Honda-SOHC

I'll go with the the cardboard gasket and Hylomar, usually made them as temporary fit over the years when stuck without a gasket (normally fixing something that somebody brought round with a problem at short notice) but never had one fail. And there's usually a good supply in the kitchen, Cornflakes boxes being my "gasket" material of choice being nicely rolled / compressed to a similar thickness to spec!

Could make one of those cereal ads for it ;- Biker goes to supermarket, selects crunchy nut cornflakes, empties box, pays at checkout then makes a gasket. Ha.

Sounds like your'e getting all the bits you need to complete it though. It's strange getting out on something smaller that you rode in the past as they now seem much slower / smaller than memory suggests.

On all the bike carbs I've seen the needle has 5 grooves and ordinarily comes with the circlip in the center position (2 clear grooves above and below clip).

Adjustment is provided to cope in a small way with variance in local conditions against design spec (altitude, temp, humidity etc) and as we have similar local conditions to Japan then developed spec should be quite accurate for general use assuming engine is in good order.

I'm more familiar with 750's and the general running of engines than the 400-4 specifically, so for costs on that one you'll need help from some of the other forum guys as to parts availability etc.

Hope you can get it to go to give you a good start point though.

XS1100, rode some way back when they were current. Rise and fall on/off throttle like a battleship in a hurricane, heavy, soft, big torque and fun. First thing I rode that really seemed like you're connected to a giant elastic band like a turbo-diesel.

You have to heave it around but they don't actually handle too badly, saw some old films of Aussie production racing with these things on road tyres and they were really smoking them around with massive tyre wear so they obviuosly have reasonable handling balance.

Spose they're like a great big comfy / fast armchair if that's what you want.

I've no really current experience of new tyre choice on this bike but many I see have Avon so ideally you'd need some response from some of the others. Use Continental tyres on different bikes and like them, always seem to be accurately made and have not had a bad one yet. Using 750's in the 70's and 80's they always were more neutral steering with things like TT100, Pirelli Phantom as the rounder profile give a much more even / linear progression as you leant over especially more subtle is you start the move away from upright.

That brake point you make is interesting, you can squeeze the standard master-cylinder till your eyes bulge and still not lock it but given a more advantaged ratio at that end they seem to perform quite well at the wheel end so worth thinking about a cunning solution. Think the pads will be less critical in normal running if you could give more squeeze anyway, you'd just have to find out about repeated high temp performance if used at that level.

I feel you can achieve a lot of things if you are positively determined about it, and there is some good advice from people on here that have experience very relevant to you so it's a valid way to find out what you need to know.

I guess money is one of the greatest variables in how different projects are viewed by their owners so some qualified answers from them will allow you more of an insight as to what you are taking on.

So for me a reasonable start point would be to find something that runs and is MOT-eable to give you a base line cost that you could make a proceed or abort decision on, anything above that is more open to the question of how good it can be but having something you can ride in  a reasonable time is a big part of the enjoyment.

Just take the open helpful answers as you need.

Mostly all heat range 8 for NGK plugs on Hondas of this era that I've worked with as it covers most things you use it for.

Very few times but 7s for concentrated low ambient temp running and maybe short journeys as it allows you to get off choke sooner and still run cleanly.

And 9s for concentrated high speed / high temp running to prevent the plug tip from going overtemp and possibly causing pinking.

As far as I'm aware the standard finish for all pre F2 750 SOHC was painted/enamelled cases, barrels, head, oil fiter castings with all outer castings, rocker, alternator, gear, clutch, sprocket being light polish/brushed and laquered ali. stops that furry look you get on raw clean ali castings.