Marc Lemay's 1971 Honda CB350

April 15, 2021

This is my 1971 Honda CB350 tribute build, named the “KATAMAK”. I’ll start from the beginning...

I have always been fascinated by motorcycles my whole life but didn’t dive headfirst into them until I got my license in 2005. That was when I first heard the term “Café Racer”. When I read about the history of café racers, and what they were all about, I fell in love with them. I just felt like, “This is me; this is who I am.” From that moment, I knew I was going to have to build one someday soon. I could already picture it in my head, down to every detail.

Years went by, and although I had a small fleet of motorcycles now to fuel my passion, I still didn’t have my café racer. The dream was still there, but it just never felt like it was the right time to start such a project. Eventually, I met my now wife, Kimberly. After a year or so, her father, Keith, sat down and told me all about his old ’71 Honda CB350 out in the shed. Being an avid Honda motorcycle enthusiast, I was more than excited to hear about it. He told me several great stories, and fond memories he had of the bike. He then proceeded to say, I would be doing him a favor if I took it off his hands. It had been in the shed for 26 years, and it was serving as his parking stop for his lawn tractor. When he pulled the tractor in and bumped into the bike, he knew he was in far enough for the doors of the shed to close behind it.

In 2012, we decided to dig it out of the shed. I could see that it was in pretty rough shape, and had been modified to resemble a Harley at some point…probably the late 70’s. It had ape hangers, shorty mufflers, the emblems on the tank and side covers had been shaved, and it had a “way to wide” 16” Harley wheel laced to the factory hub. It was so wide; the sidewall of the tire had been chewed up by the chain rubbing against it. Being a purist at heart, and not wanting to modify a mostly original bike…I knew that this was the perfect candidate for my Café racer project.

Once home, I washed the mice out of the bike….literally. Some live ones jumped out of the seat, and I pulled a couple of skeletons out as well. And then it found its way into the corner of my garage. Since I was already busy bracket racing one of my motorcycles, time to work on the Café project took a back seat to the race bike. It wasn’t until the fall of 2016 when I decided, that’s it…it’s time to finally focus on the CB350 and let the drag bike take the back seat.

The initial goal of the project was to build the bike that I had always envisioned, strictly as a nice rider. It didn’t have to be perfect; Just a nice, clean, good running bike. Like all projects, it needed a name too. I bounced back and forth, but eventually “KATAMAK”, came out on top. It had a good sound too it, and more importantly, an even better story behind it. Keith and his wife Tammy often referred to themselves as “KAT”, short for Keith and Tammy. So, I figured I would use that in the name, as well as include me and my wife’s name.

So broken down, Keith, Tammy, Marc, and Kimberly formed KATAMAK.

I also set 3 goals for myself. The first was to retain as much of Keith’s bike as I could for my build. Although the bike had become more of a cruiser and nowhere near a café racer, I wanted to retain some of the custom touches that were on it. This way when it was done, Keith could look at it and still tell it was his bike. Second, the purist in me didn’t want to modify anything that wasn’t already modified. No cutting or modifying the frame, etc. Third, I wanted to build a “period correct” café racer. Something that fits the part of, “If I was around back then, what would I have built out of this bike.”

As the teardown began, I soon realized this was going to be more of a salvage operation, than a straightforward rebuild. The swingarm, although known to bend over the years, was severely bent. The large hammer marks someone had left in it here and there wasn’t a promising sign. And after serving as a mouse motel for 26 years, the mouse urine had taken its toll on the frame. The area where the mice had been living in the seat area had allowed all the urine and droppings to travel down the rear tubes of the frame….rotting them completely out. Fortunately, I had spare parts lying around. It was around this point the good news came along that my wife was pregnant. Exciting yes, but I knew this was going to have an impact on the build in many more ways than one; Budget and time to name a couple. As the project trudged along through the winter, I had completely torn the bike down to nothing. I had the cylinder bored out, and the head rebuilt. The frame, swingarm, wheel hoops, and other bits powder coated. By the time summer came around, I had a roller. Living in New England, you take advantage of the nice weather, so the bike sat until late Fall of 2017. In September, Kim gave birth to our beautiful daughter. I slowly began to adapt to my new lifestyle and started to dive back into the project in early December. I was doing odds-and-ends but getting all the engine pieces ready for paint. And then on Christmas, we were dealt a horrible blow. Keith had passed away.

This was incredibly tough to deal with for a multitude of obvious reasons. Regarding the build, it made it difficult in its own ways. One of the main driving forces for getting this bike back up and running, was for Keith to see it and experience it again. And now, that wasn’t going to happen. I felt discouraged and was left wondering if I should just put the bike back in the corner of my garage. This is where the build took a turn. I knew this bike had to be built, but I decided I was going to build this bike as a tribute to Keith, as well as his late wife Tammy in a way it deserved. I was going to build it as an all-out show bike. Everything from this point forward was going to be perfect. Not just “good enough” for a nice rider.

The roller was coming along great, but I decided to pull some miscellaneous items off and re-do them to make them even better. By spring, the engine was painted, assembled, and installed in the frame. A brand-new wiring harness installed, as well as some little details here and there. Again, it sat idle for the summer, until I was ready to jump back in for the Fall of 2018. And again, literally, days before jumping back on the project, tragedy struck. This time, my father passed away.

Although my father wasn’t a gearhead like myself, he was always proud to see my projects and was really looking forward to seeing the KATAMAK when it was done. I took some time away from the build to gather myself together. Once I did, I managed to squeeze in a couple of months of work before winter was over.

After the summer of ’19 came to an end, I knew that this was hopefully going to be the winter that I could finally wrap this project up. Being an auto body tech/painter for a living, I had been waiting for this particular part of the project for a long time. It was finally time to tackle the paint and bodywork. I stripped everything down and started from scratch. Keeping the promise, I made to myself on retaining some of the custom touches that made Keith’s bike unique, I shaved all the emblems again on the gas tank and side covers and smoothed everything out. I shot the tank and tail in a candy apple red to match the frame. I then masked the pinstripes and laid down a few coats of black over everything. Peeling the tape off revealed the beautiful candy red pinstripe underneath. I then buried everything in clear. Once it was dry enough, scuffed it down lightly, and buried it again in clear to give it a smooth, deep, wet-looking finish. I then lightly sanded it all smooth and buffed it out to look like a mirror.

I wrapped up the rest of the build within the next few weeks. And then, like the cherry on top, proudly placed all of the painted pieces back on the bike. It truly felt surreal to see it there before me, finally done. What was once a vision that popped in my head nearly 15 years earlier and I had never lost sight of, was now physically right in front of me. It was and still is an amazing sight for me to behold. The fact that it’s able to pay tribute to my late parents in law at the same time is the best part for me. The strong family connection, as well as the real blood, sweat, and tears that went into this build, make it absolutely priceless to me.

"Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Marc! Such a beauty of a build and great build story to boot! Ride Fast. Live Well." - Crew at DCC