Where it began

I wanted to create this site so that I can share my Honda CB360 restoration project with detailed steps documenting my progress.

Before I get into it, let me give a little history to how I got here.  If I try to explain where this originated from, or how I ended up with this motorcycle in my garage, it all stems back to when I was 18 years old.  As a kid, I always though motorcycles were cool, but it wasn't until my freshman year of college at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, when I really started thinking about buying one.  Every day for class, I walked from the Union to the Engineering building.  This route took me past the dedicated motorcycle parking lot on campus.  After seeing all the bikes parked there every day, I thought to myself, "That looks like a really fun way to get around!"  I spent a lot of time daydreaming about owning a motorcycle and what my ideal bike would be.  To drive my interest even futher, that summer, one of my best friends bought an early 80's Kawasaki KZ440 LTD.  It had some 80's nastyness in the styling, but overall I thought that thing was really cool.  That next spring, I got my motorcycle license and was determined to save up enough money to buy a bike by the end of the summer.  I worked 2 crappy jobs that summer and saved up enough money to be able to afford an old 1983 Kawasaki KZ750 LTD.  I found the bike on ebay, and was super exited to win the auction.  I was also very excited that I got almost the exact same bike as my best friend, and had almost twice the engine!  Getting this bike is where I started to realize that I not only enjoyed riding motorcycles, but enjoyed working on them too.  When I got the bike, it was leaking fuel, it had a nasty dent in the tank, and had obviously been dumped as the handlebars were bend and turn signals were scratched.  I fixed the fuel leaking by rebuilding the carbs, I patched the dent, put on lower style handlebars, and repainted the bike my favorite color: flat black.  This is the bike I am still riding today.
Fast forward a few years to August of 2013, I am out of college, and my wife and I just bought a house with a nice 2.5 car garage that has additional 12' by 12' workshop off the back.  With this garage, I was itching for a project, and what better that a motorcycle.  I saw the 1974 Honda CB360 on craigslist with the description, "It does not run".  I looked at the add and loved the vintage styling of the bike.  Originally, I thought I would just get it running then sell it to some hipster and make an easy $500.  After I got the bike in my garage, the more I looked at it, the more I grew to love that vintage style.  Then I decided that I wanted to make this thing really nice.  I wanted to tear it down completely and do a complete restoration with some slight modifications.  I had a feeling that I wasn't going to want to sell it anymore.  Since I was gonna do such a large project, I though I would document the process and share it here for anyone who is interested.

Here is the bike just after I picked it up on Craigslist.  1974 Honda CB360G.

The bike seemed to be in good condition for being 40 years old.  It only has just over 10,000 miles on the odometer.  There is lots of rust and crud, the seat was torn, and of course it didn't run, but at least the engine wasn't seized.  According to the license plate, the last time it was on the road was in 1986.  And funny enough, there was a UWM parking sticker on the mirror from 1986 as well.