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NC35 (re)build thread - tis the season for 400cc greybikes

There are some experiences that intrinsically validate the activity. I don't mean things that are just fun, or rewarding. Difficult things can be rewarding. I mean experiences where the quality of the experience is its own justification. The job is right, the tool is right, the mind is right, things could be changed but could not be improved, and the whole pursuit exists because the world would be a worse place if it didn't.

Yesterday, I had one of those experiences. It was at wide-open throttle, up the hill toward turn 6 at Laguna Seca at 16,000 RPM, on a beautiful sunny day, on the sweetest-handling motorcycle I've ever put a leg over, and all with zero planning.

After dropping my carbs off with Jack at OldSchoolCarbs, Wilder and Aleks at Moto Shop decided they wanted to use my bike as a display bike for the IMS. Sweet! Only one problem: the bike was half disassembled because the carbs were out. After a few frantic emails and texts to Jack, I discovered he was out of town at a show, but would come to work on Monday just for me, to finish up my carbs so I could get it running on Wednesday, just in time to set up the booth on Thursday night. Top notch.

Wednesday night comes, I go to Moto Shop and get the bike buttoned up, and it starts immediately. In fact, I'm pretty sure the carbs are so spot-on right now that it would start stone cold with no choke. The bike takes throttle like it never has, and life is good.

...and then I get an email on Thursday morning. Apparently the bike pissed fuel all over Moto Shop's floor overnight. Fuck. Are the floats stuck again? Did I fuck up and forget a fuel hose clamp? I rush to Moto Shop on my lunch hour on Thursday, throw the bike up on a lift, check the hoses, test the petcock valve, and figure out that something is seeping from the petcock body and dripping directly onto the rear exhaust pipes. It's either the petcock-to-tank interface (no problem, there's an o-ring in there but maybe it just didn't seal right), or it's the petcock itself (an irreplaceable problem as it's not a completely serviceable part). Oh well, it's a project, right? Drain the tank, put it back together so it's complete but dry, apologize to Aleks and Wilder that it can't be ridden to the IMS as planned but instead must be towed.

rvf_at_ims.jpg


And that's basically how it stayed. I didn't have time to come and do more diagnosis, and then probably drill the rivets out of the petcock to figure out why it was leaking from that side.

And then this appeared on my friend's Facebook feed on Tuesday night...

pridmore.png


Well, he's the sort of guy who has motorcycles and no responsibilities, so he showed up on Wednesday, and had himself a grand old time. At times, by himself. At Laguna Seca.

Yeah, I was jealous. But I do have responsibilities, and didn't have the time to fix my bike.

So he did it for me. :)

(to be continued)
 


Here he is tapping threads into the petcock body to replace blind rivets. Blind rivets that held a plate on. A plate with an o-ring underneath it. An o-ring that failed and can't be serviced.

Well done, Honda.



Because that part of the petcock isn't serviceable, Honda doesn't sell an o-ring. So my buddy he cut a gasket with a razor out of some old rubber that was laying around. He also discovered that there were some internal, otherwise inaccessible o-rings missing which seal "reserve" from "on", and he replaced those, too. Indeed, the petcock is probably in better shape now than it's been in a long time. Fuel leak: fixed.

Okay, but this is 6:30 PM on a Thursday, and he wants me to go to the track with him on Friday morning. And my front suspension is wonky, with the triples twisted slightly as a result of being hurried putting it back together when I installed the new clipons. And Moto Shop closes at 7.

Except when it doesn't. Wilder and Aleks were there, and kept the place open for me. How nice is that? Un-twisting the triples is easy enough to do, it just takes time, but if I don't have to worry about keeping them away from watching Wapner... So I throw it up on a stand, loosen everything up, give it the ol' nudge, and everything's back in order.

Ooookay, so now it's 7, and the plan is still to go to Laguna Seca, with all its noise abatement restrictions. And if you look real close at the IMS picture, you might notice that's not a stock can. In fact, you can see daylight right through it. Probably not gonna fly on track. But wait, I remember someone PM'ing me back when I first got this bike, selling a stock muffler! I wonder if I can score that tonight...

