Motorcycle Repair: 1965 CL72, polished aluminum, old paint

Question
Bill:   I have a 1965 Honda CL72 250 Scrambler with a polished aluminum fenders front and rear and on very close inspection it appears that neither have never been painted and are in near perfect shape.  Is this a rare for this bike.

Thank you so much for taking your time.

Russ

Answer
Russ, Honda did offer polished fenders, from the factory, in 1962-63, as far as we know. From 1964 and onwards CL72s had painted fenders. Someone could have stripped the old paint from them or replaced the fenders with a set of early ones. In any case, a cherry set of alloy fenders and the front fender stay adds up to some valuable parts, monetarily. If your bike is a 1965 model, it will have a 7 digit serial number, starting with CL72-1XXXXXX. If it has CL72-11XXXXX numbers, the bike is a 1964 edition.

I have restoration guide CDs available for your model, if you want to acquire the bulk of all the known information on these bikes. Contact me through my website, if interested.

Bill Silver
www.vintagehonda.com