Re: Honda CB350 Highness.

That's great!
I find it stiff though. And mine has some sound coming out of it when ridden hard over potholes or bumps.

I am from Kolkata and the nearest dealer for Honda Bigwing is in Siliguri which is around 600kms from my home. We booked the bike online then when the motorcycle reached showroom and we paid the full amount via online transfer and shared all documents with the dealer for registration on the 13th of Nov 2020. The number plate arrived on 9th of Dec and I reached Siliguri on the 10th morning took delivery and immediately left for Dooars in North Bengal and rode around 500kms and returned to Siliguri on the night. 11th of Dec took the motorcycle to Honda service center got the servicing done and installed some accessories like split seat, tank pad, saddle stay, fork gaitor and saddle bag. 12th Dec early morning started from Siliguri on a foggy morning and reached Kolkata late in the evening after covering another 600 odd kilometers. I would like to share my experience with the bike with you all.


The bike is smooth with no vibration... The exhaust note is very very nice and these two things strike you the very first time you ride.. but once you ride for sometime you find the other issues..


1. The headlight... It's as powerful as a scooty and useless
2. The pain in the ass is the switch gear God only knows why they placed the horn in place of the indicator and the indicator in place of horn is really bad
3. The top version which comes with Bluetooth navigation didn't have good colour options so we took the base model
4. Opening side panels is stupidity... You use the key to open the left side panel then there is a Allen key you need to use that to open the right side panel or the seat now why would you do that
5. There are 4 types of fuse used 3,7.5, 10, 20 Amp but no spare for 20 given don't know why others are there
6. The seat is too small for two male adults. We upgraded to the optional seat which has 2 inch longer seat and 2 inch gap with the grab rail
7. No one in service centre knows the things well
8. If you need to press the clutch and use pass light it's difficult to do it together
9. Gearing... It's another story you need to shift too much in city for the tall gearing ratio
10. 5th gear is practically useless you can engage post 85ish but you would be more comfortable and confident to ride in the 4th gear at 110 rather than on 5th and forget overtaking others when you are cruising beyond 100 the engine dosent have power to do so and it's a rubber band effect post 105
11. They sell so many accessories but no back rest available which is necessary
12. Workshop donot have tools to open the front wheel couldn't install the fork gator... Imagine if you need to do it for some exigencies... It's a special Allen key
13. RVM though no vibe even at 120kmph are quite useless it shows 60% of the rider himself and reminded me of the Pulsar 220
14. Crappy horn... I didn't understand the logic of giving really great dual horns in the top version and really crappy single horn in the base version with no option for buying as an accessory



Good things
1. Lots of accessories available and very cheap we installed the pannier stay which were only 700ish, seat 3800, tank pad 700, saddle bag 4200... Loved the pannier stay
2. Good efficiency we got 30 with pillion and luggage and my throttle heavy riding style... 15 litters tank so at least you can go 450 with my riding style
3. Exhaust note
4. Good information display like efficiency, trip efficiency, distance to empty, clock, gear indicator
5. No vibration
6. Rode 600kms in a day in stock seat and no pain in the ass or the wrist
7. Great tyres I wish my Interceptor had some grip like the CB does with the stock MRF
8. Hazard switch

This are the things which I can think of now and shall again update once I reach 5000kms for my second service

lazy sadhoo elviento prarik
Guys post some updates, There is lot to expect from classic Honda.

hello friends,

Please update this thread with detailed ownership experience.
Living with Honda Highness CB350 or any modification related updates please.

I am in Pune and waiting for bigwing showroom. I don't think it will be feasible to buy it from Kolhapur or Thane showroom.
Any updates on Pune showroom or buying it from different city ?

Guys, I recently took a long test ride of CB renting it out for an entire day and tried it for around 200 kms. I had a Mahindra Mojo before this, and I might refer to it here and there. Observations below -

