Everyone laughs when I tell them I have a 55000 mile Honda CJ360T, circa 1977. Until they see its neat resprayed and rechromed chassis. Even the engine cases have been blasted and polished. This may seem a lot of trouble to go to for what is basically seen as an old hack, but I did most of the work myself in my spare time and total cost is still in hacking country, at around £300. Spread over five years that doesn't add up to much.
The engine has its roots in the sixties when Honda were the only purveyors of OHC twins with a straightforwardness and basic design clarity that made even British twins seem awkward. Honda designers always relied on revs to make power, knowing this equipped their bikes with massive roller cranks, good enough for an engine of twice the capacity.
The need to rev hard made an OHC set-up obligatory, push-rods falling apart at 10,000 revs, especially when subjected to British twin type vibes. This kind of design threw up a couple of problems that were as prominent in the sixties' engines as they were in the seventies. The camchain and tensioner actually worked well if given regular adjustment (a ten minute job) and the oil supply to the cylinder head's bearings was often marginal when the engine was initially started.
The latter problem was compounded by using the cylinder head surface as the bearing, as in the case of the CJ360 and the even heavier afflicted earlier version, the CB360G5. The other related cause of early demise was lack of regular oil changes which allowed all kinds of crud into the oilways and a choked supply of lubricant to the head bearings.
The first lesson to learn when buying one of these bikes is to start the engine gently, keep revs low until the oil has had a chance to circulate. There isn't an electric start on the CJ but under normal circumstances it will start first or second kick. The second thing to learn is to do both regular oil changes and maintenance. I'd suggest every 750 miles on any engine that has done more than 15000 miles, although if you're lucky enough to find one of the few low mileage ones left in existence then 1250 miles will suffice.
Servicing is simple once you know what you are doing, but high mileage engines definitely need regular attention to valve clearances, points and carbs. The sump plug will wear its edges round and refuse to come undone unless hit with a chisel and hammer. So common is the fault to the Honda range that you can still walk into some Honda dealers and buy a sump plug over the counter. OE points are expensive but worthwhile as patterns wear out rapidly.
There is some vibration in the 5000 to 6500rpm range but its effect on the bike rather than the rider is limited. The Campbell 2-1 exhaust has cracked a couple of times where the silencer bracket was welded. After the weld repairs started blowing big holes in the silencer, a new universal megaphone was attached, much to the relief of the neighbours, with two brackets, which seems to have stopped it trying to fall off. The downpipes have long since lost their chrome but monthly doses of heat resistant paint keeps them in shape and it doesn't detract from the overall appearance of the bike.
The vibes also affected the electrics, with batteries that didn't hold a charge for long and a rectifier unit whose wires fell out. I bodged a repair before a Superdream item was found and put a couple of layers of cut up inner-tube around the battery. At one time I had a lot of problems with the lights blowing that wasn't fully sorted until they were rewired through new switches with separate earth leads. The alternator is still stock and puts out just enough power to keep a decent Cibie light in watts without flattening the battery. The brake light switch ended up being replaced by a unit off an old Triumph that had spent half a decade in my toolbox looking for a new home.
The engine runs well as long as it gets a new set of plugs every third service (the HT caps were replaced after the first wet weather sortie). Power is never magnanimous but quite sufficient for sensible riding. Fast enough in town, 75 to 80mph cruising is fine and top speed works out at a licence enduring 90mph (a new one might do 95 to 100mph). For some reason the mildly tuned engine doesn't balance its lack of outright speed with an excess of midrange punch. Or to put it more plainly, it's a gutless, useless pile of old crap if you have an aversion to twisting the throttle and making the gear lever jump. The gearbox is surprisingly slick for an old Honda and the clutch light and precise unless the engine has spent too much time in town when it overheats, causing drag at junctions; a typical old Honda trait.
The seat fell apart and was patched back together with some steel sheet, a cover and a bit of foam courtesy of BR (some vandal had already cut the seat up, honest). Once that was done it was rather more comfortable than I had any right to expect, with slightly raised bars and good peg placement. The most I did in a day was a mere 225 miles, which my body coped with magnificently, although the CJ is really my town bike rather than tourer.
Fuel, even on the open road, stayed stubbornly around the 50mpg mark, which given the lack of speed was poor but taking into account the age, mileage and need to rev demonically almost acceptable. A British 500 of similar performance would turn in 65 to 70mpg. Having owned several old British twins I really didn't want to return to that level of trouble, with a trail of bits falling off, electrics blowing up and engine failures in the middle of nowhere. No, no, no, no, no, no......
