400's

[steve-d]

Coming up to 4 years now im getting urge to get back on 2 wheels. I can insure them for a quater of the price of my 2nd car. Save me £500 per year on parking, traffic not a problem. Not to mention fun.
Looking at the usual suspects hornets bandits but I keep being drawn back to 400's but they are all now 25 years old?
How reliable are they likely to be at this age after many owners And presumably drops. I can always fall back on my mr2 turbo if needed but I'd like to ride without fear of constantly breaking down.
if you haven't realised im desperately trying to justify myself and i'll probsbly end up buying one anyway. I need to do llandow again

[badgerKDD]

Well I believe my old B4 is still going strong with its new owner, that's around 20 odd years old and my Gixxer ( though a 750) will be 20 years old in March this year and has just passed it's Mot with no advisories !

Its down to plenty of preventative maintenance though, just keeping an eye on oil levels and dealing with odd noises early rather than ignoring them and waiting until the bike grinds to a halt, then it gets expensive, or worse, its off to the scrappy! Plenty of people enjoy that side of ownership, working on your own bike can make it a more personal connection to the bike, in my mind, but then I know others who prefer to let more experienced or qualified hands take the responsibility of care and repair, but generally buy newer bikes with warranties etc. to cover that.

Horses for courses as they say ;) !

The only other issue with 400's is part availability, the popular models are still usually easily catered for but some more obscure models or Grey Imports may be a bit harder to find. So as with most things these days, do your research before you commit to buy anything ;) !

Good luck and welcome back to the fold ....

[Andy R]

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-moto ... 1049412988" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I still run a nc30. Yes I could do with more power at times, but the handling is fantastic and you have to work at it to make it go fast. There are still plenty about with good spares back up.

This nc29 looks interesting.....

Try http://www.400greybike.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Andy

[billinom8s]

I need to do llandow again

sorry mate, it was sold out before xmas

[Clancy]

My rvf 400 nc35 was a fantastic bike, 20 years old, stopped running once in 3 years worth of ownership, just needed the carbs cleaning. Other than that never gave me an issue or needed anything. Was a lovely bike to ride.

Held its value too, paid £2500 for it, 1 owner with 7k miles on it. Sold it three years later with about 16k on it for the same price, only had it up for sale for 1 day as well

Only downside is 400s are a bit small size wise, so if your a massive bloke might look a bit odd on it

[Funky]

What happened to the Old awesome R6 you had?

[steve-d]

That lovely r6 was sold after a van pulled out on me at a junction on the divvy and paid for a years car insurance which was probably not my best idea.
Along with buying a j1 zxr 750 after not riding anything for 4 years.

[Properphatboy]

Before the Hornet I had an '89 GPz400S. They were only available in Japan, but the 500 is common over here. That was a nice little bike. Very cheap to run and repair, since I put it back on the road after it having swapped hands a few times after being imported but never really used. Only issue again was crap in the carbs, which came from a rusty tank from it not being used. It only had 4700km on it though when I bought it which was a bit of a find!