-stroke design that bandIes well and runs reliably, will devour migb ty moun tains in a single bound, and ignore bottomless mudpits, the Red Line Honda 350 succeeds. It wasn't cheap, but then neither is the end result. And for you lazy dudes, you hardly ever have to shift. ~ What this moto-ehassis combination does is get power to the ground. Red Line Honda 350 corners like it's on tracks and exhibits complete straight line stability over anything. E.C. Silenced --Pipes-for complete Suwki TM models now distributed by SUZUKIInglewood CITY 728 S. LaBrca, 21 3-674-1 -J. :ll Hodaka Montesa Carabela "~J Motorcycles 1.- .. ~ #IV ~ ~ V "6_ " I f1 ~l;;~Sport Cycle Malco GUY R. LOUIS (714) 893·7057 7219 Westminster Ave.• Westminster, Ca. II Safety is your responsiblity II 29

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