I figured I should document my new purchase and ensure I dont do anything stupid like pulling it all apart etc... After moving down to the border and taking a bit of time to settle in I finally decided it was time to actually have a bike that was registered and rideable and after much looking around settled on a nice Honda CB400SF (2008 model NC42) with mid 30K mileage... The bike was in pretty good condition... no visible damage. It came with a Remus Muffler, a little wind deflector and Oxford Heated grips. The bonus is the original Owners manual, full toolkit and 2 keys (they are programmed for the Anti-Theft system from Honda) Lucky for me the bike was in Albury and the previous owner delivered it to me... well his wife did as it was her bike. Its a lovely bike and has been well looked after and regularly serviced. It is fuel injected and with 53hp will have plenty on tap for me for quite a while. The downsides... well like all Honda Nighthawk Black paint there was a lot of micro marring which dulled the paintwork. The wind deflector needs a good polish, the exhaust needs a good polish and the rims really need a deep clean. The weather hasnt been wonderful down here and I have only had 1 chance to take her out for a spin around our little estate... It is nice and easy to ride.. the Remus exhaust has a nice note but I am not a big fan of how it looks. The only real downside is there is a vibration between 3500 and 6500 rpm but on reading up this is typical and is down to the Instrument cluster vibrating. It is a relatively simple fix but requires the headlight to come off to get at the binnacle. So... what do I have planned for the bike...... well not a lot really. Ultimately I would like a better rear muffler... The Remus hasnt been fitted up to well.. where the rear transition piece meets up with the muffler it is a steel plate welded to Stainless and it doenst line up well, hence the muffler looking to be on the wrong angle. I have been thinking about a Delkevic but will leave the baffle in if I go that route. I do have a new LED Headlight coming for it... the standard headlight is pretty poor and being an all black bike I want the front light to be nice and bright even in daylight so they can see me. Obviously down the road there will be new tyres etc when required but other than that she just needs a really deep clean and polish. I started on the headers this afternoon... just with some Autosol and steel wool. It will come up nicely, just needs a bit of time and effort. took a few shots this afternoon of the exhaust after I had spent a quick 15 minutes just seeing how much work was needed to bring them up nicely. A lot more than 15 minutes is the answer but they should come up OK with some Scotch bright (closest to the head)... hopefully tomorrow will be warmer than 7 Degrees C... not looking too good though. You can see how dirty the other pipes are compared to the one I spent a few minutes on... to be honest the lower engine cases behind the pipes needs a good scrub as well...
Same trash headlight as the 919. 599 headlight provided much better lighting, but was ultimately a royal PITA to cram the loom into. I went back to the stock 919 bucket/light once I realized I don't really enjoy riding at night. Suffer through it when I get caught out after dark. I'll be curious to see which LED you go with, and how much fun it is to route in the bucket.
This is the headlight I have coming... should be here early next week as it has cleared Customs. I havent removed the standard headlight just yet... waiting until the new one turns up to see how it all fits. I will fix the annoying cluster rattle at the same time. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32825866188.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.6a8f4c4dJhF239
I see that you are a wheeler dealer fan , they are the only other guys I know use the term binnacle nice pick up on the cb400, I had an older 90’s one which was fun to ride , but the newer ones are lovely with fuel injection. Honda don’t put my effort into their smaller capacity bikes anymore , but the cb400 is the exception to that rule
Headlight arrived from my friends Ali Express... seems a good sturdy unit and today I got stuck in and whipped the old one out... sorted the vibration issue in the gauges and then went for a nice little 20 minute ride. The headlight mounted up with identical mounts for the chrome ring...I used their adjustment bracket and also connected up the DRL. Inside the headlight bucket... not too cramped in there. Headlight off Ignition on (Low beam and DRL) High Beam (No DRL) With the gauges... you need to remove the headlight bucket from the mounts and then the mounts from the frame so that you can remove the plastic caps over the rear of the gauges... bummer of a job to change instrument lights etc. Once off and cleaned up it was easy to see what had been vibrating so some high density foam tape and a good clean and back together they went. One side was worse than the other. Out on the ride all the vibration was gone.. just the nice exhaust note to hear now I also added a couple of pics of the exhaust now all polished up... I could do it a lot better if I took it off and spent a full weekend on them... but not for now