The Honda CB400Four is a sweet looking bike even before you start messing with it, but there’s still plenty of scope for the usual strip down and cafe-fication, and one has been very tastefully put together by Stew in the UK.
He bought the donor from a neighbor to his workplace as a stock bike with 50,000 miles and in need of some serious TLC. “It ran OK but had the usual oily crap all over the front of the engine, cam chain rattle and the carbs flooded fuel everywhere when it first fired up.”
“My original plan was to sort the oil and fuel issues, maybe add new rings or a re-bore and do a mild Ace bar / hump back seat ‘n’ rearsets, and maybe a little paint. I made a start on the chassis but the oily motor kept niggling away at me so I took the head off and to my horror saw the part of 2 of the pistons had broken up and made a mess of the head. On further inspection the rings had broken up and wrecked the barrels too. At testament to Honda engineering that it ran at all me thinks!” In the end Stew fitted a 460cc big bore piston kit and bored out the engine 3mm to take out the scoring.
Originally Stew was also going to re-rim and spoke the wire wheels he I got hold of some Superdream wheels, forks and brakes, which he refurbished and re-built. The forks has to be shortened to get the stance right and account for the 19 inch front wheel. All the work and the fabrication was done by Stew along with the carbon fiber film and crinkle black paint, although the tank and side panels were painted by Stig at Sickboyz Customs.
“It’s a fully functioning weekend rider and definitely not a ‘show-only bike’ although it is a little on the small side for me, it is fun to ride!”
Thanks for sharing Stew. We hope to see her in the flesh at the BSMC Event II this October.
via The Bike Shed
