Topic: 78 CB400

[keating]

Ok i recently came into possesion of a 78 cb 400 that im planning on "cafeing" for my wife. I have never gone too far into bike engines (alil work on an 82 csr650 i got in a trade, and an 82 mb5 i bought off an older feller for 50 bucks)  but the I plan on doing more than just getting this one to run. so i might be asking alot of weird questions, so any advice, ideals, help is more than welcome. i plan on having this bike looking good by the end of feb. when i got it 2 weeks ago it didnt run at all, (not even on ether to the cyliners) so i took my hand multimeter out and found a faulty cdi unit and just put it on this weekend and got it to run enough for me to ride it down the street

[kerryb]

Before you start bobbing and trimming stuff off, I suggest you spend some quality time learning all the systems and how to set them up to run properly.  Then, after you have a smooth running machine that you understand fully, your quest to "make it your own" will be much easier.  You also won't cut off stuff you really want later and that custom wiring harness you'll need to build will be rather easy 'cause you know what each wire is for.

The one shown still isn't pretty yet, but it runs and rides nice now so the beautification process will be a lot less frustrating.  By the way, what did the wife vote for?

[keating]

OK. I have a pretty decent ideal how most of the systems work. me and a buddy did a COMPLETE tear down of a kz650 but i know things are alil different but mostly the same concept. but that is some good advice, maybe rebuild the engine and get new jets and floats and get the carbs synced and tunned. i think she likes the cafe look. i really like the look of the bike bellow but i think purple with some pinstriping would  look pretty sick. I want her to learn how to ride it good before i start making it look pretty also that way shes not tearing it up as i fix it lol