Here's my collection in May of 2003. From left to right are: My brother in law's Varnish Blue '75 (restored), my Light Ruby Red '75 (basket case), my Varnish Blue '75 (needs restoration), my under-restoration Candy Antares Red '77, and my other Candy Antares Red '77. Yes, I do have a '76 model but it's in pieces. Right now I'm working on a deal for another '76, so my collection will be complete shortly.
My first 400F was a blue '75. The story and restoration on it can be read here. CLICK HERE
Don't forget to come back!
After that Mike found me a very nice condition F2 near our camp. Since it was an hour away and I would need to get our trailer out, I called the number in the ad. The guy wasn't home but his wife tried to help. I had numerous problems looking for 400F's because of the CB400 Hawks out there. I didn't want to waste a day finding out that's what this was. Finally I asked "what does the tank say?". She replied "ummmm, Honda super sport". "I'll be right out" said a very excited Craig. hehe
(FUTURE PICS of '77#1 will go here)
Of course being young and stupid, I sold the F2 and really missed it. After that I bought and sold 2 more '75s.
(FUTURE PICS of RED '75s will go here)
Finally Mike resold me my '75 and I was about to completely restore it when I found another F2. I was so excited to find another one that I drove 5 hours from home and bought it without any negotiating. I didn't even ride it when I looked at it! (Having a broken master link also dictated no ride)
This bike had a badly faded tank, broken chain, leaky head gasket, black painted head, taped up seat, incorrect studs for the exhaust, faded sidecovers, and a mangled speedometer. I handed the lady $500 and said "let's go transfer the title!".
Since then (June 2001) I've been cleaning this bike and putting it back to original. I bought a new seat, tore apart the carbs/airbox/inner fender area, and really cleaned everything good. Chain goo always sprays up in here and makes a big mess. I had purchased a very nice F2 tank even before I found this bike, so the faded tank was now an extra.
After moving into a new house and working on everything that is and isn't nailed down, little progress has been made on this bike. I've put it in the way downstairs, so I will work on it soon and hopefully ride it this summer.
The restoration of this bike can be viewed with this link. CLICK HERE
Don't forget to come back!
Of course that wasn't done when I found yet another F2, this one SIX hours away! I picked it up so I could 2 77's, but I don't have a yellow tank or sidecovers yet. It would be neat to have one of each color. I may take my worst red tank and respray it if I don't find a yellow one.
This bike is my "rider" now while everything else is apart. It sports a tank which I consider "so-so", halfway decent sidecovers, an extremely nice seat except for a 1/8" split which is hard to see, nice header (original muffler gone), good gauges, and nice chrome. It was sold through the Honda shop in Van Wert, OH.
I replaced the header with the header/muffler combo from my other '77 for now. This is the bike I'll be riding until '77 #2 is ready. I've decided to ride that bike instead of keep it in the living room. I can always rotate bikes and enjoy them too. Unfortunately '77 #3 is making a funky whining sound when the clutch is engaged, so I may tear into it really quick some weekend to see if the plates are in wrong. I can't figure out why there's a lot of noise; the bike runs great! And I can take it out of gear sitting still holding the clutch in, and that's usually a sign of a well adjusted clutch. Oh well.
I also have a frame and title for a '76 400F. I bought a front end from the local bike junkyard. Some of my extra parts include headers, wiring harnesses, airboxes, etc so I plan on building a '76 from scratch. I need to do some Ebaying and a lot of cleaning and painting, but then I'll have one from each year. This one will be yellow, so I'll at least have a blue, yellow, and red one. I'd like to have both colors from each year and then I'm all done collecting. I know those are famous last words, but I have too many bikes as it is.
Update: 05/13/02
I bought another '75 off of ebay last week. It is a real "gem", having only 8900 miles but the rest, as they say, is HISTORY. There isn't a nice spot of chrome anywhere and most unpainted surfaces are quite rusty. The front fender, rims, chainguard, turn signals, engine exterior, shocks, etc are SHOT. The tank is fairly nice and the sidecovers are excellent. The guages and carbs were also worth the money and 10 hour trip to buy this turd. Who knows, this may end up as a non-riding (engine is STUCK big time) living room machine.
Pics to be posted when I develop the disposable camera.
OTHER BIKES I HAVE:
1972 CB350 (My first bike)
1973 CL350 (parts bike)
1974 CB550K0
1984 VF500F Interceptor
1990 DR350 (Hey, why beat up a Honda when you can trash a suzuki?)
This page was updated on 05/21/03.
