Honda-SOHC
SOHC.co.uk Forums => CB350/400 => Topic started by: Otis on February 19, 2026, 08:15:46 PM
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Having recently been to the 50th anniversary of the 400/four I have to say it is a bit special and desirable.
However, as a 350 four owner and a hater of 4 into 1 exhausts I am curious to know why the 400/four has such a cult status? In my view it looks nothing against a 4 piper but I am only able to comment from an aesthetic point of view. Pray tell; what is the attraction for these bikes?
Cheers
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From my point of view
Bought one in 78 new nostalgia I suppose
Great little bike
Nice and light to handle
750 was getting to heavy my age related issue
Good honda engineering
No modern technology or sensors
Fun in sourcing the parts and resurrecting what soon would be lost
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Wow, you have certainly had some experience and I bow to that but its the aesthetics that gets me or am i blind to what I see?
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IMO it is one of the prettiest bikes ever made and that 4-1 exhaust is a major reason! Back in the day most folks with 4cyl bikes ditched 4-4 exhausts to install a 4-1. Honda did it for us and made a classy looking one as well.
It's a great little bike that deserves to be ridden regularly. I ride the heck out of mine, winding it up to redline as often as possible through whatever gears traffic allows! Of the bikes I own, it is probably the most FUN to ride. Though I admit my '21 Moto Guzzi V7 Special comes close! Opposites, of course!!
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Bottom line is it what we got here so that’s the attraction, my own favourite is the 350/4, I wish I had not got rid of mine.
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The styling says it all, it was designed for European tastes with a cafe racer look, low handlebars and great handling (for its day).
I remember a road tester at the time saying the front header pipes have more curves than a page 3 girl (of course he wouldn't dare say that today)!
They make a fantastic noise when wound up as well.
I owned my first one in 1980. I've owned 5 of them and restored three of them from the ground up.
Get a yellow one and see what all the fuss was/is about 😀.
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I guess that over the years it's been a combination of fashion, finance, tied in with a strong sense of reminiscing. I bought my 1st 750 in 1972, they were still a bit of a show-stopper then, and we were still revelling in the recent memories of those wonderful 4-pipe racers. The 750 cost me about £690, and due to my stupidity of lots of short runs, the exhausts failed just outside the warranty period. A new set was £100, no way! Dave Degens/Dresda had just produced probably one of the first 4 into 1 systems for a lot less money, so, a quick trip to sahf London in my mate's mini van, and the deal was done. The whole system was quite neat, and you could see all the way through the silencer (?). Up to 4000rpm sounded a bit like an MGB, beyond that - WOW!! Grand Prix starts under Romford railway bridge were the order of the day. Replacement model in 1975 was purchased, and this one was looked after much better and kept original. At this time, a colleague at work had just bought a new 400, and he let me take it out for 1/2 hour. Very neat, compact, and nimble. I was impressed, plus Honda had done a magnificent job with the exhaust system, unlike some of the replacement systems which were to follow, which had the front pipes running all over the place. So yes, we are a funny lot, when we had 4 pipes we all wanted 4 into one. When we were given this, I have seen some examples where people have fitted 4 into 4 systems. Ah, the joys of motorcycling.
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You could always go for a 6 into 6 to be really cool 😎
https://youtu.be/UH4ZIsWy4SE?si=WKkvyf3a-JO25rNk
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Being a student in my early moped/motorcycling days (Circa 1964) I never bought a new bike ever, that did not stop me looking in the windows of local bike dealers or drooling over them in the college bike sheds.
One of my early recollections was how bulbous the silencers were on some Japanes bikes, I saw the 4 into 4 systems as old fashioned. The 4 into 1 whilst visually not symetrical sounded great.
When I started my 500 restoration I had no intention of fitting a 4 into 4 system, not just cost but what I disliked in 1964/5 I still disliked. Towards the end of my 500 project I had done a U turn - I wanted that 4 into 4 bulbous look.
The launch cost of the 500 4 into 4 Delkevic system made me see the light. 8) 8) 8)
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Some great anecdotes and thought provoking memories, thank you all.
Kawasaki launched their new Z900 with 4 into 1 but gave the option of 4 pipes at I believe an extra £2K. I have seen one in the shop and it is absolutely fantastic with the 4 pipes. I did a double take because I thought I was looking at a 1970's Z900.
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"Get a yellow one and see what all the fuss was/is about."
