CB350 Bobber from MacVittie Motorcycles…
Last week, we featured a gorgeous Honda CB550 café racer from Matt MacVittie of MacVittie Motorcycles. Matt is an engineer, family man, and garage-builder who’s been turning out some very nice builds of late.
“All of my builds are 100% built by me in my garage. I like to put a modern twist on classic motorcycles and make fun, reliable, eye-catching mobile works of art.”
Now he’s back with the Honda CB350 you see here. As most of you know, the 350 twin (actually 325cc) was a big seller for Honda from 1968-73, with over 250,000 sold. While it was no multi-cylinder superbike, the CB350 was economical, easy to maintain, and could haul two riders at highway speed.
“The CB350 is delightful, it can be twisted through the corners like a lightweight, and the suspension irons out virtually all but the big potholes.” –Classic Motorbikes
This particularly project started as a basket case that Matt picked up several years ago. He wanted to resurrect the machine into a compact, classy custom that would turn heads and keep the new owner in the wind.
“‘Mint Chip’ is a ‘71 CB350. This is my wife’s favorite because of the colors.”
Matt rebuilt the forks, brakes, hubs, and wheels, with lots of polish and stainless hardware. The tired old parallel-twin was completely torn down as well.
“The engine was completed rebuilt. Mostly stock with a valve job and ported head and .5 over bores. New coils and a shock wave ignition from Common Motor. Motogadget m-unit and all new wiring.”
The seatpan and cowl is all steel, handmade with integrated lighting, and the headlight is a neat old aftermarket Harley unit that looks lovely in the mint chip colors.
We love how Matt repurposed the fork covers to mount the tiny indicators, and cockpit is a streamlined delight, with tiny push-button switches integrated seamlessly into the clubman-style bars.
Then there’s the rear monoshock setup — the most difficult aspect of the build, and one that elevates the bike a cut above most CB builds we see.
“The challenge on this one was setting up a horizontally mounted YSS monoshock. I wanted the bike to still be small and compact.” -Matt
Since Matt didn’t want to lengthen swingarm or wheelbase, the shock would need to be mounted horizontally. The solution shows Matt’s engineering and machining skills on full display.
“The monoshock bracket on the swingarm can actually be turned and locked to adjust the height of the rear end without having to lift the bike. I had to machine special mounts to maintain solid mounting points for the swingarm and allowing room for the rear brake linkage and brake switch.”
All in all, this is one of the loveliest CB builds we’ve seen in some time. Unique lines, gorgeous color palette, and a freshly rebuilt engine with a little extra punch in store. We hear it’s headed to its new owner this week — we hope he savors his “Mint Chip” for years to come!
I don’t know…I just don’t know.
Was it a Honda Hawk?
Very very nice.
Congratulations on a great build. Love the details
I really like the color palette and the mono shock set up is genius, but for my own personal tastes, I would go with a longer tail section and some chrome mudguards. Very nice work!
Not really loving the monoshock. No need to make the bike “modern” when the appeal is that the older stuff works so well.
It just looks out of place on this bike and now another vintage Honda is modified beyond repair.