Honda-SOHC

If you have a V in your back yard i wanna see it.
If you have been to Kennedy you will know about the "Oh Shit" face when leaving the control room mockup and the last Apollo lying down at Houston is impressive

That's one place on my bucket list Bryan. I have a mate who has over the years collected the signatures of all the Apollo astronauts. He used to go to the conventions.
I occasionally treat myself to watching the full Apollo 11 launch on YouTube, still a fantastic sight 55 years on👍.

Yes, this is the fancy name for the two perforated metal plates that sandwich the piece of foam inbetween them. They sit in the bottom of the metal air filter housing/battery box and act as a filter for any gases etc before they run down the breather pipe via the plastic chamber located below the air filter housing.
Does anyone have a pair of the plates they would like to sell please? 
The part numbers are 17354-377-000 & 17355-377-000, They are item numbers 27 & 28 in the parts book. I'm happy to pay if anyone has them. They are now unobtainable from Honda, DSS and CSMNL. I have tried Steve at 400Bits but he only has the bare air filter box itself.
I guess these are two of the parts that end up flying over the shoulder of PO's back in the day when they didn't know where they were supposed to go during a rebuild .

This is the problem when you buy a project bike that is 90% complete, the missing 10% are always the parts you struggle to get

Hopefully the Saturn V rocket I'm going to restore next in the back yard is all there although I can already see the 'FIRE' button is missing

Back in the very distant past (2000) I entered my 400/4 into the concours line up at the VJMC show weekend in Kettering.  Before anyone asks, I rode the bike there and back as I had restored it 9 years previously and used it as intended but kept it immaculate. When the judges came round one of them said I had the rear wheel spindle the wrong way round, the nut should be on the right he said. I countered with I put it on the left to make it easier to undo it. My excuse wasn't accepted and I was marked down. No rosette for me just a highly commended sticker (that is still on the bike to this day).
I think the year after the VJMC insisted that any bike entered into the concours event must be started and ridden around the enclosure as there were a lot of rumours that some of the very obscure winning bikes didn't actually have any engine internals!

Here's a scary fact about going cashless;
If you have £50 and pay for every purchase with cash then £50 cash will have the same value in terms of spending power no matter how many cash transactions you make.
If however you have £50 in your bank account and you pay for every purchase from that same £50 using cashless payments after 30 cashless payments the monetary value of the original £50 will be worth £5. Why? Because the bank will add a 1.5% surcharge on every card transaction made and in so doing the bank makes shed loads of money on every cashless transaction made.
It is the banks pushing for a cashless society and not the traders. This is the reason for the cash is king campaign.

I usually go on the VFR but didn't need anything this year so decided to give it a miss and buy a ticket for the Bike Shed Show in May instead. 
I can't remember the last time when I went to Stafford in April (or October) and it didn't rain either on the way there or on the way back!

And they sponsor the Kings Lynn Speedway Team so are motorcycle friendly 👍

The speedo has an F1 dial face rather than an F2 on it that has a km/h scale in green, the trip grommet is crumpled  and the stainless steel gauge mounting plates should be secured with cap nut rather than plan nuts.

I noticed the Speedo face Peter but not the lack of cap nuts. When you work with these all day I guess you notice the small but important missing details. He should have sent the clocks to you for your expert repair👍.

Quote from: Laverda Dave on April 18, 2024, 04:59:20 PM

Peter Horton refurbished the original clocks including converting the rev counter to a suitable 400/4 item from the 250 rev counter that was on the bike. They look fantastic and I asked Peter to put the MPH/KPH face on the speedo for no other reason than I like them :-).

This morning I collected the finished paint set from Tony at Cyclesprays in Horsham, Sussex. He has done a marvelous job considering the tank I took to him! He placed the decals on the tank (decals supplied by Piki (Reddice) on here) and clear coated them with the same on the side panels. I'll decide it I want to put the saving lives sticker above the fuel tank, I don't really like the look of it!

I went to refit the carbs yesterday but thought I'd bench test them first with fuel to check the floats, of course one leaked really badly (No 1). A frustrating three hours spent adjusting the float and re-testing got me nowhere and it looks like I'll have to fit one of the new Keyster float valves to replace the original as the tip looks worn. What is it about 400/4 carbs, they work fine one minute and flood the next!

Next job will be to fit the carbs and handlebars with the switches.

That's so fast Dave,  just sitting on the table in such a yellow way!!

Seriously top job on the paint - local guy to you?

🤣. Luckily the phone camera has a very fast shutter speed Tim and I was able to capture the photo despite the speed of that tank in its full yellow glory🫣.
Cycle Sprays is a 120 mile round trip for me but Tony is really good (it took him just over a week to paint everything once we had decided on the exact paint colour). I've used him a few times before and when I find someone who is good and does what they say they will do I stick with them.
To do the full paint set (two sidepanels, tank and headlight bowl including the prep (I stripped the old paint off the tank)) including applying the decals and clear coat cost £580 which to me is a good price. I could have got it done cheaper elsewhere but there's the old saying 'If you think a professional is expensive wait until you employ an amateur'. Tony is also a biker, he had his Harley V-Rod at his shop yesterday with an amazing paint job as you'd expect!