About 18 months ago, I had the opportunity to buy a lovely little 1975 CB400 F0. Now I know it's not a stroker but I have always liked the styling of them and it is one of the few Hondas that I could honestly own (an NS400R or MC21 NSR250 being the others). It being in great condition with only 11,000 kms on its clock sealed the decision and so it is now in my little collection . There are only a few issues that prevent it being a minter, so I am gradually attending to those,as a rolling resto, so that I don't end up with another partially disassembled bike that I can't ride. Here is how she presently looks:
Shortly after this, whilst helping out a fellow VJMC member with some LC parts he needed for his resto, he mentioned that he had a friend who was looking to clear out his shed, whom he believed had some aircooled RD parts, that might be going cheap. As you should never, ever, pass up a chance to pick up parts, I got his number and as the guy was only about an hour's drive away, I made arrangements to go up and see him the following week. When he opened his garage door, the first thing that met my eager gaze was a late model RD frame to quicken my pulse somewhat! Closer inspection revealed this to be a 1979 3M4 model RD400F frame, so I enquired whether he had any more RD bits, to which he replied, "I think the whole bike is in here in boxes somewhere". 30 minutes later, I had a stack of boxes laid out on the driveway, with what looked like 95% of the bike there, including the matching numbers engine - result! So how much did he want for it I asked (thinking it would have to be worth $1,500 minimum), to which he replies, "you can have it for $500!" As you can imagine, I couldn't get the money out of my wallet quickly enough and I spent the rest of the afternoon with a very smug grin plastered all over my face. It will obviously need a complete rebuild but for what it cost me, I should have plenty of headroom, plus I have a fair few spares left over from my 400G resto to minimise the outlay required.
Thinking that was me done for the year, I then happened on an honest 1978 RD250E via Gumtree, which I initially thought could be a useful donor machine for the 400F project given that they share a lot of common parts. Although I am more of a 400 fan, one of these was my first proper motorcycle, so the heart strings were tugging somewhat and as it was relatively local, I thought I would go and take a look. When I found that it was matching numbers and ran sweet as a nut, I knew it would have to come home with me, so a deal was struck! Stripping it for parts would be a criminal waste, although it will need a medium restoration to do it justice but at least I know that the engine doesn't need going through, which should save a little time and money.
Subsequent to all of this, a couple of months later a VJMC acquaintance contacted me out of the blue to ask if I was still looking for a RD400E, which was still very much at the top of my wanted list! Having just purchased the 400 Four, 400F and 250E, I had to scrape around to get the money together a little but thankfully the restoration gods were seemingly smiling on me and a tax refund came to my rescue. So now i finally have a matching numbers RD400E to replace the one I sold when we emigrated from the UK, which is really pleasing. As will be seen from the picture, it is in decent shape, with most of the key parts still present but I intend to carry out a ground up restoration, as it will be a definite keeper.
So with the lockup quite literally bursting at the seams, the last thing I needed was another bike or project but as is often the case, things come along when you least expect them and I picked up a lead on a very tidy KE175 D3. Whilst the DT175MX is probably the most desirable small 70/80's trailie, I actually had a KE back in the day and found it to be a cracking little bike, so my emotional connection was pretty strong. Whilst I don't generally like bidding on stuff like bikes on the world's most popular auction site, after getting a great vibe from the seller, I figured I would put my best bid in and see if that was enough. Thankfully these bikes still seem somewhat underappreciated and I was able to win it for a very reasonable sum, so after half a day reorganising the lock up, I just about managed to squeeze it in!
I would like to say that is the end of my collecting but I know full well that if a tidy DT175MX came up for sale, I would be very tempted to add that too, as that would honestly complete my dream collection given that I could never justify the cost of an RD500 or RG500. Well I have probably written enough to have sent you all to sleep again, so will sign off for now but hopefully you have enjoyed at least some of my ramblings.
