1965 Honda CL

CL72 1008946

Sorry for the listing problem. Apparently ebay did not like the words "like CL77" in the title and pulled my add. I would think that they could have just notified me and asked me to change it since I had bids and the auction was scheduled to end shortly. Oh well, I will re-list. Sorry for the inconvenience. This 1965 CL72 is a quite rare Japanese Domestic model. 1965 was the last year for CL72 sales in the US. The CL72 was sold in Japan in 1966 but dropped by American Honda for the better selling CL77 in ’65. It was purchased by a US serviceman when he was stationed in Japan in 1965 and brought back to the US sometime around 1966. He used it in Japan and after his tour was over, he brought the bike back to here to California. As often happens, the bike was parked in his garage where it sat for 20-plus years. Sometime in the 1980’s was sold to a Honda Dealer who had it restored and placed it in his showroom. It sat there for 23 years and was only ridden one time after the restoration. The dealer did take it out to bike shows. At one of these events, the bike fell over in the van and sustained some very minor cosmetic damage which I will describe in detail and which you can see in the photos. Engine # CL72E-1008922 Frame # CL72 1008946 I have downloaded a batch of rather detailed photos onto flickr. Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/asiekman/ Of course you will see reflections of the trees and maybe one or two of me shooting the photos. I don't have a full photo studio, just a backdrop and camera so reflections on shinny parts are just part of the package. Now a little about the bike. The bike has some 13,500 original kilometers on it (8400 Miles). It was restored using a lot of NOS parts directly from Honda that the dealer was able to get. So many of the parts are not restored at all, but are NOS parts that were taken out of packages and put on the bike. The bike, being a domestic model has turn signals and the more efficient large drum brakes. Turn signals were required in Japan starting in 1956 so all the domestic models had them. The domestic models have some other slight differences like non-folding front foot pegs and similar little things. They tend to be much harder to find and more expensive than the export models primarily because Honda made a lot more CL72's for export than they did for domestic consumption. Some people have added the kilometer speedometer and turn signals to an export version of the bike, but the real telltale sign that a bike is a true domestic model is the presence of the metal ID tag on the frame of the bike. This one has it in the usual location, the left side of the swing arm. The bike was restored and has probably only been on the road for 50 miles since that time. I will start the description with what is wrong with the bike. Probably not the best way to promote something for sale, but the little flaws are what people worry about, so why not just start there? The bike is NOT a 100% show bike. It is very, very nice. It is close to a true show bike and if I wanted to make it nearly perfect I could do it pretty easily. It has a few flaws. Most noticeably the paint on the tank has some slight blistering around the gas cap and there are a few small scratches on the top right side as well as a tiny dent on the top-front edge. These are clearly shown in the photos. The front fender has a very small dent as well and the rear fender has damage from transport to a motorcycle show that I mentioned earlier. There is a small scratch on the right headlight ear as I recall, but you have to look closely to see it. The rubber on the passenger pegs is split in a couple spots. These parts can be found on ebay easily, but if it were my rider or just for personal display, I would tidy it up a bit and ignore it. There are probably a few other things wrong with it that I cannot recall, but it starts right up, runs great and is just beautiful. Everything works including the turn signals, lights, horn and charging system. The battery is fresh so it should hold up very well, especially since it does not have electric start. It is shown with an extremely rare Japanese license plate. This plate cost me $300. It does not go with the bike. I have 3 of these plates that I use on bikes when I have them on a display. Plates are regulated in Japan and there are large fines for not turning in a plate when you sell a vehicle. They are very hard to find. I will be happy to look for a plate for you should you want one but you can not have the one in the photos of the bike. This bike is for sale locally and on a couple club websites. Seller reserves the right to end auction early if the motorcycle sells locally. There is NO TITLE for the bike. Remember, it was on a dealers showroom floor as a display from his private collection for the past 20+ years and he never got a title for it. IF this is an issue I am willing to take the bike down to the California DMV and get a title for it. Payment in full is required prior to me doing this and the buyer must pay the cost of the registration. I can register it as a non-operational vehicle and get the title only, not current plates, so it will be less expensive that way. I will not ship the bike, but will assist in getting the bike to a shipping point. I can take it as far as the San Francisco Airport to drop it off at the Forward Air shipping location or coordinate with a ground shipping company. Happy to do that much for the cost of gas.I will be on a ride from the SF Bay Area to Prudhoe Bay Alaska from May 28 through June 24th (on my KLR650). If we can not arrange shipping before my departure, it will have to wait till I get back. Take a look at the photos and shoot me some questions. If you are interested in the bike we can talk in more detail. Thanks for looking On May-20-11 at 06:33:10 PDT, seller added the following information: I have received several questions asking how long ago the bike ran. I have been riding it the past month for short little rides. It does not have plates or registration so I am limited to the private roads near my house. I have a 3 mile long private road so I can ride it there without any risk of a ticket. The bike starts on the first or second kick, every time. It had been sitting for a long time at the dealership so I changed the oil, added fuel and charged the battery and it starts right up. The engine runs, the brakes stop the bike, the clutch and transmission work. It has all the gears, doesn't pop out of gear and the transmission sounds normal in all respects. The engine sounds great as I would expect with only 8400 miles (remember it does have a kilometer speedometer so this number is an estimate on the kilometer to miles conversion). If you have other questions, shoot me an email. Thanks,Allen