Big, big ups to Triple Threat. I sent him a PM saying I had an opportunity to go to Laguna Seca and did he still have that pipe and could he pleeeeease give me a call. Turns out he did, and he did! Not only that, but he met me at his workplace on crazy short notice, and gave me a screaming deal on an utterly unobtainable stock part. Because let's face it, my rational faculties fail when presented with track time, and he could have totally taken me for a ride, but he didn't.



So it's midnight, I've got a fixed petcock, I've got a stock pipe in case they try to kick me off the track, I've gotten my gear prepped, and the bike - which I've never actually ridden farther than 1.9 km to the gas station - is running and revving better than I've ever heard it.

Fuck. I guess I'm doing this.

I don't always do shakedown rides, but when I do, it's at 6:15 AM on my way to the motherfucking track.
 
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Great thread, well written. It was neat seeing this picture after seeing it all torn apart @ moto shop. Kinda kills me to read those British vintage moto magazines and see how easy it is for them to get their hands on these bikes.
 
sweeet!!!

i got a set of stock headers and a muffler if you are interested. muffler is gutted tho - prolly wouldnt fly at Laguna :laughing


i'm thinking the cbr400rr grey market ride somewhere like May?
 
SpeedyCorky said:
sweeet!!!

i got a set of stock headers and a muffler if you are interested. muffler is gutted tho - prolly wouldnt fly at Laguna :laughing


i'm thinking the cbr400rr grey market ride somewhere like May?
Click to expand...

Are V4s allowed? Because that's what my bike is... :p

I should bug numist to update his thread, though. He did some work on his bike last weekend and he's actually diminishing the number of parts bins he's filling at Moto Shop!
 
i think we are gonna allow anything 400cc and grey market. maybe even let in a CB1, just to show the contrast of what we get here in the USA
 
it was cool to see the bike ato the bike show too.

well done!!!
 
I've been uncomfortable on a motorcycle before. There was the time I rode for 6 hours through a cold spring rainstorm on I-75 up to Atlanta in mesh gear on an SV650S. There was the time I rode a CBR600F4i on goaty-ass roads for 9 hours behind a friend on his V-strom who doesn't understand the meaning of "rest". I've ridden that same F4i home on 280 at 2 in the morning after a sidecar race weekend with my muscles screaming in pain.

I have never, ever been as uncomfortable on a motorcycle as I was at 6:15 AM with an oversized tank bag and a backpack, in race leathers, on a tiny little bike with useless mirrors and my knees around my ears at 9,500 RPM on 101 in the bitter cold and dark, wondering the whole time if I was going to have to call a tow to get me home, with the joints in the freeway pavement kicking me in the ass like a jackhammer.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have rather been anywhere else. I do, think, though, that a responsible journalist would admit just how godawful these bikes are anywhere but a track. Perhaps things were different in the 90s, but holy hell. And that was just on my way to San Jose to meet up with my friend. I still had a long way to go to the track.

The trip there was horribly uncomfortable but uneventful. The bike ran at a solid 80° C, shifted great, and took throttle great at all RPMs. I was pretty pleased. Laguna Seca was empty when we arrived, and after doing nothing more than forking over some money, drinking some coffee, and doing a once-over of the bike to make sure nothing had rattled off (oops, the ignition cylinder bolts fell out. can I have a zip tie? :D), I was ready for the track.



Holy shit. I was ready for the track.

Holy. Shit.

New track, new tires, new bike, rusty rider: The Fear. Yep, I had it. On my first session, I wondered every time I opened the throttle if the ass was going to step out (you can laugh now). I wondered if the brakes were going to sink to the bar and I was going to end up in the gravel. I wondered if the engine was going to spit a piston out the tailpipe. I wondered if, if, if.

And then in the middle of the second session, I started to let it go. And the bike thanked me. I started to ride it like an inertia bike, and not like my VFR. The VFR requires affirmative braking up to the turn-in point, and then throttle out. Always the same. Brake straight, tip the bike in quickly, and lean on the throttle. I didn't know what the RVF wanted, but I was relaxing enough to explore.

