Honda CL350
BETWEEN 1968 AND 1973 Honda sold more 350 four-stroke twins than the British motorcycle industry’s entire production over the same period and a third of those sales were of a motorcycle that never reached UK showrooms – the CL350 street scrambler.
Honda didn’t invent the street scrambler or dual-purpose off-roader – the British were there before them with the likes of the Norton P11, BSA Cyclone and Firebird scramblers and the Triumph TR6C Trophy Special. The idea of a road bike you could ride all week in the city and take to the forests and deserts at the weekend had been a hit with US buyers, but while the British bikes focused on cubes and high-performance, in the mid-1960s Honda came up with a design for a ride-to-work, ride-for-fun two-wheeler that was all about refinement.
Honda brought out the CL350 in 1968 at around the same time as BSA launched its own take on the street scrambler, the B44 Victor Special.
