Last Updated: 02/02/2025

Thank you , Thank you Honda!

Not very often in life, you get a chance to relive a happy moment that bring you back earliest memories of your childhood, when things used to be simpler, easier and if I may say, even more logical that they are today… Now this article could easily go into the reviews, but that it is not what this is about. However it is a long article.. So sit down and get comfortable as I’m about to tell you a long story…

Since the age of 6 and thanks to my dad, I always had some sort of two wheels vehicles in my life.. I still remember them all..

Some were good, some were great and in the first 20 years, they were all scary rides! You were busy learning not to crash (too often) while technologies were moving forward at a very slow pace…

Biggest problems at the time were tyres and brakes. Lots of broken bones and plenty of trips to the hospital, we were busy doing the R&D for those company that were pushing the boundaries to make things better..

Not mine, but same as my 1974 Ducati 350 Scrambler

 One of those great bike, was my Ducati 350 scrambler.. Purchased from a friend that was about to leave for an adventure in Nepal, I found myself on a 1974 Light blue single cylinder Ducati. It was a great bike because of its simplicity and because of how comfortable it was. And yes it had hard wearing tyre (quite common at the time) and drum brakes.. It wasn’t very fast and I particularly hate the fact that it had the gear change lever on the right side of the engine(another very common feature in those days)..

None the less, it was my first 4 stroke engine and I loved every minute of it. It truly was a very enjoyable and beautiful bike, and I only kept it for a year, before moving on a Guzzi V35C.. A big mistake..

Yes the Guzzi had disk brake, two cylinder instead of one, but it never gave me what the Ducati did… Some motorcycle are just good but have no soul..

You eventually learn later on in life that more often than not less is more and great things do often come in small size!

And so I moved on, onto other bike and did come across some very enjoyable rides, but somehow it was always a bit of compromise, between beauty, comfort and missing soul.. I don’t remember having this issue with the Ducati. Everything fit. The bike was the right weight, the engine was the right size, the seat was comfortable and at the right height, the fuel tank was the right size.. So yes, I would have to say that other than the drum brakes, it was a great bike.. I mean look at that front tyre edge in the picture and try to imagine yourself on a wet road where the front drum brake,now wet as well, will instantly lock the wheel… Yes, they were the good times…

And finally, after 45 years and 34 bikes, the wait is over!

Honda has done it again.. They already had the CB350 back in the 70′. A very popular bike (sold more than 250.000 units) and even a 4 cylinder that became the start of the Japanese supremacy over the European manufactures… But in my view, those motorcycle were more of a Honda showing off the new learned skill in metallurgy than anything else. I mean what other reason would you have to make a 350cc four cylinder that goes nearly as good as the 2 cylinder…

In 2020 Honda decide to try again with the CB350 but this time they went back to basic. The days of big engine and extremely heavy motorcycle are possibly over.

Honda release a CB350 in India called the CB350 Hness to test the ground towards the new Royal Enfield 350 J series motor.. The new Royal Enfield 350 has been selling like no other bike ever before. They are selling in more than 85 country, but so it does Honda, and yet Royal Enfield sales seems to be unstoppable and rightly so. They make great looking, comfortable and priced right motorcycle. What is there not to like???

But when Honda did released the CB350 Hness in India, and sales started to go up exponentially, Royal Enfield finally realised that there was now a new challenge for the first time in their own country.. And Honda was selling so fast that in 2021 even the Japanese young and old market wanted to have the chance to try the new 350 for themself..

Enter the scene the new GB350 S, same motorcycle as the one sold in India but with a new name, different paint, more accessories and above all made entirely in Japan.. Since 2021 Honda hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand but they still managed to included Australia in their test ground.. Here in Australia we didn’t get the S yet but only the GB350 in either black or blue still made in Japan..

Now I can help it, but to me the new GB350 does looks a lot like my old Ducati scrambler.. I’m not saying that Honda did copy the old Ducati style, and even if they did, that’s great because in the past 45 years, nobody else has had the guts to try this old formula again.. Royal Enfield has the look but they are trying to hard with all the extra electronic gadgets.. Triumph has the new 400 but again, a super square engine that screams and no soul and not that comfortable at all, especially the Scrambler. The Speed 400 is ok, but it still has the look of a 2024 motorcycle..

