Honda
CB400N Road Test
Courtesey
of Motorcycle Illustrated - December 1978
    
Funny places
race tracks. Real eye-openers, too, especially
for people like you and I who get to ride on
them so infrequently, if at all Faults that
might never show up on the road can manifest
themselves very quickly on the track, simply
because you can ride a bike so much closer to
its limit away from normal road hazards. Some
excellent road machines become a real shambles
on a racing circuit.
My first ride
of any consequence on the Honda CB400T was on
the Nogaro Grand Prix circuit in south¬west
France last December, at the European launch
of the CX500 The little twin and the CB550 F2
were provided as yardsticks by which the merits
of the new V-twin could be assessed. The 550
four had always impressed me on public roads,
but at Nogaro it felt both slow and awkward.
The CX500, of
course, was truly superb and has gone on to
win widespread acclaim from Press and public
alike. But the overall excellence of the CB400T
on that wet and twisty track came as a biq surprise
to me. The bike looked stodgy, but it proved
to be fast punchy, stable, and smooth, with
good suspension, excellent roadholding, and
powerful brakes. It could be thrown around with
gay abandon and ridden right to the limit without
any problems. A certain tester from a rival
magazine, not noted for a lack of riding ability,
even managed to run away from some of the new
V-twins aboard the 400 The popular 400 four,
it seemed, had found a worthy successor.
Given that the
original package was so right, it seemed that
when Honda introduced the CB400N Super Dream
in the spring of 1978 nobody could fail to be
impressed The stocky, stubby look had been replaced
by new styling specially for the European market;
the saddle was a tad lower; twin discs like
those fitted to the CX500 now graced the front
end; and a whole host of internal changes were
said to have further improved reliability and
boost power.
The motorcycle
Press liked the new styling, the dealers fell
over one another to place orders for both the
250 and 400cc variants, and the only murmur
of discontent came from those riders who had
just bought a new 400T which would now be obsolete,
despite having been launched only nine months
earlier And, almost inevitably, the new model
cost £80 more than the twin it replaced.
What does the extra cash buy you assuming that
the Dream would have held its £869 price
tag until now? The most obvious difference is
the new styling, which certainly loses the bulky
appearance of the first model and adds a touch
of the 'hungry greyhound' appeal of the CBX
This is achieved by waisting the fuel tank where
it meets the dualseat, and • ending the
tank into the snap-on plastic sidepanels, which
in turn merge with the matching seat base and
tailpiece. This clever design work gives the
tank and seat combination an integrated look
that is far removed from the bulbous lines of
the Dream.
The slimmer, racier appearance is reinforced
by the rakish tilt of the seat unit towards
the rear, accentuated by pmstriping. The whole
ensemble is set off by some very striking paintwork
in silver, red, or a rather ..garish blue, with
the Honda emblem emblazoned in large white letters
on a broad blue stripe that deepens its shade
as it moves from the front of the tank to the
rear. It is certainly a machine that stands
out in a crowd' m fact, when I first saw the
silver-version it struck me as one of the most
beautiful middleweights ever to grace British
roads. The blue paint scheme on our test machine
tended to detract, in my opinion, from the machine's
inherent good looks.
Additional .styling alterations give the new
twin a narrower but deeper seat, a new integrated
instrument pod, a CBX-style filler cap to replace
the awful flap tacked onto the older model,
new switehgear, rear-set footrests, and a double-disc
front brake. The indicators are now rectangular
and their stems covered by soft plastic shrouds.
The engine and its ancillaries have also come
in for their fair share of attention, with some
50 modifications claimed by the factory. Honda
has altered the valve timing, modified the carburettor
settings to give better breathing, and slotted
in a six-speed gearbox in place of the five
ratios employed in the Dream. Longer silencers
are said to reduce noise slightly and produce
better top-end power, and the points are replaced
by electronic ignition for a more reliable spark
and virtually no maintenance.
The basic engine formula remains unaltered,
with a very over-square twin-cylinder motor
relying on chain-driven counterweights to balance
out most of the vibration inherent in a four-stroke
twin. Honda's three-valve-per-cylinder layout,
pioneered on the Civic car engine, is still
retained, and the engine breathes through two
32mm Keihin constant vacuum carburettors to
give a claimed 43bhp at 9,500rpm and 24.5ft-lb
of torque 1,500rpm lower down the scale. Straight-cut
gears transmit the power through a 14-plate
clutch running in engine oil.
But why take a tried and tested popular design
and revamp it so extensively only nine months
after its introduction? Well, marketing obviously
had a lot to do with it. After all, it is widely
believed that the main reason for producing
marvels like the CBX is to encourage people
to go out and buy the affordable bikes in the
range — like the 400. It helps if the
400 looks even faintly similar to the flagship,
and the Super Dream fills this criterion more
closely than the old Dream, fine motorcycle
though it was.
