Honda-SOHC

Hi Folks, just a quick straw-poll.

How many of you put their classic bikes through an MoT even if they are MoT Exempt?

Just curious :-)

Hi All,

I've only put 450 miles on the 400 since the rebuild but it is regularly overflowing the carbs and depositing lots of petrol on the ground if it's been standing for longer than a few days.

First time the overflow stopped after a long run and all was well.
Second time it did not and I had to take off the carbs and give the float valves and bowls a good clean out (some reddish deposits in all of them).
Not ridden it for 10 days and again, most of the petrol is ending up on the floor even after a 60 mile run. I've tried knocking the float bowls with a screwdriver handle but the overflow persists.

Looks like I have to have the carbs off again and was just wondering if this is a known issue with the 400/4 or have I a rogue set of carbs? They all benefitted from a DS carb repair kit during the rebuild. The bike runs well with no noticeable flat spots so I presume they are set up OK and the inside of the tank looks fairly clean.

Any suggestions or advice welcome.

Hi All,

Courtesy of the lock-down and getting truly bored, the Good Lady Wife decided to sort some boxes of old photographs out and lo and behold, turned up some pictures of my 400F the day after I picked it up in September 1995 and installed it at a local indoor kart circuit where I worked and was fortunate to be given storage space.

Flushed with enthusiasm, I stripped it to the last nut and bolt and got the relevant frame bits powder-coated and re-sprayed the tank and panels. DS seat and exhaust system was purchased in readiness for the rebuild to be taken at a careful, leisurely pace.

Unfortunately, the kart circuit lost it's lease due to redevelopment, the bike had to come home and be stored piecemeal all around the house, minus the exhaust silencer which had apparently been 'liberated' from my storage area! Then life, a divorce and second marriage sort of put it all on the back-burner and in a flash, 23 years had passed!

Well, here's one I didn't expect.

Prior to a 250 mile nuts'n'bolts check, I had slackened off the rear brake operating lever as, when the good lady wife was aboard, the rear was binding (I presume from the extra weight compressing the shocks etc). All was fine, put a few more gentle miles on the rebuilt engine and back to my man it went for said torque-checking.

Collected it today (before we come under martial-law and start shooting curfew-breakers) and gave it a few harder miles (which required harder braking) and found that the rear brake pedal had a distinct detent in its travel with a correspondingly exciting extension of stopping distance. Safely home and a closer inspection reveals that the pedal toe guard is catching the collector box and then pushing past it to apply full braking (see photo)

Now, I did not assemble the machine, so my question to all you stars who have is:
If I slacken all the exhaust assembly bolts, will there be enough movement/adjustment available to move the collector box a few mill in-board or do I need to apply brute-force and crank the brake lever out some? I do recall hearing that these systems are a bit fiddly to get lined up.

And yes, I know I have been cheap and powder-coated the levers rather than re-chroming them, but I want use it, not peruse it and I feel it was a contemporary cosmetic solution.