I can’t help to think that Honda this time got it right.. Like the old Ducati we have a single cylinder of 350cc but this time it is a long stroke where Ducati was a square stroke and did rev higher and used more fuel. We have a fuel injected engine, that is much easier to handle than the old Dell’Orto carburettor and we have the gear lever on the left side where we all want it to be. We have a comfortable seat a huge fuel tank that does fit the Australian road map perfectly and we have disk brake that actually do work even in the wet.. But above all we a motorcycle that look just right for what it really is!

Honda couldn’t have made it a motorcycle more simple yet perfectly functional than this and for that I’m a happy camper.. Everything is just right out of the box. There are no negative feature and what it is not there on the bike it was done on purpose…

I stumble across this motorcycle by accident, as it is not even advertised by Honda in Australia.I guess with production fully on just to keep up with India and Japan demand, and seeing how many people in Europe and the US are dying to get their hand on this bike according to Internet, I consider myself luck to own one..

I’m back in 1979, but this time everything is perfect, the soul is there again and it doesn’t get much better than this.. Well there is always something that could be better…like if the owner was 30kg lighter for example…

To appreciate and understand this motorcycle, you need to take it for a spin on any road of your choice. It has a top speed of around 120-125 Km/h, but I can assure you that it is not what you want this bike for. Her real speed is around 90-100 Km/h and that’s where her soul shine the most, even on dirt where you get to appreciate the torque even more.. And you also get rewarded with a possible 550-600 km with a 15 litre of fuel. That’s right. Used as intended, and in the perfect conditions, around the 3000rpm, this bike can returns 40.9 km/l.. Best I got so far was 37.6km/l but than again I’m not longer a ballerina..

Then there is the sound.. Somehow Honda managed to make this engine sound just perfect.. The best note you will hear, is when the engine torque is under load. That’s when the single long stroke engine sound will make you smile. To me, the best note is around the 90 Kmh.. I could listen to that for ever.. It makes older people turn around and look at you, and not because it is loud, but because it is a sound they have not herded in years.. It is a sound that brings memories back..

I have often been asked by people, how much it costed me to restore this bike to this level of details, and when you tell them that it is brand new, they don’t believe you.. That is when you know, that you are riding a legend.. And now you know, that for the second time in their 50 years history of a 350cc engine motorcycle, Honda got it spot on! If you were too young, or you miss the chance to get a Honda CB350 in the 70′, it is your lucky day!

It has 5 very long gears or to be more realistic, 4 gears plus overdrive. If you have never ridden old single long stroke engine before, it will take you a while to figure how to ride this bike, but then again, that’s part of her soul… There are several reviews online about this motorcycle and it seems that every single one can only come up with the one negativity of being low in horsepower… There are however two very simple reasons for this:

First the guy/girl testing the motorcycle is very young and has no experience of long stroke single cylinder engine. Secondly, for the past 20 years they have been bombarded with big engine and then even bigger engine. That’s the way society goes.. The bigger the better.. You need more… Don’t settle for less..

It is no wonder when they sit on 20hp for the first time, the first thing they notice is that they need to use the gears to actually get there.. If the Honda did have more HP, it wouldn’t be a long stroke 350cc engine. Once again, this motorcycle was not design for the purpose of going fast, but for making you feel good, relaxed, to enjoy the journey that it is far more important than the destination..

I already did the first oil change, required after 1000km and again, I’m back in heaven… Changed oil and oil filter in about 5 minutes, but the best part was the two hours spent just looking at the engine and that massive air cooled cylinder and head.. You just can’t help it, but to appreciate those simple few parts so clean, so uncluttered that makes you realised that, it is how everything else should be…

I’m telling you… She’s a keeper

UPDATE:

Honda has announced the release of the GB350 S in Europe from 2025..

You now have the choice of the GB350C for the Australian market..