Comfort
Nevertheless, there are more tangible benefits.
Take the riding position. It suited me fine
on the Dream, but the 400N has been tailored
more than ever before to suit European tastes.
The handlebars are 1.8in lower than before,
seat height is down to 31.Sin from 32in, and
the footrests are almost four inches further
rearward. This all adds up to a really comfortable
riding position that encourages effortless cruising
or bend-swinging. I asked one Dream owner to
try the Super Dream and his immediate reaction
was to praise the new layout.
What you gain in limb comfort you lose through
the seat of your pants, since the broad saddle
on the Dream was far more comfortable for long
journeys than the deeper but narrower perch
on the 400N. It rates as one of the least comfortable
seats I've sat upon this year, and after fairly
short journeys of only 50 miles or so I was
happy to stretch my legs and massage my tender
backside.
Comfort was not enhanced either by vibration
on the test model. The rider felt it most through
the handlebars and footrests, and it was at
its worst at 70mph. After only 30 miles on one
trip at that speed I stopped to find my fingers
and toes numb from the high-frequency shakes.
Now this I have to put down to a problem with
our particular test machine, because I recall
no such complaint with either the 250T or 400T,
and it is inconceivable that Honda has modified
the bike sufficiently to make it vibrate. Rather,
I would imagine that chain tension on the balancer
drive was neglected at the previous service.
The passenger had no such problems; the pillion
position was most comfortable, and vibration
conspicuous only by its absence. Our test bike
was obviously a rogue in other ways as well.
Nobody can convince me that Hondas leak oil,
but ours had a weep from the cylinder head/barrel
joint that became progressively worse as the
test continued. It was more likely to be a faulty
seal at an oil well than a leaking head gasket.
Either way, it is a very odd occurrence on any
Honda and must not be regarded as typical of
the breed.
Handling
If the riding position encouraged bend-swinging,
the handling and braking virtually forced the
rider to seek out twisty roads. That is not
to say the Super Dream did not like straight
roads; it behaved impeccably on them, being
extremely stable for a machine with such a comparatively
short wheelbase at 54.7 in. But its tyres, suspension,
and general roadhoiding have been developed
to such a high degree that to ride the main
highways was to learn only half the story. Show
the 400 a twisty road and it comes into its
own.
Its handling is probably unsurpassed in the
400cc class, even by the two-stroke Yamaha.
The original Dream could be hustled through
bends with amazing elan as we proved at Nogaro,
but the new model features detail improvements
to the suspension and running gear while retaining
the same single down-tube frame that uses the
engine as a load-bearing member.
The 400N has slightly altered and uprated
front suspension with improved damping and slightly
more movement at 5y2in. The damper rod of the
FVQ rear shock absorbers has had its diameter
increased from 9mm to 10mm, and that is the
sort of small but obviously significant change
that typifies the Japanese approach to engineering.
The rear shocks have dual-phase damping with
varying loads. Spring pre-load is five-way adjustable,
and I found the best results came with the fourth
position.
To make the suspension more responsive to
road irregularities the unsprung weight has
been reduced by changing to all-alloy construction
for the Comstar wheels — again a la CBX.
How much of this advantage is lost by fitting
a second disc and caliper at the front end is
hard to say, but the net result is superb. Ground
clearance presents no problems on public roads;
in fact, a previous tester had worn away so
much of the right-hand footrest that I was unable
to ground it no matter how hard I tried. And
the Yokohama tyres take advantage of the generous
clearance by providing first-class grip at all
angles of lean on wet roads or dry. The 3.60
S19 front and 4.10 S18 rear covers have an abundance
of tread climbing up the sidewalls, providing
all the traction a hard rider needs in any circumstances.
Being lighter than some other 400s at a claimed
377lb dry, the Super Dream can be flung into
bends with great ease. Laid right over for a
fast corner, you see a badly filled trench running
right across your line where the council workmen
have left a 2in deficit to be made by the bike's
suspension. The Honda sweeps over it without
any attempt to move off line, and the rear suspension
barely transmits any feeling of the hazard to
the rider. In the same way, the bike sails over
bumps without any bucking, nodding, or weaving.
The whole machine seems finely balanced, and
even the handlebars fail to twitch as the bike
copes with the worst excesses of our road menders.