I let my friend ride it for the third session, and I rode his VFR750F. I'll skip over the part where I forgot that his VFR doesn't lean like the RVF does, and nearly Gibernau'd his bike right into the kitty litter. Oops. Once I got back on pavement and he had got in front of me, I couldn't match his braking or corner speed. And keep in mind that he was riding timidly and I was riding aggressively! Here's what he had to say later on:

Don't tell thenewwazoo this, but that bike is way over the top of magnificent fun. I expected "hey this is rare and cool" but it's more like "holy balls why are there bikes that aren't this."
Click to expand...

The bike rides like nothing else I've been on. It's not razor-sharp. I don't have it set up that way, and probably won't ever do. But it turns in so nicely. And once it's leaned over, it might as well be straight up and down for as much correction as you can give. Mid-corner line changes are a dream. I also didn't find it rewarding to toss the bike around. Not like a big bike in that way. It's all about smooth. Brake late because you can (and you can brake so, so deep), trail brake as much as you want and it won't bite you. Roll the throttle on early - torque is flat like Kansas and predictable like sunrise. There's a rush of power at about 12,500 but it builds so gradually all the way up from about 6,000 that you can scream out of an exit or lug it and it won't care.

By the fifth session, I was really starting to get a feel for the bike. The bike is sublime. Life is good.

I am a golden god.

Why is there an S1000RR in my way? Why won't he fucking let me by? Quit shutting the door in the braking zone so I can get around you! Goddamnit, another straightaway. I'll catch you again in two turns! Caught! Brake just a little bit deeper this time, and not as much. Throttle on sooner. Dance on the shifter and keep it on boil, and I'll pass this guy. Pass a modern monster supersport bike with more than twice as much engine, more than twice as much horsepower? Almost got him on the outside but can't pass him on the throttle. Goddamnit, up the hill and he's pulling away again. See you into 7! How him a wheel through the corkscrew. Oh, trying harder now? I can do that too. Still smelling your farts in every turn!



Faster is effortless. Faster is rewarding. The bike will teach me, if I can let it.

I had been worried that I would get it onto a track, having spent months restoring it, and it would be merely acceptable. Fun enough to enjoy, but not meeting the expectations I'd built over hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars. They say never to meet your heros.

I saw God on Friday. He lives at the top of 4th gear over the crest into Turn 1. He says, "keep it pinned."

 
Love the bike. Loved the write-up. Thanks.
 
Other random notes:

- The bike really is miserable off the track. I hate putting my foot down at red lights because that means I have to fold myself back up to take off. And I'm not a big guy (30" inseam). I cannot imagine rearsets.
- The mirrors are comically small and uselessly placed (stock position). Lane changes are an adventure.
- It also overheats in traffic (no working radiator fan).
- I think I scared Dave Moss when he introduced himself. Hi Dave!
- I have no idea why, but I didn't have to install the stock muffler. I screamed past the sound booth all day and nobody said anything. It was glorious, but I was so happy to have a backup plan.
- The Bridgestone S20s were great all day. I had to really try to overwhelm the front in order to make it squirm.
- You cannot rev a VFR750F as high as an RVF400 when downshifting. If you try, the back end will chatter really badly and you'll blow your T11 entry and the bike's owner who is riding behind you will mock you mercilessly. See also "riding a VFR750F through a gravel trap".
- I must give Jack at OldSchoolCarbs the best credit I know how by saying this: I did not think about the carbs all day. Every time I opened the throttle, the bike went. The dude really does do magic.

Edit, because I forgot one:

- The VFR800 is the torquiest, smoothest motorcycle ever built.
 
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thenewwazoo said:
I saw God on Friday. He lives at the top of 4th gear over the crest into Turn 1. He says, "keep it pinned."
Click to expand...



:hail


I saw God this weekend too. But I was doing 75mph with both brakes locked, splitting between a parked tow truck and a mini-van. He said "You're f*cked"

I like your depiction of God more...
 
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