Honda Sl350
HONDA SL350
CYCLE WORLD ROAD TEST
Tell The Truth. Is It Really A Dirt Bike? The Answer Depends On How You Define Dirt Riding.
THE SL350 has aroused a great deal of curiosity. Honda fans wondered if they were finally going to get a real dirt bike. Even the people at American Honda were curious. And now that the SL350 is here, they are not quite sure what they have.
One end of Honda’s policy pipeline says that the bike is designed primarily as a dirt machine, with a number of compromises to allow the rider to operate it on the street. Another opines that the SL350 is a street machine in disguise, stylishly fitted for the rider who thinks dirt riding is “in,” but wouldn’t do it. Only the guys in the sales department know what is going on, because that is where the SL350 was engineered. If it sells, in the tens of thousands, there is no need to figure out what it is or what it does. And it will sell.
The SL350 is in part a response to Yamaha’s DT-1, the first truly successful dirt/street combination from Japan. Honda. heretofore has never preoccupied itself with the manufacture of dirt racing machines, because the size of the dirt bike market has never measured up to Honda’s high volume marketing scheme. Then came the DT-1, a sellout beyond expectations. Who was the market? The guy who strokes his chin and says: “Yeah, I’d sure like to have a good dirt bike, but I need something reliable and fast enough for the street, too.” Add a large handful of racers who discovered that the DT-1 could be honed into a reasonably competitive dirt machine.
Is Honda following suit? Not exactly. The SL350 will be all things to all people, but more street people than dirt people. It is not the magical instant-winner with lights attached, but more than a few will compete with it. Enduro rider Jack McLane rides the SL’s predecessor, the CL350, on the Eastern enduro circuit. The CL350 is definitely not a dirt bike. McLane apparently doesn’t know any better. He is in contention for the grand national championship.
So is the SL350 a real dirt bike? No. Not if you’re talking about a machine that can be charged straight from the showroom into the woods or desert with satisfying results. As delivered, it is a nice fireroad bike. In heavier going, it is heavy going. It weighs 366 lb. fully equipped—enough weight to bottom the forks at medium speed on the average trail. With a short wheelbase, and rather minimal damping from the De Carbon rear shock absorbers, that bottoming action is enough to make the rear end do all sorts of things to rob the trail rider of enthusiasm. Nor is the bike much of a slider; the weight and saddle position are somewhat high for that sort of thing. The shady damping also allows the rear wheel to hop when you stomp the back brake to square a corner.
Strangely, what the SL350 does best in the dirt is something it shouldn’t do well at all. It climbs hills. Little ones and big ones. The 325-cc Twin powering the SL is exactly the same one that powers the CL and the CB. It is red-lined at 10,500 rpm. But it goes bang-bang up the hill like a Single, slogging away at 1500 rpm. And it keeps running until it digs a hole. Maybe our man McLane knows something after all, as slogging is the norm in a wet country enduro.
The key phrase in describing the design intent for the SL350 is that Honda has made it easier for the rider to adapt his machine to trail riding than ever before. The tubular frame is similar to that of the CL350, but has been reinforced with doubler plates at the steering head and the tube junctions. The long front forks are mounted with motocross style pinch bolts at the top fork crown. While they do not depart from the usual Honda design, they travel a respectable 6 in., provide a soft ride and raise ground clearance to a usable 8.3 in. Stiffening, heavier oil, or perhaps even weight reduction, would reduce their tendency to bottom. Unbolting lights, mufflers, electric starter and other assorted street paraphernalia will bring the weight down to about 310 lb.
Other provisions to the SL350 also serve to reduce the required modifications for dirt riding. The attractively styled up-swept mufflers are actually USDA-approved spark arresters. The head pipes sweep gently downward and back, and thereby avoid the exhaust restriction caused by the sharply curving pipes on the CL model. Primary motivation for the black color on both carburetors and exhaust system is probably to give the bike a businesslike appearance. But the black surface does radiate heat better than chrome, and may offer a slight benefit at slow trailing speeds, where airstream cooling is at a minimum.
The front fender is high mounted, a feature to prevent mud from packing up and locking the front wheel to the fender. Both fenders, styled to resemble the fiberglass units on many motocross bikes are steel. They are mounted in shock absorbing rubber. The rubber mounting treatment extends to the speedometer, tachometer, and taillight. The carburetors are also rubber mounted, both to dampen engine vibration and reduce heat conducted from the cylinder head.
Also appropriate to dirt operation is the well-padded seat. It will, if rider and passenger are good friends, serve for two-up operation, although the bike is clearly intended for the solo rider. No passenger footpegs are provided. The seat is ramped steeply at the back, perhaps too steeply, as it is difficult to scoot backwards when you need to get the weight on the back wheel. It becomes clear at this point that the SL350 is a compromise machine, making the best of an existing batch of components. Had it been designed for dirt riding from scratch, frame configuration would have taken greater precedence over engine design, perhaps to the point of eliminating the tallish sohc Twin as an alternative. For example, the frame ideally would have been lower at the middle. As it is, the required thickness of seat results in a rather high perch. As long as the feet are on the pegs, the riding position is very comfortable. But when the rider has to prod to keep the show moving, he may find himself having difficulty, particularly if he has short legs.
As an in-town street machine, or even a weekend traveler, the SL350 scores quite well. It handles properly on the road, although disadvantaged somewhat by the block-pattern Dunlop Trials Universal tires. The trail rider will like the Dunlops because he won’t have to buy an extra set of tires to give him traction in the loose stuff. The road rider won’t like them, because they set up a rumpus on pavement at high speed, rob the engine of power, lower acceleration and top speed and don’t track too well in turns. The secret for the buyer interested in street use is to get an allowance on the trials tires against a set of Pirelli Universal or Dunlop K70s, which will give smooth performance on pavement, yet be passable for fireroad riding.
While gearing is on the low side (8.35:1 in 5th, compared to the CL350N 7.14:1), the SL350 will stand up well to extended cruising at freeway speeds, with the tachometer needle indicating 7000 to 8000 rpm. Even at these speeds, the bike yields surprising fuel economy. At 70 to 80 mph, vibration tunes itself out, and is quite tolerable. More surprising is that the engine, although quite new, showed no signs of strain or overheating after a rapid, nonstop freeway run of 175 miles. Nor did it sweat or leak oil.
This cleanliness also prevailed after three days of thrashing around on the fireroads near Big Bear Lake. The 6000 to 7000-ft. altitudes showed no noticeable effect on carburetion, and the bike started just as easily as it did at sea level. Shock mounting did its job, and nothing rattled or cracked. The lights kept on working and the horn kept on beeping. The chain guide kept the chain on the sprocket, even when the chain became extremely loose from abusive throttle tweaking and play racing.
All these little things add up to a reliable, stylish play bike. Not a true dirt bike, but a Honda with greater potential for the dirt than ever before. Like we said, they’ve made it just a little bit easier.
HONDA
SL350
SPECIFICATIONS
$825,
