I was poking around on Ebay one day ( all good stories start something like this... ) and friend of mine has forwarded me an auction of a 1975 CB400F in a ( remotely ) nearby town. The night before I had just finished reading Peter Egans book and my head was swimming in his brand of writing style. He called the 400F "lyrical" and sang it praises as a great racebike and a great road bike.
My girlfriend and I have been riding together for years. Last summer we took a 3500 mile trip to Seattle and back, and I was thinking that she really needed to have her own bike to experience it in full. She took her class and passed with flying colors.
So, in looking at this litte F bike with only one bid at $1475, this clean looking bike had quite the allure. The auction had four days left, and the reserve had not been met. I bid $25 higher, just past $1500 and that satisfied the reserve price. I figured I was safe; there was still a few days left on the auction and I would be outbid for sure.
Nope.
Oh, it gets better. I didnt read the auction very carefully, and in sending emails to the guy finding out the condition of how it was running I didnt even think to ask about registration.
The bike has no pink slip, no registration. It had an Oregon plate on it from the 70's and was last registered in the 80's.
oh boy. So what do I do? I ride it back from San Bernadino to Hollywood on the freeway! Man.... Im just asking for trouble. Not only that, Im 6'3, 230ish, crushing this poor bike.
Anyways.... here's my $1500 find.
with the girl
we took it over to the DMV and pushed it through the registration process, the final CHP inspection is on the 28th.
here is the girl right after passing her M1 test, with her "new" bike and new license.
you can hear it here, and you can probably tell its only hitting three. It still needs tires, some cables etc, and the guy that works on my 1100F is going to get it all dialed in for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEvaUikrh50anyways, sometime in Febuary it will all be done and both these girls will be on the road.... anyone in the greater LA area want to take a ride to the Rock Store?!
I also have an 1100F that I mentioned above and Im a avid poster to CB1100F.net. I also have a BMW GS and I also post to ADVRider.com.
here's my F, out on HWY1 on the way to World GP
and here's my BMW on the way to Seattle
somewhere along the Oregon coast.
nice to meet ya'll!