I had the same kind of feeling about the front disc, a device built down to the lowest cost that only just makes it out of the guarantee. Wet weather lag, caliper seizure, soggy feel and only minimal power were the major complaints. I was going to fit a Honda CB250K4 front wheel as the guy who owned it foolishly wanted to fit a disc front end, but a week before we were due to do the swap, his front drum casting broke up, throwing him over the bars into the lap of the local nurses.
In the end, I modified a couple of calipers so I could pull them apart without resorting to the hammer, fitted a length of Goodridge hose and bunged in new EBC pads every 8000 miles. All this care and attention still didn't stop the master cylinder from cracking, leaving me without a front brake until I fitted a GPz305 cylinder that made the front forks bounce on their stops every time I used it.
For a long time the CJ ran entirely standard suspension. Come 35000 miles this made the basically sound handling a bit more like riding a push-bike as it was thrown around all over the place. Girlings out back and HD front springs brought it up to better than new spec, although in long, sweeping corners at 70mph it would often give one almighty twitch that was bowel emptying the first time it happened but after a couple of months I learnt to ignore it. Pillions were given the shock of their lives when I was in a foul mood; making the CJ move fast two-up was hard enough work to make a saint slightly crazed. Don't bother is the bottom line on that.
The chassis was generally durable but turned rather tatty once past 20,000 miles but I did it up as I went along. It's gone through two sets of rear wheel bearings, about half a dozen swinging arm bushes and one set of steering head bearings. A mild accident bent the front rim but it wasn't expensive to rebuild. The tank started rusting on the inside, but before I got a lap full of fuel I brought a brand new one in primer for £25 from some guy who had a garage full of Honda spares and refused to tell me where he got them from, but I wasn't going to complain, was I?
The engine is still stock apart from a new camchain at 42000 miles. This may make it the longest lived CJ360 in the world. I do rev the bike hard, Hondas are designed to take that but they also need a sensible amount of maintenance and very regular oil changes. Most CJ's were blown up early in their life due to neglect and stupidity; I know this because I've bought two non-runners for spares, each less than £75. I put an advert in the local rag saying I wanted CJ parts and had about six replies so I could have filled the garage with the damn things but I'm not that mad!
The reputation of these bikes is so bad, and the reality of their use so appalling, that even though there are so few good ones left their prices are still not high. My own experiences suggest that if they get past 30,000 miles they will probably go for twice that. They are the kind of versatile hacks that appeal to those who want a bit of simplicity in their lives without having to suffer the indignity of Iron Curtain wrecks or step-thrus. A category of motorcycling that used to be catered for by legions of British bikes in the sixties. I wouldn't die for an Honda CJ360T but I'd certainly cross the road for a nice 'un.
Frank Westerman
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I did not know what to expect. The advert had been extreme in its vagueness. The only good thing, that I only had to walk ten minutes across town to view it. A rare convenience. The owner was elderly enough to sport a large belly and smelly pipe. I've been known to grab such noxious devices out of ped's mouths, stamp the foul thing into oblivion. However, the greater cause of a cheap motorcycle won out: I held my breath.
It was worth the effort. What lay before me was possibly the best kept CJ360 in the country. 9000 miles, an immaculate sheen and a nice, as new, rustle from the engine, which started first kick. Even the tyres were half-worn original Japanese fare, some twenty years old! How much for this paragon? £300! I couldn't believe it. Handed over the dosh without taking a test ride, half afraid someone else would turn up and offer more money. As the UMG has long said, there are bargains out there - just takes some time and effort to find them.
The combination of brittle tyres and soft suspension made life difficult. In direct contrast to its newish sheen, the ride was something straight out of hell. Had the bike weighed more than its 360lbs I would've been in real trouble. I was able to manhandle the Honda the short distance home. The wife couldn't believe the bike cost so little, checked out our building society account to make sure I wasn't lying to her. Girling shocks, heavier fork oil and a pair of old Avon Deathmasters were hastily fitted. I'm lucky in that the garage is big enough to keep loads of old junk. Eventually it all comes in useful.
Classic insurance was laughably cheap for the CJ. Back on the open road the bike was a whole different kettle of fish. It all depends what you're used to. My bikes consist of sixties Brit's and seventies Jap's. Bantam, Tiger Cub, T100R, CB550F and CB350K4. Compared to such senile steeds, the Honda was pretty damn good. Compared to anything remotely modern it was a bit of a museum piece. Wholly lacking the ride quality, smoothness, easy handling and general sophistication of the modern bikes I've ridden - mainly due to the local dealer keeping a stock of test machines!
