Honesty in Mods

I've sung the praises of Honda much here on this project CL450, that their engineering has been pretty thorough and even excellent up front.  Not to say the bike is perfect but its uniqueness stands today.  But if we don't talk about its failings, we sure whisper about them!

Case in point is carburetion.  Honda started using CV (Constant Velocity) carbs on this bike and all other manufacturers followed suit with similar designs.  For the most part they work well.  Here's the problem with these though, they're sensitive to air filters...which are not available any more. 

If the filters are replaced with something aftermarket, the stock carbs need to be modified so the bike runs properly.  Further, it only has one "float" to regulate fuel into the bowl from where the bike draws and runs, etc.  That float is prone to leaks due to age, which mess with its runability something fierce.

A good thing though, is these carburetors aren't very sensitive to changes in elevation so that a setting that works in Los Angeles, will also work in Billings, and so on across the country, great for 1968.

My carburetors have all the worst problems, a faulty float, no air filters and to find replacement OEM stuff is simply too expensive, so I took them off and found my verson of an aftermarket conversion.

These carburetors happened to be from a Suzuki T500 Titan that have most of the proper jetting already there.  I had to add a spacer so things clear fittings and covers, etc. but the new carbs have dual floats so that's an improvement.  They also perform a bit better and for roughly 1/2 the cost of new old crappy carbs from Honda.  They're a bit more sensitive to altitude but that's easily compensated, just shift to a different gear!  And, they work with aftermarket filters, shown.

I have to work on the side cover mounts now and it'll be finished.

My long suffering wife rolls her eyes every time I say I have an improvement, a modification but it's the only one it needs....she knows me too well I think.

It starts on the 3rd kick after sitting for a week and gets about 52 mpg, it's an honest bike. 

Not bad for 44 years old.