Move Over Charlie - the new Golden Ticket!

You may have seen the post on the David Silver Facebook page over the past few weeks that the Copdock Classic Motorcyle Club in Suffolk, England, have recently acquired one of their lovingly restored CB400Fs from them.  The bike was collected on the 13th March by Phil Sayer and other members of the CCMC.

This really is a fantastic opportunity to own a CB400F for yourself.   The lucky winning tickets will be drawn at the Copdock Show on Sunday 4th October 2015 - I think David Silver will be handing the keys over to the winner.  
Personally I can't wait to get my own ticket.  I have no idea whether you can purchase them by post or not but I am sure if you contact Phil Sayer via the website you can find out.

You can find out all about the show by visiting their website at 
http://www.copdock-cmc.co.uk/Events-TheShow.htm.

I asked Phil Sayer to give a few words about the raffle:

"The Copdock bike show has been running for 24 years, and every year we sell draw tickets in aid of a local charity with a classic bike as a prize. (We've given away over £300,000 over the last 24 years from the money raised at the shows.) This year's charity for the draw bike is the Suffolk Accident Rescue Service http://www.sars999.org.uk/, to whom we have given £7,500 to equip a new volunteer paramedic.

Why a CB400F? We have always had British bikes before - BSAs, Triumphs, Nortons...but we thought the time had come to try something different. We wanted an iconic bike that would appeal to all age groups, not just old men in their 60s who had British bikes as youngsters. The CB400F is a great bike from the 70s and we are already selling tickets to people, including lady riders, who say "I always wanted one of those!". James May and the Classic Bike Magazine project bike have all helped of course.

We sell tickets at the various bike shows we visit during the year to promote the show. In the last couple of weeks we've been to Southend for the Ace Cafe Easter Monday shakedown run, and last weekend to Colchester for 'Classics on the Quay'."

Cafe Racer Project

Hi again,

It's easy to find examples of some great CB400Fs on the internet but I'm not keen on just sharing images.  I like to know the story behind the purchase and the work.  It's good to know the hows and whys.  

I come across this Blog the other day:

http://caferacersunited.com/honda-cb400-cafe-racer-by-el-conio/

There is no point in me repeating everything that was written so have a read yourself.  

I posted this link to the DSS Facebook page and asked whether anybody knew the bike or who owned it - and "King Conen" himself saw the link and got in touch.  He pointed me to his Instagram page - where there are lots of pictures of his cafe racer project.  I love the Flipagram on there - I might just nick that for a couple of my own projects.

Have a look for yourself.

https://instagram.com/kingconen13/

Thanks for getting in touch King Conen, El Conio or Seymour Tetas - depends on whether you are on Facebook, Instagram or Blogger.

Another Shining Example or Two

This little beauty is owned by a customer (Tony from East Sussex).  This is his 1975 CB400/F.

Tony has spent quite a few thousand pounds on this bike - all the parts purchased from David Silver Spares.  He has had the bike approximately 10 years and bought it from an elderly gentleman who had it himself for over 20 years.

The paintwork on the tank and the side panels is original with the the odd mark.  He didn't want to repaint it so as to keep the complete originality.  Everything on the bike is genuine Honda except for the crash bars and wing mirrors.

Tony also owns a Honda C50 6v, which he bought from an elderly lady who had bought it in 1975.

It had only done a few hundred miles as when she bought it she could not get on with the gears.  She decided to store the bike in her house behind the wardrobe and try again later but never did.  It sat there for 25 years!  Tony has had the bike himself for a few years.  It is totally original and like new and he has only bought a few bits for it over the years.

Read All About It!

Take a look on the DSS website at the brilliant articles written about the CB400F restoration programme (et alia).  Articles by Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, Practical Sportsbikes, Classic Bike, Bike, MCN, Classic Bike Guide, our local East Anglian Daily Times and Ultimate Motorcycling dot com.

http://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/ARTICLES/

Latest CB400F off the blocks.

Post by David Silver Spares.

Read the Manual!

You may remember Kerry Cornish (Red Paint Makes Bikes Go Faster).  She is our CB400F1 restorer from Australia.  She restored an old Varnish Blue F1 into a beautiful Candy Antares Red.

Kerry has been undertaking some more restorations to the bike and has contacted me to let me know how things have been going.

Hi Jacqui,

Long time since I have posted anything to you about my 400, these last couple of weeks we have been doing some minor restorations to the bike. 

The most obvious one is the header pipes. As you can see from the before pics they were a very unhappy set of pipes. These I am led to believe are the original pipes and are extremely rusty, dented and scratched. Dents and scratches were done by the previous owner(s) not me. I don't know how many owners this bike has had. 

I bought new headers from Motad(UK) a while ago and have just been able to put them on. It was not easy either! When I bought the bike it came with a gasket set, which was minus a head gasket, but had exhaust gaskets.  Unfortunately they were too small so we had to reuse the old ones. I cleaned them up and refitted them.  We fitted the pipes but OH dear!  Something was wrong with the way the collars looked. A check of another 400 we have, found that they were in fact the wrong way around! So off came the fins and we turned them the correct way. ( It does pay to look up the workshop manual also). So much better fitting. Start the engine - there's a ticking sound! Loose gasket! tightened up -  all's good!. Tacho cable was replaced. Trying to remove the old rubber was interesting! Dean used a skewer to pierce the rubber and to  be able to remove it. He said the manual won't show anything! Yes it did, but too late he had already butchered the rubber which was okay as I had a new one!

