Lifestyle Blog for the City of Doral | DORAL 360

Nick Dahlinger’s 1974 Honda CB360

Nick Dahlinger rescued his bike as much as he rebuilt it. A 1974 Honda CB360 in rough shape, it was on a sort of Craigslist tour, getting passed around from owner to owner who never really committed to making it run, roll and shine. He knew that it had several owners in recent years. The person who had it before him attempted to build a café racer but ended up with five boxes of parts.

“It was a compete puzzle to put back together,” Dahlinger said. “Almost everything stock was sold off.” He kept the engine and the frame. A 25-year-old pipe welding fabricator, Dahlinger’s dad bought him a mini bike when he was 12 and he promptly took a few diggers in the yard. He’s loved motorcycles ever since but didn’t learn about the mechanics until he picked up the 360. “I learned as I went and gained a lot of knowledge by working on them and seeing what made them tick.”

With only a small apartment garage to work out of, he found that he needed more space to spread out. Dahlinger works nights and spent his days working on the bike. When his fiancée left work for the day, he would drag some of the parts into the apartment. “She came home from work early one day to find half the apartment full of CB360 parts. Always fun to explain that.”

He migrated over to this father’s workshop and it was dad who did all the paint work. A welder by trade, Nick’s mission was to customize it in a way that made it stand apart from other builds of similar model. “I chopped and lowered the back half of the bike about one inch and reworked the shock mounts. The exhaust is custom built by myself out of stainless pipe with the DCC muffler. I also built a pan to go under the seat where I have my battery and fuse box. I also rewired the bike to just have the minimum amount of wires.”

Much of the stock metal was removed, including the battery tray, passenger mounts, horn mount and anything else that wasn’t necessary. “I wanted a bike with a motor and seat–the bare essentials.”

Dahlinger spent about seven months on it with a couple of minor setbacks. “I can’t even begin to imagine how many hours I have into it but it all worked out great.”

Parts from DCC

Instagram: @ndahlinger

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(via Dime City Cycles)

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