1974 Honda CB350 - 'The Red Rocker'

 If Santa Claus was to ever ditch the reindeers and sleigh, we could definitely see the old guy riding this stunning little red CB350. Aptly named 'The Red Rocker', this bike was built by The Pacific Motorcycle Co. who are based in the city of Nelson on New Zealand’s picturesque South Island. The “Red Rocker” was an idea owner Ron Smith had for some time, as an old battered 1974 Honda CB350 twin had been sitting in the shop for a few months after being given it by one of their customers. As the story goes, one of their customers had broken down on the old black CB about an hour from Nelson. He called Ron and said, "I’ve left it there, she’s given up! If you want to collect her, she’s yours!"

There have obviously been numerous CB350 café racer builds over the years but the guys at Pacific wanted to make sure this one was unique. "Ron didn’t want people sighing at the sight of another one, so this HAD to be different!" says Alan. "It had to be red, so that was to be the main canvas of the project. The other inspiration was the 1950’s Corvette with its distinctive scallops in the wing and doors." So with a very rough photoshop draught in hand, they got to work.

 "First of all, as in most of our builds, it was completely dismantled and any unnecessary parts discarded. The standard CB frame is a bit ugly to say the least with its pressed steel and spot welded gussets, so that was tidied up, including a rolled trim around the inside of the frame, a rear loop with fillets to keep clean lines on the back of the frame to accommodate the seat unit and any unused tabs were ground off."

 "The next thing was the tank, this one was definitely going to be a focal part, as we said earlier the Corvette Stingray from the 50’s was used as some inspiration, so the tank was cut and extended by six inches, scallops were cut out either side and new rolled steel panels welded in to mimic the Stingray style. The original fuel capacity is still as original as the extension part of the tank was reserved to hide the lithium battery."

 "Being a red “canvas” another major component, the engine, would also be a focal point. That had to be red too! In the style of Honda’s famous Red Rocket, where the frame and engine was red, hence where the name was derived from, but christened Red Rocker as a play on words to the café racer scene. Engine internals have been lightly enhanced with a big bore using CB750 pistons, a ground camshaft and a bit of port & polishing."

 "Apart from the draught being….”she has to be red”, the exhaust system was a major area where we wanted to do something different, so the whole exhaust system was fabricated in house so that both headers were equal, then came together via a collector/muffler unit under the seat before exiting out the rear of the bike. It was quite a task to get it lined up and fit exactly, but satisfying when it was achieved, finished in red (of course) with a triple coat internal heat proofing and some much needed polished heat-shields."

 "Another kind of theme that began to take over were the slots, seen in the heat-shields, front air-scoop (which hides some of the electrics), chain-guard and headlight bracket, all manufactured in house.
Going back to the air-scoop, we decided to make this originally to clean up the front of the frame as it’s uneven at the front to mount the engine, so we decided to cover it, but it also makes for a great place to hide things!"

 "One task that we employed was to use as little “off the shelf” bolt on bits as possible, so components such as the polished aluminium rear sets, tail-light, bell-mouths, aluminium  fork boots, fork tops, exhaust clamps, tailpipe surround  and everything else you see is manufactured by The Pacific Motorcycle Co. The only thing we couldn’t handle was the Pacific logo on top of the handlebar clamp which was CNC machined by Topliss Brothers Engineering."