Honda’s CB400 Four is a pretty bike in stock guise, which means you can really mess it up if you just slap on a few new mods. Even so, there is a lot you can do with the thing, for instance, like this tastefully done up cafe racer-ish example by Stew in the UK. When he purchased it from a neighbour, the CB had racked up around 50,000 miles and was in need of some serious TLC. “It ran OK but had the usual oily crap all over the front of the engine, cam chain rattle and the carbs flooded fuel everywhere when it first fired up.”

“My original plan was to sort the oil and fuel issues, maybe add new rings or a re-bore and do a mild Ace bar / hump back seat ‘n’ rearsets, and maybe a little paint. I made a start on the chassis but the oily motor kept niggling away at me so I took the head off and to my horror saw the part of 2 of the pistons had broken up and made a mess of the head. On further inspection the rings had broken up and wrecked the barrels too. At testament to Honda engineering that it ran at all me thinks!” Finally, Stew fitted a 460cc big bore piston kit and bored out the engine 3mm to take out the scoring.

Stew also got hold of some Superdream wheels, forks and brakes, which he refurbished and re-built. The forks had to be shortened to get the stance right and account for the 19″ front wheel. All the work and the fabrication was done by Stew along with the carbon fibre film and crinkle black paint, with the tank and side panels painted by Stig at Sickboyz Customs.

“It’s a fully functioning weekend rider and definitely not a ‘show-only bike’ although it is a little on the small side for me, it is fun to ride!”

via Bike Shed