Rick Oliver's 400/4

[Laverda Dave]

Whilst I was ordering parts for the NC30 the other day from the guru of NC30’s, Rick Oliver he mentioned about his old 400/4 and how he made it into a 460cc Cafe Racer. He sent some photos over and gave me permission to post them on here.
His bike went through a number of iterations over the years and in its final form it was fitted with reverse comstars, a Mead Speed fuel tank, CB250RS front mudguard, a Yoshi 460 kit and exhaust and a home made seat. I'm not sure about the rear sets but a very nice bike. He doesn't have it now which is a shame.

[Bryanj]

That name rings a bell for something

[K2-K6]

Interesting bike, I like the 1st iteration best.

Always like the star shaped cast wheels, looks like Pirelli Phantom front tyre, with possibly rear Avon Road runner.

Dresda swingarm and S&W shocks too, missing from later images, with longer std type swingarm and top shock mounts moved.

I think the 400 bored to near 500 must make for a cracking little engine, significant in its small size, but near 500 for torque. Suppose that ideally they'd need much bigger valves and ports to realy get them going wild.

[Sesman]

Bell ringer alert…. https://www.rickoliver.co.uk/

[Laverda Dave]

That's him👍

[RickNC30]

Those are actually two different bikes -

Number one bike (black frame) was built around 1977 as a project to keep me sane while serving a six month driving ban incurred due to an excess of youthful exuberance on my Kawasaki S3 400 triple.

It was an original `footrests on the swingarm` model bought cheaply from a local dealership as a non runner - a good investment as it only took me around 30 minutes to find and fix the short in the wiring loom!

The engine had a Yoshi 460 piston kit and race cam, head ported by John Milligan (he`s long gone now, does anyone on here remember the eccentric Manxman who used to run the BFRC...?), Piper exhaust and Lucas RITA ignition, the alloy tank was by Mead Speed, seat home made by grafting a lump of chemical foam onto a stock seat pan, carving it to a shape based roughly on 7R/G50 lines, skinning with GRP and upholstering, I can`t remember now who made the ugly rearset kit.

In its final version it had twin front discs with lugs welded on the right fork leg to take another set of stock brake parts.

Well spotted that man on the Dresda swingarm and S&W shocks, those star shaped wheels were Japanese Daytona brand - if you fancy a pair you can now buy them again as production has recently been restarted in conjunction with Webike Japan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their introduction in 1972...



I sold that one in 1979 when I bought my first brand new bike, a bright red Kawasaki Z500, but hung on to the tank and seat for future reference.

Number two bike was built around 1982, similar engine spec but without the race cam, Lumenition instead of RITA and the Yoshi `spaghetti` exhaust system.

The chassis was a triumph of what Cook Neilson and Kevin Cameron used to call `parts bin engineering` - the front forks and reverse Comstar rear wheel were CB400N, discs and calipers from a CX500, front wheel was CM250T (18" instead of the Superdream`s 19"), the front mudguard came off a CB250RS and it all bolted together without a single modification or custom spacer.

The lay down rear shocks were just a way of getting more suppleness and rear wheel travel and followed the then current trend on pre-monoshock GP bikes. The half fairing was a Norvil Commando replica if I remember rightly.

I`m beyond the `three score and ten` mark now but still haven`t cured myself of these Cafe Racer tendencies - this is the NC30 that I`m currently working on...



Rick

[Laverda Dave]

Welcome to the forum Rick, glad you joined us to share 400/4 info 👍

[K2-K6]

Welcome, and good to hear more about them.

Interesting how modifications come about, seeing someone else's approach to bikes etc. And good to see you can't still leave it alone 

I've had a Piper tuning manual for years, their approach to exhaust design ive found invaluable. Have scratch built many systems over the years, bike and car, to very effective exhaust from their thorough explanation.

[magpie114]

Welcome to the forum Rick, good to see you here.
Alan

[RickNC30]

I found some pictures of the initial build of bike No. 1, before I went full cafe racer with the styling - with hindsight I almost like this version better...







Can anybody remember who made those rear footrest brackets...? I seem to think they were something Italian, maybe Tarozzi...?

[ka-ja]

reminds me of my y0shimura's 1st incarnation as in FEb 1987 Performance Bike magazine.
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and the original photo (no one likes that seat?)

[Laverda Dave]

Are they open Amal MK2 carbs on your bike Ka-Ja? They must have taken some setting up?

[ka-ja]

A bit of patience and follow the Amal tuning advice, also, Amal were very helpful with technical suggestions, but they did have st/steel tea strainers on for a while. Now on a new incarnation with spoked comstars.