*** Show us your bikes! ***

robin7 said:
HNNNNG. What year is that from? I know very little about bikes being very newly into them... but that is a pretty bike. Looks really retro and cool haha, guessing it's oldish?
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In my sig ;) it's a 2001 Honda CB400 VTEC, a rare wee beasty. They're all grey imports, these were japan/far east market only, but some were imported over here. 4 cylinder, 55ish BHP, 13k red line, VTEC kicks in (yo!) at around 7k rpm.

The Honda CB line all look roughly the same - twin rear shocks, "classic" styling etc - my bike is a mini CB1300 basically :D
 
TallPaul_S said:
In my sig ;) it's a 2001 Honda CB400 VTEC, a rare wee beasty. They're all grey imports, these were japan/far east market only, but some were imported over here. 4 cylinder, 55ish BHP, 13k red line, VTEC kicks in (yo!) at around 7k rpm.

The Honda CB line all look roughly the same - twin rear shocks, "classic" styling etc - my bike is a mini CB1300 basically :D
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Oh wow, actually pretty newish then haha. I thought it looked like something out of the 80's/90's. Really nice bike.
 
Oh and the mirrors will be getting changed soonish, the left one folds in at anything over 75mph so all you see is the road :p and they're ****ing huge!

Probably going for a set of Aprilia Tuono mirrors (OEM ones, not Chinese crap) as they're meant to be pretty good. Would have gone for bar ends but I wouldn't be able to use my muffs with them. Heated grips are another thing I'll be looking at adding, plus a chain oiler, plus an ACF-50 treatment from allyearbiker.
 
TallPaul_S said:
In my sig ;) it's a 2001 Honda CB400 VTEC, a rare wee beasty. They're all grey imports, these were japan/far east market only, but some were imported over here. 4 cylinder, 55ish BHP, 13k red line, VTEC kicks in (yo!) at around 7k rpm.

The Honda CB line all look roughly the same - twin rear shocks, "classic" styling etc - my bike is a mini CB1300 basically :D
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I really fancy one of those for my first big bike. Looks and sounds great but has a sensible amount of power.

I wonder why they weren't sold over here?
 
Pants said:
I really fancy one of those for my first big bike. Looks and sounds great but has a sensible amount of power.

I wonder why they weren't sold over here?
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AFAIK the main reasons were that in Japan bikes over 400cc were prohibited/hard to get a licence for, so the market for <-400cc bikes was huge, but here there was no such restriction so no-one would buy a 400 when a 600 was the same price, and as the Japan only bikes were high spec they would have been as much as a 600 if sold over here. Bikes like the vfr400, cbr400rr, cbr250rr are also Japan only bikes.

They now sell a later version of my bike in Australia, they're still making them 22 years on.

Visordown put it well:

THE ‘GREY’ import scene was massive back in the 1990s – and still rumbles along to this day – meaning that on the used market you can find oddities that were never officially available from UK dealers.

During the 80s and 90s in particular there was a trend for Japanese manufacturers to create bikes solely for their home market, resisting all calls to officially bring them to Britain – usually because if they had the prices would have been too high to attract any sales. Often created with Japanese laws in mind, hence the proliferation of high-spec 400cc machines, the bikes may not have made commercial sense when new but as used buys they were an attractive proposition. Boat loads were brought over, and still are, often purchased unseen by the container-full as a sort of exotic lucky dip for brave dealers.
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You only have to compare the front brake on my bike to the new A2 bikes coming out like the duke & rc390, cbr500r etc. - single disc with a 2 pot caliper on the CBR, on the cb400 it has twin discs with 4 pot callipers, I mean the bike will only do 120mph :D
 
Bought for £3600 today, not a write off or moon rocket miles either :D

K6 GSXR1000

10960483_10153039842882889_5953169332937362265_o.jpg
 
22k from two old git owners :D.

I've owned all sorts of bikes Wazza, from a brand new 1098s in 2008 to my first bike, a 929 Fireblade in 20002 when I passed my test (I rode 500cc 2 stroke motorcross, so I wasn't that intimidated by a litre bike!) to my current classic fox-eye blade. I was offered it instead of the cash for a £1k invoice owed for the labour bill on a cut roof (for an extension on a house I did)

I was looking for a tatty K6 to ride to/from Siverstone, Castle Combe & Rockingham and I didn't expect to get a nice one for 3600. Cat D write-offs are usually that sort of price.

I've got all the docs/paperwork etc, two sets of keys/remotes, the frame and brake master cylinder recalls were done, decent tyres/brakes/chain/sprockets. Even got the genuine pillion pod cover.

The owner let me take it for a spin and was absolutely perfect, surprised how torquey it is for a IL4.

Pic of t'other side:

10915342_10153033947797889_6764225587936202215_o.jpg


Probably the best bike for price/performance/looks I've owned
 
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ahh I couldn't remember what you had before,i need to sell my 04 zx10r you see so need an idea on price

you did well though imo,and yh they have plenty torque,you wont need to change down much
 
Hmmm, got to be around £4k depending on milage/cond etc?? A sought after bike, I was considering one but too brutal for me, bit wild those kawasakis!

I just got very lucky with this one.
 
I bought a CBF500 the other day:
caiASaQ.jpg


2005, 20k miles. It barely fits in the shed and is really awkward to get in because of the angle you have to turn it into, but hey. It came with heated grips, givi screen, givi top box and a hugger (apparently expensive to buy seperately). I can't wait to actually ride it, got my mod 1 booked for next Monday so hopefully in about a month I can get on it!
 
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