- First thing which I felt when I handled it, sat on it and rode for a minute was that its extremely light and flickable. Seat height is 800 mm but Honda has kept the center of gravity quite low due to which its easier to corner it, flick it and fliter through the traffic. I met bad city traffic for almost 90 minutes and I was able to keep up with it thanks to the lightness of this bike.
- Clutch is feather light, which makes handling traffic even easier.
- There was something about the bike which made me smile immediately, just after sitting for 2 minutes on it. Later I realized it was the smoothness and thump which was making me love the feel. Its extremely smooth throughout the rev range.
- Its difficult to ride this bike at slow speeds in a higher gear e.g. 30 at 3rd gear. 1st gear goes like 25-30 kmps easily and 2nd goes till 60. We might end up shifting gear a lot during traffic conditions. However, 1st gear would be enough for the crawling traffic. Also, weirdly, 5th gear has no power and is just a crusing gear.
- Handlebar is very light and is very easy to manueaver it in any directions. U-turns are a breeze.
- Suspension is good and I did not feel uncomfotable for normal potholes/speed-breakers, but I felt them to be bouncy At higher speeds (compared to Mojo)
- Braking is good, but nothing impressive. It does its job, but I dont think I will have that much of confidence in them at 120 kmph.
- Seat was on harder side (not as hard as Jawa, but not as cushioned as Mojo) but I could stil sit on saddle for almost entire day without feeling special aches and pains. Its comfortable for both rider and pillion. My wife reported that it was spacious enough to keep a laptop bag between us on the seat. However, I feel it would be wise to get a luggage carrier rack mounted.
- I was missing a rpm meter on display but its ok. Display is visible enough but I wish it was a little bigger. Honda has given a feature of RANGE which tells how many kms bike can go on with the petrol available, but I found it to be more of a gimmick than something which we could rely on. e.g. The range number was showing as 90 with more petrol and 150 after riding 20-30 kms.
- Headlights are ok but not enough at all, even if they are LED. High beam doesnt make much of difference either.
- I was riding the bike with dual horn but still it wasnt loud enough. Feels more like it came out of an activa.
- The horn and indicator button positioning is opposite to the other bikes in the market and I kept on getting confused wheneve I needed anyone of them. We might get used to it though.
- I took the vehicle till 100 kmph (as the speed limit of rental bike was 110 and I didnt want to end up paying a fine for GPS-tachometer mismatch) and it felt alright. It feels more in its element at somewhere 90 than 100, which made me feel that even if some people claim that they have cruised on it at 130( and we still can) but its not made for power cruising. After all its a CB, a city bike.
- My feet were positioned a little further compared to Mojo, making a comfortable angle for legs but handlebar is positioned a little lower compared to Mojo, so it was a semi-comfortable/semi-aggressive posture for me.
- I pushed and pulled the bike at times when the engine was off and it was very easy to do that looking at its weight numbers. Doing the same on Mojo kind of broke my spirit and made me wish to join a gym.


Wish they had given more power in this bike, instead of trying to match RE classic's power figures. Also, if it was launched on normal Honda stores instead of Big-wing, it would be a no-brainer.

What are talking, there is bigwing showroom in Pune

There is good news for folks in Pune and Navi Mumbai.
The new honda bigwing showroom details are updated on their website.
Also got a call from their sales rep and had conference call with a guy from Pashankar Auto, JM Road, Pune.
The new showroom will come up in month time on Dhole Patil Road. The bikes will be available from next week to check in their JM road showroom. The booking is started and delivery time is around 15-20 days.

I am looking forward to it. Please post an update on delivery dos and donts and much needed accessories and its options.

Cheers 😀

I got a hness CB 350 delivered just yesterday and what a buttery smooth engine. It's just amazing and also the clutch is so light that you can push it with just pinky finger.
But one thing that bugs me is that Honda decided not to offer either visor or backrest with its official accessories.
If anyone has installed either of these two things, please help me out

After being away from bikes for almost 15 years, I got CB 350 delivered to me last Wednesday. I have done about 200 km, and here are my impressions so far.
note: I am, in general, a lazy person, and prefer comfort over anything else.
My first impressions

• The bike gives a well-planted feeling. I did 80-100kmph, on my first ride (after 15 years) without having any worries or concerns. It just gave me a lot of confidence.
• There are vibrations felt on the handlebar, when you are on a lower gear and throttling hard. This might be normal, I do not recall ever feeling this on my Pulsar 150(2006)
• Being very picky about noise in my vehicles, unconsciously started noticing a metal clang from the front shocks (surely from the front of the vehicles) whenever I hit a pothole or a speed breaker. This is bothering me, but I have not had the time to take it to a service center yet.
• I live in Chennai, and I can say this bike grabbing a lot of attention. It is a crowd puller. (although, I had few people drive close by assuming it was a Harley or a different brand and pulling off disappointed that its a honda? yes it happened more than once)
• The horn on the pro is too loud. I feel it is attached in a flimsy manner, though.
• I am 6ft 3, and have broad shoulders. I am unable to use the mirrors as I see myself on 80% of the mirror. I've been advised to get the mirror's from Bajaj Avenger - will try that
• I don't care for mileage, but I've had about 180km on ~8lts of petrol and have a range of 40km. Must be my awful driving skills
• The clutch of my bike is not as soft as the demo vehicle. Need to check it out on the first service.
• Shoes getting ruined due to gear upshift. My shoe size is 11, and I cannot use both front and back shifters without moving my legs back and forth. I prefer to use the front one and get my shoes under the gear shifter. I need to get proper biking gear for sure. Please recommend.

