Opinions on Honda CB175s

Found this Craigslist ad, advertising two bikes for $1250. Doesn't seem like a bad deal if you ask me...

Note that the last two photos are not of the bikes he's selling...I'd say the price is pretty high for two basket cases. At least they do have titles, so that's a plus.

The second one is a CL not a CB. The small fiddly parts (side covers, etc) can be expensive to source. I think that's one of the reasons people do café racers out of them.

CLs are more collectable. I sold one just like the second not running and no title for 650. These are easily worth the price because if the titles. I think the CLs are more popular because of the high pipes.

I had a CL175 for a while, fun little bike that I learned to ride on. Think I paid $200 or $250 running, but with no title. Rode it around campus for like half a semester, then took it apart and did a bit of a "rattle can resto" on it, then dragged the pieces back home to PA and reassembled it and tried to title it, to no avail. So I threw some knobbies on and rode it around my parents' fields like a dirt bike for a summer or two, then ultimately ended up trading it for some Camaro parts.

The CB, CL, and SL 175s are all pretty much sisters, and the engines are pretty much identical, save for minor changes to the carburetor tuning. The SL is the most different of the three, tube frame with totally different geometry vs stamped frames on the others, but the CB and CL are basically identical other than the high pipes and fork gaiters on the CL. Make sure the CL exhaust is in good shape, as those are worth a bit of coin, and good condition side covers are a bit scarce. There is an abundance of parts still floating around though, as well as some repop stuff coming in from Thailand. There's even race parts and knowledge out there, as these are popular vintage racing bikes. IIRC, I think Bateman Racing is where you wanna look for the go fast goodies.