Honda CB350 H'ness

[pdedse]

Well this sure is a cutie...


I've likely mentioned that upon retirement, the Mrs. and I will be spending lengthy portions of each year in her native Costa Rica. I bought a Suzuki DR650 two years ago specifically to import to CR thinking it would be a great dual purpose bike to have there. Then I discovered the import tax on it would be around $4,500. Ouch. I started thinking maybe it would be better to use that money and simply buy something in CR and keep the DR650 Stateside. So I've been looking the last year for some possibilities.

Because the area where we will live has lots of rock-dirt-gravel roads, these two bikes are the front runners:

Honda XR150L at $3,300


The slighty larger Honda XR190CT at $3850


But then tonight I came across the Honda CB350 H'ness--it could be a kid brother to the CB1100:




I think it looks gorgeous! Wouldn't handle the jungle terrain like the others, but maybe I don't care!

I'm actually heading to CR in Jan of '25 to take a group of students from our college on a study abroad trip. I've done it 4 times before and I've either owned a Honda CGL125 or used a loaned Honda Tornado 250 as my transportation. So while I was planning on buying there when I retire, maybe I go ahead and buy now so I can use it for the upcoming trip and then it will be there for future trips.

Hmmm...What to do!?