Topic: New guy to the boards from Colorado

[Preach]

Greetings, all!

My name's Marc and I live in West Denver (Lakewood if you're keeping score) and work for the Coast Guard (don't ask. Or do, but be prepared to buy me a beer). I just picked up a craigslist cb400f (75) as my first bike (ever). It runs okay, but needs a title/registration and some valve/carb love. I'm on the forums mostly to hear how people are getting their bikes to be reliable and (dare I say it) exciting everyday riders. I realize I have a lot to learn, but the size of the forum and google have been my friend so far.

So in conclusion,
Thanks for existing!

[seanbarney41]

that's gonna be a nice bike...however, I feel they are the trickiest of the sohc4 breed to work on(but well worth the effort!), how big are your hands?  my fat fingers have a tough time with those little guys...anyway, welcome...my advice is to get it running good and ride for a while before you start tearing stuff apart for whatever non-stock configuration, that way you will have a better idea of what you like about the bike, and what needs to improve...

[Preach]

Sean,
Thanks for the response! My current goals are: get title, get registration, get valves and carbs adjusted / sync'ed. It's taken me around town a few times on temp tags (since expired - never made it into the sheriff's office before the snow came), and noticed a few issues, mostly at idle. Sometimes it'll have problems not dying when slowing down to a stoplight, and other times it'll idle at 3k (or so), hands off the bars. Confusing stuff. And then after that, get the ignition to be not a pain-in-the-butt. Maybe hit up hondaman (he's in my town) - anything to make me confident enough to leave the starter spray at home.

Oh, and the right side electrical controls are completely borked. Kill/run switch doesn't do anything when you put it to "kill" and the plastic components of the starter button are totally disintegrated. Actually, the previous owner (or the guy before him) just yanked the leads and wired them up to a fairly ghetto-looking button on the handlebars to run the starter.  Classy.
-Preach

[seanbarney41]

get your ignition sorted, make sure ignition advancer is not sticking, and then work on that idle...first you need nice clean carbs(on the inside, the outside is merely cosmetic), then make sure all intake boots(manifold and airbox) seal perfectly, make sure throttle cables are free and routed properly and the free play is adjusted, sync your carbs, tweak air screws, adjust idle to 1000-1100rpm and enjoy it sitting right there all day long everytime you untwist the grip...there is tons of detailed info on all of this right here

[78 k550]

Welcome,

Paul