If, on the other hand, you're used to older bikes then the OHC Honda twin is pretty much what you'd expect. A bit more urge than my CB350K4, though not up to the standards of the T100R (a Triumph 500 twin if ignorance rules) and certainly not as useful on the motorway as the CB550 four. It snapped around town and along country lanes without much complaint - unless you weren't used to square section Avon tyres! I found the vibration at the top end of the rev range a touch intrusive, making the ton a rather unpleasant experience.
It's worth checking the engine breather for smoke on these Honda's, as that's the first sign of the piston rings or valves going down. Both the 360 variants had dodgy camshaft bearings which were part of the head material, therefore somewhat difficult to repair! All seemed okay on my machine, as befitting such a low miler.
Frequent oil changes (every 750 miles) being far more important than checking the valve clearance, doing the ignition timing, setting the camchain tensioner or balancing the carbs. Though all four jobs are easily accessible and simple enough if you're used to this era of Honda twins. Spares, whilst neither plentiful nor cheap new, can usually be found in the specialist dealers and through the classified ad's in the motorcycle press. Those who do serious mileage on any particular model usually have a couple of dead machines as back up. A lot of spares turn up by word of mouth. I'm always surprised by the number of people who rush over to have a chat about the bikes I own.
Back to the 360. Weaving and wallowing is down to poor suspension, readily cleaned up by doing similar mod's to those already mentioned. Even better, fit a front end off a sixties British twin (with a TLS front drum, please). This also gets rid of the abortion of a disc brake. No doubt it wasn't bad when brand new but time and wear ain't kind to them. Even using aftermarket pads failed to clean up the atrocious wet weather lag and poor general performance. Engine braking and the rear drum helped out.
Incidentally, don't fit one of the earlier Honda twin front ends. My 350K4 ended up with a cracked front drum after 55000 miles and a cracked bottom yoke some 8500 miles later. Either of which could've proved terminal and just goes to show the attention to detail you need to take when running old Jap bikes. Having said that, when in fine fettle the TLS drum's as good as anything you'll find on an old sixties British twin.
The 360 soon suffered from chronically rusty rims that ate into the rim tape, eventually causing a series of annoying punctures. Once sussed I decided the only way out was to have the wheels rebuilt with alloy rims and stainless steel spokes. That was until I found out it would cost an absurd £150! That's why my bike has matt black wheels!
As the CB550F seized and the CB350K4 dropped a valve within weeks of each other, the 360 suddenly became my prime winter machine. The Brit's too valuable to trust to the rigours of acid rain and ignorant cagers who don't slow down in the wet. It proved pretty adequate, as only a suicidal fool would try for more than 90mph. The finish proved better than expected with only the down-pipes and a bit of alloy rot to contend with, plus the aforementioned wheels.
My only complaint was the ease with which the water attacked the coils, causing the engine to go into a fit of the splutters though it never actually went down on to one cylinder or conked out altogether. WD40 only helped for a few minutes. A set of coils meant for a GS450 were fitted and worked much better. In the wet and dark I had the safety benefit of a spark show from the plug caps. Cold morning starting was greatly improved when proper rubber caps were fitted, though I missed the reassuring firework show - at least it meant I knew the electrics were still working!
If you buy a well worn version of the 360 - or most other old Honda's - get rid of the spark show pronto. My cousin ignored it, on his CB500, until petrol from his weeping tank met up with the sparks! Even his 40mph cruising speed failed to put out the fire. The fire brigade reckoned he was lucky to merely end up with a charred motorcycle rather than find himself atop a fireball. Old Honda petrol tanks rust from the inside out, no warning (except for rough running from the debris attacking the carb or clogging the fuel filter) when they are going to start leaking. Bang, bang; bye-bye motorcycle!
It didn't take long, less than 3000 miles, for a series of cable breakages to take the piss. No clutch for 90 miles? Piece of cake. Dead throttle cable? What are mole-grips for? Rubber fuel pipe dissolving into nothingness? Oh shit! Then the electrical insulation decided to peel off, didn't it? The bike needed a thorough going over to sort out the effect of twenty years of life even though the mileage wasn't that high. Cost nothing, just loads of my time, as I had everything I needed in my stash of junk. This kind of effort to be expected on old Japs - I've even known people who have paid thousands for so-called restored examples to have the same hassles.
The 360 has the same kind of performance as a 250 Superdream, lacks some of that bike's agility and doesn't usually last for anything like its 50,000 miles. Oddly, it does seem to have better quality, but perhaps it's just the patina of age. Also fuel's good at 65mpg and none of the consumables wear rapidly. Worth a look if you find a relatively low miler at under £500, but paying any more is throwing money away - there are lots of better machines around for such serious money. I'm keeping mine, anyone has some spares or dead bikes they don't want, let me know.
L.D.