Looking for a lazy riding group in Chennai. Any recommendations?

Not sure what brings you to that conclusion since Highness makes about 20.7HP compared to Classic 350's 19.14HP in BS6 avatar. I find the CB 350 have more usable power due to the lack of vibes, more smooth engine and nice spread of power & torque across rev range.

What I meant by this was that they just made a smooth equal to Classic 350 instead of creating its own segment. Now that the RE has come up with a comparatively smoother 350 cc engine, compounded with the fact that Honda made it difficult for people to buy/maintain cb350 by launching it from Bigwing, for the regular masses it will be an easy choice to stick with RE only.
If only, Honda was making something in the range of 26-30 bhp, it would be able to one-up its game on RE and could provide a better alternative for Jawa. It would make more sales via this route and the more sales they would make,the easier it will be everyone to own this vehicle in terms of maintenance.

After a lot of swaying between meteor and highness and i ended up taking a plunge for highness. Booked it on 24th Mar at VFM honda bangalore and got it delivered by 28th Mar.
I had already taken a long test ride of this bike before making this decision and the bike just lives upto those expectations. I could ride it only for 200+ kms so far, but I am absolutely loving it with minor compromises. I always preferred a quieter bike but I never knew I could love the thump of a bike so much where it just brings smile to my face everytime i ride it.



If someone has any idea on below questions, your inputs would be really helpful in making this bike more comfortable for me -
1. Is there any proper use of the split seat? I have been told that the pillion seat becomes 1-2 inches bigger and more comfortable but I found that the cushioning is almost the same. So, is there a value in getting it for 4k or is it advisable to go and try the local shops to make the seat more comfy for me like avenger or meteor?
2. Has anybody got a proper backrest with a good pannier? If yes, please share the link or shop details. I am okay with getting the pillion grab bar drilled and get it fixed but a lot of these options are just flimsy or ugly. To top that, I got saddle stays from Honda and when i explored local shops at JC Road, the options they had for backrest + pannier, I would have to let go of the saddle stays as they are incompatible.
3. I would prefer to have the handle bar raised for my usage. I saw options at carbon racing website for handlebar risers and extensions. Do these make sense or has someone gone for a different handlebar altogether? If someone has done that mod, more details would be really helpful.

I am awaiting delivery of my Honda Highness CB350, probably next week. Super excited !!!

I have already planned to fix the Carbon Racing mud flap and handle bar risers. I have some queries, might be naive but would like to take advantage of this forum and experienced people here.

- Any specific PDI to be done with respect to motorcycle and paper works ?
- Do's and Don't for a new bike in these crazy monsoon season.
- Is the split seat worth ?
- Any other modification like aux light and back rest, please provide the links/input on it.
- I would like to be part of Highness owner group if we have got any for Pune.

Thanks

In their chronological order.

1. Please do have a look at the PDI thread here in xBhp for more information on what to check when taking delivery of a new vehicle.
2. Monsoon is "biatch" no two ways around it, especially for motorcyclists who like to keep their rides spic and span. When it comes to monsoon, the basics of rudimental take priority. Easy on throttle, make sure your tire pressure is right, be easy on the throttle and enjoy the ride rather than getting there fast. Next up, cleaning can be a PITA considering the muck thrown all around, but that's a given. As much as you ride the vehicle, give it some TLC so that the bike stays shiny. Remember in monsoons especially, the gravity has an upperhand.

3. It's a personal choice, as long as you or the pillion's derriere is comfortable with the seat, it shouldn't be an issue.
4&5 I will leave it to Bhpains who have actually carried those mods on this particular bike.

Good luck.

Cheers!
VJ

Can experienced bikers put their thoughts on thread for Honda Highness CB350 run in period please.

And might sound naive, but any thoughts on signal buzzers ? I think they are must. Any options ?

- Ankur