CB400F

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Friday 18 October 2013

Love in the Fast Lane


Stewart and Sue met when they both found themselves 44 and single back in 2009.  They met on the social website "Bikermarch.co.uk", which they had both only joined the previous week.  For those who don't know the website it's not technically a dating website, it's more of a place to meet other bikers and enjoy a rideout - although some people seek relationships too - "It's a bit of a strange place and it was really lucky that we were briefly on there the same week" Stewart tells me. "I was looking for someone to go riding with, Sue was looking for help to get her up to speed with modern bikes".

"I have a "modern classic" VFR Anniversary, which was the first bike I looked at when I learned to ride in 2006.  I had no real knowledge of bikes then and did not know what to look at and fell in love with it (and Honda) straight away.  I think the VFR will be here forever."  My husband rids a VFR and I know the smile on his face whenever he jumps on it.

Sue, on the other hand, has been riding since she was 17.  Here she is with her Suzuki TS100:


"Our first date was to Westgate Road motorbike shops in Newcastle to buy bike gear for Sue.  A portion of chips and a cup of tea in the Westgate Road Cafe was our first meal together.

"Sue passed her test in 2009, and we bought a Suzuki SV650, then a modern ER-6."

Stewart and Sue married earlier this year with a Steampunk wedding with one of their poems at the service being written by a friend, describing marriage as being like a pair of motorbikes.  We must get Stewart to share that.  If you don't know what a Steampunk wedding is then do a search on Google - looks lots of fun.

"We gradually figured out that we wanted something with more soul, so we sold the ER6 and having the VFR in the garage it obviously had to be a Honda to go with mine.

"I could tell that while Sue didn't really miss the modern bike, it didn't seem right Sue not having one at all.  I had bought bits from David Silver Spares for the Honda and been keeping up with the CB400F project, read the James May article and saw the bike on James May's Man-lab so we decided that we would sell the ER-6 and start to look for a CB400.  Being relatively new to biking I didn't know much about older bikes then so I did some research.  Sue remembered the bikes from her early days hanging around with bikers."

They looked at their first CB400 in Northallerton but, though it looked nice, it turned out to have some important engine mounting missing - "but from that moment I knew we had to have one".

So Stewart looked on the DSS website and contacted David.

"We couldn't afford a £4,500 bike, much as though we wanted one, so when a £2,000 original low mileage bike appeared with one owner and an original exhaust we sort of both fell in love with it straight away.  Without telling Sue I bought it unseen after talking to David.  I put it on a credit card so Sue wouldn't know.  David worked hard to get it to a state where it could be fitted into a delivery already coming to the North East (the £200 delivery charge would have put the bike out of our reach).

"Sue kept asking me whether I had spoken to David, so I just told her that the bike had been sold (which was true)!

"The van arrived at 4.30 on Monday [in August 2013], it was wrapped up and waiting on the drive by 5.00pm for when Sue arrived home from work at 5.30pm.


"So we now have 2 great Honda bikes in the garage - and DS Spares line on speed-dial!!


1 comment:

  1. Lovely story. I have a 400/4 same colour same year. I have posted a picture on DS Facebook before. Had mine since new, and still enjoy it. I hope you get as much fun as I have out of mine over the years. look after it, and it will last for ever. Happy Riding.

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