Friday 3 December 2010

The older we get, the faster we were

This is me, c1979. Moved into a flat, started an evening course, needed money. Sold a GS750, bought another Honda 400/4 and realised I was never going to keep up with home-boy mates still on 750s. So every spare penny went into the 400/4, because insuring it cost a third of a 750's premium, and tyres lasted twice as long.


This was its final incarnation. Built in a second floor flat, getting it back down the stairs was challenging...but worth it. 458cc Yoshimura pistons, R/T cam, 4-1 Yoshi pipe, lowered gearing, S+W fork springs, the list went on. Would ride round bigger bikes in corners, just about hang onto their coat tails in a straight line. Seem to remember the brakes were a bit iffy.

The Dixon racing catalogue recommended ignoring Soichiro's 8,500 redline and waiting until 11k+ for max power. Had a hell of an appetite for oil pressure switches, which I could change on the dealers forecourt in 10 minutes.

College done, I got a proper job and was back on a GS750 in no time. But I'd been cured of keeping bikes stock for good.

3 comments:

  1. What's with that big pipe coming up in front of the right hand grip? Some old fairing mount?
    And I spy a nice GS450 behind you. I bought one of those new in 1982 after my KH400 was totaled. Was a really sweet bike, even if it didn't have the engine to keep up with my buddy's GPz 550.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The bike had had a Rickman half fairing, but it was set up for ace bars, so when I substituted clip-ons it had to go. I'd read somewhere that having the instruments and headlight mounted off the forks helped steering, so I left the frame on to support those. And I'd dropped the forks in the yokes - too much reading Racer Road and figuring I was the next Phil or Cook...

    Yup, younger brother's brand new GS450 in the background; I'll try and find and post some pics of him learning to wheelie on it; I think it'd done 40 or 50 miles from new, so we figured it was run-in...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't remember the GS having enough oomph to get that front wheel off the ground. You guys must have thrashed a couple clutches working that exercise!

    ReplyDelete