Topic: CB400F Exhaust

[przjohn]

I am normally a 2 stroke restorer but have decided to try something with cams this year. A pal on the New England Dirtbikes site found me a nice restorable 75 400F as a project for this Winter. One of the toughest things I have found to complete a nice restoration is the pipes. When researching this bike I saw the OEM replica pipes on a few sites and thought, "hmm, that's good pipes are available" problem is I did not notice the "Out of Stock" fine print. Do they make runs of these pipes similar to the way Doremi does for Kawasaki Triples every now and then, sell out, and  do another run? Should I expect that they will become available or go to a plan B of searching for a decent used set for rechrome? This looks like a great site for info and I am sure I will have more questions once the restoration starts this Fall.

[ozpacman]

Hi przjohn,

I just faced a similar situation.  I bought a 750 K7 from the USA late last year and had it shipped to Australia.  There was some damage to one pipe but I wasn't worried because new reproduction pipes were available and the damage didn't look too bad.  The repro pipes were apparently made by Sankei, the company that originally supplied them to Honda and were said to be identical in every way except that they did not have 'Honda' stamped on them.

The bike arrived and I was really pleased with how original and clean it was but that damaged piped really started to bug me.  I decided to buy a new replacement only to find they were not available. I wasn't really able to get a definitive answer on whether they were absolutely finished or there would be another production run at some stage.  I managed to find a brand new set of original Honda pipes in Germany and bought those yesterday (ouch!).  I figure I'll be admiring the nice pipes long after I've forgotten what they cost!

Good luck with locating your exhaust.  Keep an eye on ebay etc and you might be pleasantly surprised - it's amazing what comes up from time to time.  My first ever road bike was a CB400F and they're a little gem.

Russ.

[rockvegas400]

David Silver's in UK has 8 header and collector sets in stock @ GBP210 at the moment.

Cheers,

Justin

[Bodi]

Many parts for the 400 are tough to find. I look at Honda first, it's surprising how much they still have available. Then the online guys, most US ones have no actual stock and just try to get what you order from Honda, they often show prices but also "out of stock". Next is David Silver Spares, they have something going on with 400F bikes: recently (last few years?) they bought a lot of used one and have rebuilt them for sale. They had quite a few NLA parts made for that project and have many for sale - exhausts are an example. Finally there's CMSNL.com - they buy NOS motorcycle parts worldwide. They do sometimes have parts nobody else has. Their prices are frightening, but if you really need something...

[przjohn]

I have bought from CSMNL.COM before on a CL90 restoration and I know what you mean about the prices, but they had the parts. The David Silver site has a 4 into 1 available but the OEM replica one shows out of stock. Same thing on 4 into 1 .com. So far the ones that have been on Ebay are in rough shape for replating. I will just keep looking, just hoping that Motad, (I think that is who makes the only OEM replica) will restart production.

[vames]

Probably worth a call to David Silver Spares to see when they'll have more and maybe even reserve one.

[przjohn]

Don't know if I lucked out but I grabbed this set as soon as I saw it on Ebay. I don't know if that is a lot to pay for an NOS set for this bike but it is less than half of what a reproduction set of pipes for a Kaw Triple go for. It will still need some small parts like the clamps and collars but the main components are there.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131244410648?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649