Flicking from side to side through a series
of bends is no problem due to the low weight
and the bike's agility, and one of life's pleasures
is picking the Honda up from a left-hand bend,
leaning hard into a right-hander and changing
up through the gearbox. The engine is strong
enough to pull a high gear through most bends,
but the top three ratios in the six-speeder
are close enough to make their efficient use
a source of real satisfaction. The gearbox itself
is smooth and the ratios fast and easy to select,
with no risk of missing a change, but because
of the relatively modest power output of the
engine you need to avail yourself of the 'box'
to get the best out of the machine.
Braking is superb at the front and pretty
awful at the rear. The twin front discs have
their calipers behind the fork legs in the current
fashion, and the pads are similar to those fitted
to the CX500. One finger is all that is needed
to produce tyre-howling stops, although using
four fingers gives more sensitive control. But
the rear drum, although rod-operated, offered
no feel whatsoever on the test bike. Great pressure
was needed to achieve any retardation from the
back brake, and there was no telling at what
point the wheel would lock up — which
it would do, often unexpectedly. The front discs
deserve to be backed up by an efficient rear
drum. Wet braking caused no bothers.
Problems
The Honda's 395cc short-stroke engine feels
immensely strong and robust, and the test machine
would whistle up to 80 or 85mph at any time
and hold that speed indefinitely. Unfortunately,
our particular machine suffered one other sad
fault: it would not pull more than 7,500rpm
in sixth gear, even though maximum power is
produced at 9,500rpm and the redline begins
at 10,000rpm. Every time I tried to sneak above
this figure the motor would die instantly on
both pots, just as effectively as if I had turned
off the ignition or run completely out of fuel.
Trying to exceed 7,500rpm through the gears
usually produced the same effect, or occasionally
would just cause a bad misfire on both cylinders.
The most obvious cause was spark plugs breaking
down at high revs, but it seemed unlikely that
both would do so at the same time. Since the
otherwise comprehensive toolkit failed to yield
a plug spanner I was unable to investigate further.
Another possibility is that the electronic ignition
system was faulty, but this is unlikely because
it performed so well at all other engine speeds.
Or perhaps some strange carburettor malady was
to blame. In any event it put paid to any attempt
to find out the true top speed. Honda claims
108 mph, and from the general feel of the motor
at 7,500rpm I believe that a rider trying hard
might achieve about 105mph.
Fuel consumption was remarkably consistent
at 53mpg and a best of 59mpg. About 65 or 70mpg
should be well within reach for the rider who
does not ride everywhere at 75mph. The 3.1 gallon
fuel tank, which incorporates a 0.77 gallon
reserve, should take you 135 miles before it
is time to start looking around for a petrol
station. This sort of fuel consumption is* highly
creditable considering very little of my mileage
was undertaken in 'town.^or at low speeds.
Practicalities
One of the boons of bikes like the Super Dream
is that they make ideal commuting transport
while still retaining the ability to take in
a Continental tour or rally without fuss. In
town traffic the Honda has light and quick steering,
a feather-like clutch action, great braking,
and a docile disposition. Yet it has all the
urge it needs to stay ahead of most traffic,
excluding riders of larger motorcycles. Neutral
is easy to find at a standstill, although six
gears seems a real overkill when you have to
change down five times approaching a red traffic
light. My ankle never became quite convinced
that so much frenzied activity should be necessary.
The switchgear is similar to that fitted to
the CX500 and it all works very well, except
that the indicator switch is easy to overcancel.
Roll on self-cancelling indicators, although
it is understood that Honda engineers have yet
to be satisfied with any of the methods they
have tried so far. Lighting and instrumentation
is as good as you would expect. The 400 has
now sprung a quartz halogen headlight with 60/55W
beams which should take care of the darkest
roads, but our test bike for some reason was
fitted with an ordinary light that was of very
little use.
Quality of finish is unlikely to cause owners
any problems, except in two areas. Our bike,
although only 1500 miles old on collection,
had heavy rusting inside the ends of the attractive
tapered silencers. And while rust had yet to
attack the under-belly balance pipe between
the two exhausts, most older Hondas that have
faced a salty winter have rusted up badly in
that spot. I believe some dealers offer rust-proofing
on that large balance pod free of charge —
it's worth asking. Otherwise the paint, chrome,
and alloy look very durable. Plastic is used
for the rear mudguard, chainguard, and sidepanels.
The dualseat is retained by two catches and
secured by a loop around the helmet lock. Once
these are released the seat lifts right off
the machine, revealing the toolkit, access to
the air filter, and a small plastic box under
the tailpiece that holds the owner's manual
and very little else. The major electrical components
and the battery live behind the sidepanels.
