I am just wondering when they made these and why do you like them so much?
1985-1988 with leftovers sold in 1989. Only 2700 made during that time, for 10 countries, not including the US, where emissions laws and noise laws made it not street legal. Mine came out of Canada, where Honda imported only 400 of them and all in 1986.
As for why I like it:
It's a Honda road-legal TWO STROKE, unheard of for such a "four-stroke-only" company
It's the biggest street two-stroke Honda ever built
It features then-current Grand Prix technology such as the TRAC anti-dive forks, ATAC expansion chambers, aluminum frame and swingarm (first roadbike equipped with such), etc.
The frame is a work of art
It's got an oddball triple-cylinder arrangement
It's a kick-start-only sportbike
It sounds awesome
Low production numbers make it super-collectible
It was never directly imported to the US, making it super-rare here
Mine already was imported and is on a valid FL title
Nothing, but NOTHING hits like a two-stroke coming into the powerband. More addictive than heroin.
Two-strokes totally kick ass and make furious power compared to equal-sized and bigger four-strokes. Note this bike makes almost 10 more HP than the later VFR400R, and is only about 11-12 hp down on the '87-88 CBR600 Hurricane, which has half-again as much displacement.
I just totally and completely fell in love with two-strokes and wanted a street-legal two-stroke. Was gonna get a Kawasaki Mach III, but this one popped up from a family friend and was cheaper than a Mach III, yet is way more desirable. It was a no-brainer.
Downsides are intense maintenance needs, (any stroker is like that though), poor parts availability, and the aforementioned furious power delivery, coupled with a narrow powerband makes it a demanding and engaging machine to ride. You have to RIDE it, not just let it putt-putt around and drag your carcass everywhere. You and the machine must become one to extract everything you can from it. All those things can be off-putting to some people.
What made this legal; normally there's a pretty strict limit on two-stroke engine size for street bikes, right.
I dunno what made it legal. It was sold in 10 other countries except the US, because of our Noise and Emissions Laws. At this point, it's so old, I don't think anyone cares about importation, but at the time, Honda couldn't import and sell it in their biggest market. Engine CCs have little to do with legality in this case. Honda only chose 400cc for the machine instead of the full-size 500cc replicas of Suzuki and Yamaha because of engine-size tax laws in Japan and parts of Europe. Under-400cc are easier to register and get a license for, whereas over-400cc it is VERY difficult and expensive to get a license. This broadened the market for Honda.
