Topic: Yoshimura Exhaust, CB400F - How Rare???

[D-Rider]

LOL - thanks RR

[D-Rider]

Thanks again

[D-Rider]

Thanks very much indeed

[D-Rider]

..... and apologies to everyone else for these few worthless posts that will get me to the point of being able to post the links I wanted to in my first post

[D-Rider]

OK - should now have enough posts to add the links I was hoping to give

Hi Everyone - Newbie here.

I have a 1976 CB400F that I bought when it was just one year old.
Lovely bike but sadly I let it languish in the garage for many years while the kids were growing up and I had other things occupying too much time. That doesn't mean I was without bikes all that time but the 400/4 has been off the road for far too long.
Anyway, I've always planned to get it back on the road and have been picking up bits and pieces for a while.

I digress ... that exhaust .... yes it IS a Yoshimura (part number YH-3-35). I have one on my bike - I bought it from Dixon Racing in the late 1970s. They were available in either black or chrome (though mine is a rather natty chrome/rust finish  ).
From the 1982 Dixon Racing catalogue it seems that for a while, Yoshimura had an exhaust production facility in UK - something I've only just discovered (though have no other detail of this).
I have links to pdfs of these catalogues but for some reason the forum tells me I'm not allowed to post external links .... not sure how to share this info with you .....

That exhaust is a work of art and the sound it makes when pushing towards the red line is a real howl (recently found a Youtube clip of one of these - I had planned to give the link but again it seems that I cannot submit external links in a post ..... )

I've been wondering whether I can get my Yoshi pipe restored or perhaps used as a pattern for someone to make a stainless copy.
I think the chances of actually finding a decent one up for sale are less than slim so it'll be a case of whether I can get mine restored or a copy made economically - or ditching the idea and going for one of the other options out there.

Anyway - Hi everyone 

Here are links to the 1982 Dixon Racing Catalogue and Price list with a lot of contemporary Yoshimura info:
http://www.satanicmechanic.de/download/Dixon%20Racing%201982%20Catalogue.PDF
http://www.satanicmechanic.de/download/Dixon%20Racing%201982%20Price%20List.PDF

and here is the Youtube clip showing that Yoshi exhaust and its sound (not my bike)
1975 Honda CB 400 F1, 400 four, race bike yoshimura tuned

[malcolmgb]

I've been wondering whether I can get my Yoshi pipe restored

Hi D-Rider, I live just down the A444 from you in Burton. There is a place in Exhall who do re-chroming including exhausts, if it is still solid perhaps he can help you. I also know of re-chomers in Hinckley, Dudley & Walsall.

[D-Rider]

Hi Malcolm - sounds good.
I really do need to have a better look at the exhaust to see whether it's salvageable.
TBH I'm still not quite at the stage where I'm ready to start working on it ..... but there is a plan now to get some of the stuff that I need to get out of the way before I do .... so I'm getting closer!
That said, it WILL happen.
 

[malcolmgb]

I'm in the US at present when I get back in Feb I will sort out his details for you, remind me if I forget.
Don't try and clean up the chrome the platers don't like it they prefer to do it, a friend ground some chrome off a carrier and they refused to touch it.

[D-Rider]

Sounds like a plan
Thanks

[Terry in Australia]

That exhaust is a work of art

Ha ha, like most "Art", beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I reckon that's one of the ugliest exhausts I've ever seen, but now that you've explained that it was produced in a special English Yoshimura facility, you've restored my faith in Pops and co, it was probably designed by Bert Yoshimura and bent up by his son Arthur Yoshimura............

[D-Rider]

Nah - they do look good - the pipes are all tuned lengths - so it's a form & function mix.

Guess it might not look so good when you're viewing it upside down in OZ

[Stev-o]

That's it!
That's why Uncle Terry doesn't like that Yoshi, F model 750's, CB550s, Miatas etc etc.
Because he looks at them upside down in OZ!   
Glad we solved that.