The air filter is a washable polyurethane foam
type, which should cut servicing costs. Being
a single overhead cam engine, tappet adjustment
should present few problems (the whole rocker
box comes away with two bolts), while the electronic
ignition removes yet another chore. That leaves
just changing the oil and balancing the carbs
as regular service items, and the oil drain
plug is readily accessible. The test bike used
a negligible amount of oil during the 800-mile
evaluation.
The upswept silencers emit a pleasant burble
that sounds good without being offensive, and
the silencers themselves are well clear of the
wheel spindle for speedy rear wheel removal.
I had a sudden and unexpected puncture while
overtaking a car in Knightsbridge the evening
I was taking the 400 back to Chiswick, but thanks
to the prompt arrival of help in the form of
a Honda van I didn't have to actually change
the wheel. It shouldn't present any problems,
though.
Mechanical noise on the twin is very low,
and generally it has all the appearances of
being very easy to live with. One annoying trait
that seems characteristic of these models is
a high degree of drive-train lash which is compounded
by the sudden on/off action of the CV carbs.
The mirrors give a reasonable view of following
traffic, even if the vibration did continually
upset the images and occasionally knock the
offside mirror out of adjustment. Again, that
sort of problem should not occur on other The
latest 400cc twin from Honda at £949 offers
a stylish package that is equally suited to
commuting or touring,.with the added dimension
of first-class handling to separate it from
the crowd. If that sort of combination is the
result of Honda's efforts to please the European
market, it bodes well for other new models to
follow. The Super Dream has sufficient merit
to warrant its introduction as a new model,
and if Honda can leave it be for a few months
it must be one of the great all-rounders of
1979.
Engine
- Type: Aircooled parallel twin-cylinder
four-stroke with single overhead camshaft,
chain-driven from 360° one piece forged
crankshaft running on three plain bearings.
Chain-driven balancers are included to reduce
vibration. Each pentroof combustion chamber
features two inlet and one exhaust valve.
Threaded tappet adjusters.
- Capacity: 395cc
- Bore and stroke: 70.5 x 50.6mm
- Compression ratio: 9.3:1
- Carburation: Two 32mm Keihin constant vacuum
units, with choke mounted on handlebar. Oiled
polyurethene filter.
- Lubrication: Wet sump containing 5.2 pints.
Trochoid pump.
- Electrics: 12V 12Ah battery charged by
170 watt alternator, with "pointless"
electronic ignition.
- Claimed power: 43bhp at 9,500rpm; 24.5ft-lb
of torque at 8,000rpm.
Transmission
Primary: Straight-cut gears.
Clutch: Wet multi-plate.
Gears: Six-speed, selected by one down,
five up left-side foot lever. Overall ratios
of
19.2, 13.7, 10.9, 9.0, 7.6 and top 6.5:1
Final drive: Exposed unlubricated 5/8 x 3/8
chain.
Frame
Single down-tube tubular steel "diamond-type"
frame, with engine as a load-bearing member.
Suspension
Front: Oil-damped telescopic fork giving 5
'/2 in of movement.
Rear: Pivotted arm fork controlled by FVQ variable
damping shock absorbers with five-way pre-load
adjustment.
Wheels
Front: All-alloy pressed-spoke Comstar wheel
carrying 3.60 x 19 Yokohama tyre. Twin 9 V4
in diameter disc brakes with rear-mounted floating
calipers.
Rear: All-alloy to pressed spoke Comstar wheel
carrying 4.10 x 18 Yokohama tyre. Single, 6in
diameter leading-shoe rod-operated drum brake.
Instruments
Matched speedometer and tachometer with warning
lights for main beam, neutral, oil and indicators.
Equipment
3.1 gallon (14 litre) steel petrol tank incorporat¬ing
0.77 gallon (3.5 litre) reserve; toolkit; helmet
lock; twin mirrors; lockable and detachable
dualseat; 60/55W quartz halogen headlight; odometer
and tripmeter; centre and prop stands; turn
signals; small storage space under seat.
Dimensions
Weight claimed dry: 377lb (170kg) Wheelbase:
54.7in (1389mm)
Performance
Top speed: 108mph (estimated — see text)
Speedometer accuracy: Indicated 60mph equals
an actual 62.8mph Fuel quality: Two star used
for test Fuel consumption: 53mpg average; best
59mpg; worst 50mpg
- Colour: Red, Blue or Silver
- Price: £949 inc. VAT. Delivery charge
additional £11.50
- Warranty: 12 months parts and labour
CB400N Spare Parts;
- Exhaust valve £ 7.52
- Inlet valve £ 3.47
- Piston £ 9.33
- Ring set £ 5.37
- Con-rod £16.76
- Exhaust pipe £18.66
- Silencer only £38.14
- Speedo cable £ 2.76
- GDI unit £62.32
- Brake pads £7.57
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