I have '76 Red but I must admit that I could see myself adding a Yellow AND a Blue!! But I don't have any REAL use for three of the same motorcycles... ;)
"You could always go for a 6 into 6 to be really cool"
Funny - a few years ago we were at the Isle of Man for the races and there was a guy with cafe-ed 6cyl red Benelli. Gorgeous bike. Every time he rode up to any of the various viewing areas, people quit watching the racers fly by and went over to look at/listen to that Benelli. I really wanted a Honda CBX back in the day but they were too expensive for me. Now I could actually buy one but they have become too heavy! Not sure how they gained weight over the years... ;)
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Not sure how they gained weight over the years... ;)
That made me laugh because I thought the self same thing. In 1982 when I was at South Bank Poly my mate and I used to nip up to Mocheck motors in Clapham in our lunch hour and "test ride" the CBXC (mono shock). I had a 1981 CB750FB and my mate had a GX1000. We used to thrash the thing all over London and had a lot of fun. Both being in our twenties the weight of those bikes was nothing. Moving on 40 years the weight has become a significant factor and I know this. It's not that the bikes got heavier; we just got older and less strong. Since returning after 40 years my 350 felt like I remembered my 750 was but last September I bought a Ducati ST2 and it frightens me every time I take it off the stand. I just know that if it went over I could not hold it these days.
The more I have read the comments and reflected on the memories it is not so much the number of pipes that I find aesthetically challenging with 4 into 1 but simply the balanced look of the bike. Let's face it, even the car manufacturers are putting twin fake exhausts on electric cars to give them that balanced and sporty look.
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I love my 4-1, it really barks. Really enjoying riding to work on Fridays, 40 mile round trip on country B roads.
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What's not to like :)
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That Waterfall 4-1 exhaust, the first as standard on a Japanese four (?)may have been part of it's appeal, it is the mark of the 400/4. More curves than a leopard! ;D Caused by the old fashioned oil filter that was still external and needed lots of bending of the pipes to clear. Oil filters thereafter started being tucked away inside engines and the waterfall effect never spread elsewhere ( unless I'm to be corrected ) I think the high cost of production had the model killed off after only a few years in favour of much cheaper twins that got rid of many of the classic features of a 400/4.
Where did you go for the 50th anniversary? I went to the Ace café, the picture here is the only one I can find post computer crash, but I met Laverda Dave there too.
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Where did you go for the 50th anniversary? I went to the Ace café, the picture here is the only one I can find post computer crash, but I met Laverda Dave there too.
I went to the Auto Union event at the South of England Showground in Ardingley West Sussex. I took dozens of photos and cannot seem to find a single one. I will find them eventually.
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Just another niggle that I would like some thoughts on.
There is a guy who has a crate built 350 twin. It has never ever been used and the 1 mile it shows on the clock is where he has wheeled it from his trailer to the stand. It is obviously in perfect and factory condition but he transports the bike from show to show all over the country picking up prizes and trophies.
For me that is a completely dishonest bike and should be disqualified at every event but the powers that be seem to happily give him accolades and rosettes week after week; year after year.
What do the level heads on this forum think?
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Back in the 1980s I went to a Classic Car Show at Knebworth Park.
A young lad had a 998 cc Mini Cooper on display, trailered in, it had a front wheel removed so you could see the as new front suspension & brakes. Under the bonnet it was as if it had rolled off the production line that day complete with a Bluecol paper label tied to the radiator.
I chatted to him for a while as I had owned a similar model a decade earlier. It transpired that he had never driven it on the road. The brakes did not work efficiently as he used WD40 on the discs to stop any surface rust.
It was great to see such an original vehicle, afterwards probably envy on my part I thought it was a rich man's toy,
There ought to be a separate class for these Show Ponies that are never used on the road.
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I owned a Triumph Stag many years ago........I hovered around the Stag Owners Club for a while before I eventually joined. The first meeting I attended was at Tatton Park where they were handing out prizes for this, that and the other.
One car took my eye as it had been the subject of a really nice rebuild.......by the Owner not a Specialist Garage. He'd done a really nice job of it and managed to keep it as original as he could make it, but it got marks deducted as he'd applied Underseal.
Considering the time and effort he'd spent on it, and his foresight to keep it protected for far longer that the Triumph Factory ever did, it just struck me that the Judges suffered from 'Elbow and arse disease' and that was the last time I went to any Stag Owners Club meetings.
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Going back to the original question, for me it's a case of what mid range bike I can reach the floor on and feel safe pushing it backwards while sat on it. Had mine since about 1980 and no plans to part with it any time soon. Back then the alternatives were. 2 strokes that drank fuel and nipped up just for fun. Lost count of the number of times I help my mate un seizing his KH250 by torch light just so he could limp home on a Friday. We were college students in lodgings Sun- Thur.
Also spares are still reasonably easily found when needed, though I do have to admit to being a hoarder back in the late 80s when DSS was starting up and other dealers were selling off NOS parts for peanuts.
If I were looking for a stable mate for the 400f now I would probably be on the lookout for a late model KH400 or a GT380/550 just to be able to smell the two stroke presence again. Second only to Castrol R.
Dave
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I don't care at all for the "concours" thing. I was at a Ferrari concours once and a regularly driven 308 GTS was docked points because the screws holding the fuel filler tube to the body, totally hidden unless you are fueling, were stainless instead of original type screws. I agree that it is interesting and useful to see a vehicle "just as it left the factory," but they should never be judged in the same category as one that is actually driven. It seems ludicrous to do so.