CL350-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

CL350 was introduced  in 1968. The bike was powered with 325cc 4 stroke, OHC parallel twin with 2 CV carbs and claimed 33bhp @9000rpm and top speed of 100 mph.  CL is a designation for scrambler models. Their exhausts are mounted on the side. CB350, which is powered by the same motor, has pipe under the motor.

CL350, CB350 have been quite popular among cafe racer builders, theses days. The bike will get more attention when the Hollywood adaptation of the movie, "The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo" is released next week, Its tittle character,Lisbeth Salander, zips around the town with this cafed up CL350, built by Glory Motor Works in LA.

 The actress, Rooney Mara is relatively unknown and up against big actresses for the role. The director, David Fincher (Fight Club, Social Network, ) told her that she had to learn how to smoke, get bunch of piercing , have to endure nude/ rape scene and learn how to ride a motorcycle. Among those, she was most afraid of riding the bike.  Even though the bike is relatively smaller, it is a vintage, means heavy. She admitted that it felt like a monster. In the book, the character supposedly rides very small displacement bike so she was not expected, I guess.

By the way, Rooney Mara is from football royalty. She is one of four children born to New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara and Kathleen McNulty, the granddaughter of Art Rooney, Sr., the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. Her father's grandfather was Giants founder Tim Mara.