Fuel filter was replaced after I was having heaps of trouble starting the bike and in general riding. We thought the battery was crook so I  bought a C-Tek battery charger which can be left on the bike permanently. Still having trouble. Check the plugs - they're fine. Dean said it sounded like the bike's not getting enough fuel. Removal of the fuel filter found it to be nearly totally blocked! New one fitted. On  rides the bike kept hesitating and lacked power. We then  drained the carbs and found they were also blocked with fine rusty bits. I am going out today, Saturday 13th, for a ride, to test whether the bike has more power than it did. Here's hoping! I also replaced the spark plug caps which was probably one of the easiest jobs.

The toughest problem and the hardest to track down is the minor oil leak. We can't find out where it's coming from. Head has been checked and tensioned, all bolts checked and tightened. The leak is not major and only drops when out riding - my boots get a light splattering of oil, mostly the right hand side but that could be from blowback. It only loses about 2 desertspoons in 4 -  5 months, it's just a nuisance we cant track it down. We have degreased the engine twice now and cleaned it off but still  nothing definite.

I have attached some before and after pics of the header pipes and a couple of the pipes after our first ride on Friday 12th, and as you can see they are going a golden/blue colour which I expected as they are a thinner metal than the original. I have sprayed the inners of the pipes with a heat proof paint.
No matter what - my CB400 still draws attention .At the service station before our ride on Friday 12th to check if the pipes discolour, a guy asked me about the bike. Apparently he had a blue one and a CB750 years ago and is getting the itch again to buy one. I encouraged him to do it.

My 400 is so nice and shiny now. Still love it.

Kerry

The Things I Used To Have Time To Do

Have you ever got rid of something because you had to because of financial or other circumstances?  I have; a foot spa.  I was bought one for Christmas about twelve years ago.  I used it for a while and I loved it.  Those warm bubbles danced playfully between my toes.  Heaven was only a jug full of warm water away.  Then....I had my third child and the foot spa soon found its way to the back of the garage and then on to the charity shop.  The memory of those bubbles was assigned to the "things I used to have time to do" box.

Fast forward twelve years - and suddenly the urge is there again.  I started to crave that feeling again.  But there was more than just wanting a foot spa - it was a much deeper appreciation of the whole experience.  I went for a Champney's Massaging Bubble Action Deluxe Foot Spa - with infra red heat.

Did I nearly lose you there?  On to my clever link to the CB400F.

In 1978, George Frederick (Fred) bought a Honda CB400F for his 19th birthday.  Fred paid the grand sum of £958 for his purchase from Tom Cowies in Newcastle, and using my historic inflation calculator [tap, tap, tap] I can tell you that that is the same as £4,773 in today's money, which is about the going rate for a restored one now.

 

The registration number was UNL 903T so if you have one festering away in your garage, check the number plate.  Fred added the Rickman top half fairing (painted himself to match the tank) and dropped bars.  He also added the Cibie headlight ("de regueur on a 400-4 in those days to replace the factory candle"), Girling rear shocks and Lucas electronic ignition kit.

Unlike in 2014 licence regs were very simple in the mid 1970's.  You applied for a provisional licence at 17, bought anything up to a 250cc and then rode it home.  Fred remembers passing his test as a "20 minute ride around the block with an examiner on foot pulling you in to issue the next instruction".  "L" plates were thrown in the nearest bin and the ride home was via the motorway if possible "just because you could".  The next step then was to buy any bike available that you could afford the payments for and then finally "try really hard not to kill yourself (many people failed this one)".

I asked Fred if he felt able to handle the bike at 19.  "People I knew borrowed a mate's bikes for the test then persuaded their parents to buy them the latest super bike if they were rich enough.  Most were killed or seriously injured within a month.  I never really wanted anything other than a 400-4 then; I stared at the brochure every day.  I was sure I could handle it, I was 19, I could have handled Barry Sheene's GP500 no problem!"

Fred circa 1980 at an old airfield near Morpeth where the local loonies used to show off.  "This was as brave as I got".

Taken near Coventry during the NEC bike show.  The other bike is a Suzuki GS550.  The helmet is a Barry Sheene Replica.

This race bike was on the Yamaha stand at the NEC and was Kenny Roberts' GP World Championship winning bike from 1980.

The CB400-4 was Fred's second bike.  His first was a Honda CB200, bought new in August 1976 for £498 on the road [tap, tap, tap], £3131 in today's money.  This was traded in for the CB400-4.

Fred's CB200 in 1976

Fred's next bike after his CB400-4 was a Honda CB900-F2B registration KBB 168X.  This was bought new in August 1981 (he doesn't mention the price on this one) and was kept for 10 years.  Fred sold this bike to pay for a new kitchen.  I can use a different calculator for this one - Fred was 19 in 78 so when the bike was sold in 91 he would have been 32 (other things to spend your money on I think).

Fred's CB900-F2B circa 1981

Fred's life story in bikes continues in 2000, when he purchased a Suzuki Bandit 600, which was then traded in for a Fireblade in 2003, which he still owns.

Full Circle

Fred recently purchased a fully restored CB400F from David Silver Spares.  One from the well publicised mass restoration project.  It was only bought in March this year so the relationship with this bike has only just started.  Fred has already done a bit of his own work on the bike and plans to do some of the remaining stuff himself when it take his fancy.

"[The bike] attracts a lot of misty eyed comments from men of a certain age.  I'm not a mechanic, I'm a time-served engineer, however when I started riding bikes as an apprentice you learned very quickly how to fettle them.  No diagnostic software then!".

So, what attracts "men of a certain age" back to the CB400F?

"I bought this one as it was the only bike I ever regretted selling, also I'm at that age and fortunate enough to have some disposable income to let me indulge my mid-life crisis".  There certainly are plenty of benefits of "knocking on a little bit".

Fred doesn't have any plans for the bike other than to enjoy all over again "the things I used to have time to do".

The original 400F back in 1978

The restored CB400F outside the same garage in 2014