#Honda CB400F Vintage Café Racer

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Lightly caffeinated: A CB400F from Mokka Cycles

For a bike that was only on sale in the US for a couple of years, the Honda CB400F had a massive impact. In many ways, it was the first Japanese sportbike: it had six gears, fashionably low bars, a beautiful engine (with a stratospheric 10,000 rpm redline) and fabulous styling.

It’s an attractive machine in stock form, and the best examples in original condition sell for $10,000 or more in the US. This very sharp custom, however, was in a rather sorry state when before it was rebuilt by Mokka Cycles of Hungary.

“The donor bike was sent to me from Wien in Austria,” says shop founder Árpi Bozi. “The project had been started by the previous owner, who lacked time and know-how.

“The current owner decided to give me the job after seeing Mokka bikes on the net. Most of my jobs come in this way, so I’m very dependent on my online presence.”

The CB400F was in ‘quite miserable’ condition, with a mangled, badly cut subframe, deep grind marks all over the main frame, a spray-painted engine and a multitude of what Árpi calls “garage built features.”

“The build plan was to make a neat-looking cafe racer, which like a good pair of jeans, fits most occasions.”

Árpi freely admits that he’s an obsessive detail freak, and it shows on this Honda. “I went full OCD this time,” he jokes. “The proportions are meticulously measured and adjusted, from the custom made seat to the headlight assembly, and using height- adjustable shocks from YSS.”

The stance is spot-on, but the mods are subtle. The brakes and front suspension are totally rebuilt, with new YSS progressive springs inside the chrome tubes. Árpi has also re-laced the 18-inch wheels with new spokes, and powder coated the rims. The tires are Continental Classic Attack vintage-style radials.

There’s a new upper yoke from Cognito Moto, and it’s been black anodized—along with several other custom-machined aluminum parts Árpi designed for the CB.

The magnificent air-cooled, inline four engine was broken down and vapor blasted for a factory original look. Árpi put it back together with new bearings and seals, and hooked it up to a stainless steel 4-into-1 exhaust system with a straight-through muffler from Delkevic in the UK. “It looks and sounds nice, and it was a piece of cake to drop it in,” says Árpi. “I had to make a custom rear bracket though.”

To remedy the dodgy frame, Árpi cut and looped a new rear subframe, added seat holder brackets, and cut of the unused frame tabs. There’s a new seat pan, custom made from steel, with the foam upholstered with a two-tone water- and UV-proof cover.

The café-style seat is also accommodates the stoplight, and the whole caboodle is easily removable via a single thumbscrew.

The rear sets are from Loaded Gun in the US, and installed with Mokka-designed brackets to give relaxed and comfortable riding position with the new clip on bars.

On the electric side, the CB400F is now wired up with a new loom connected to a Motogadget m.unit blue control box, which syncs with an m.lock RFID ignition system and m.switch buttons. Juice comes from a compact lithium battery in a custom-made battery box.

Árpi has finished off the build with a smattering of small custom aluminum parts, such as black anodized front suspension caps and bar end caps, and tiny rear stand supports—so the bike can be conveniently stored or put on display. He’s also used titanium fasteners from Pro-Bolt UK to replace tatty original bolts.

“I truly envy the owner,” says Árpi. “This is the kinda bike I’d use as a daily rider.”

We’d happily ride it too. And it’s even more heartening to see a CB400F saved from the scrapheap.

Mokka Cycles | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Árpi Bozi | Video by Mark & Kali

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Giant Killer: Honda CB400F ‘Raptor’ by Ripple Rock Racers

It’s a long time since we’ve featured what you might call a ‘traditional’ café racer. The term is used very loosely these days—we’re as guilty as anyone—and it’s easy to forget how far we’ve moved on from the classic style.

So this Kandy-Kolored tangerine-flake streamliner is a good reminder of ground zero. It comes from Kemp Archibald of Toronto’s Ripple Rocker Racers, and it’s been gracing the window of the local Town Moto store since March.

The guys at Ripple Rocker Racers make custom parts for café racer builds, but also use their know-how and machinery to build bikes for their customers. Occasionally, they’ll build a bike for themselves.

“I started this one ten years ago,” says co-founder Kemp. “I gathered parts to create an homage to Kaz Yoshima and his CB400F—which roamed the streets and racetracks of southern California back in the mid 70s.”

“The idea of the little guy beating Goliath has always appealed to me. A Honda CB400F that could slay a Kawasaki Z1, like Yoshima’s did…that was my build plan. But customer builds meant it was constantly relegated to the back of the garage till this past winter, when things finally came together.”

The build began with a 1973 CB350F frame, which was reinforced to handle the additional load and forces generated by a bigger engine and more powerful brakes. “We manufactured our own billet triple trees—with our partner Mechetronics Specialty Services—so we could adapt the 35mm forks from a 1980 CB750F,” says Kemp.

The forks were modified using CB550 springs and Race Tech Gold Valves. “We built aluminum caliper plates to adapt the Brembo calipers from a Ducati SportClassic,” Kemp reveals.

The front wheel is a CB750 hub, with Buchanan spokes laced to a D.I.D. shouldered aluminum rim. Adapter plates were machined up, to mount FZ600 rotors to the CB750 front hub.

The rear wheel sports a 1962 Super Hawk twin leading shoe rear brake laced to another D.I.D. rim. The tires are Heidenau’s K45 race pattern.

The engine was sourced from a CB400F, but it’s not the mild-manner inline four that left the factory. The cylinder castings have been bored out to accept CB500 sleeves, and CBR125 high compression pistons give a displacement of almost 500cc and a compression ratio of 12:1.

The intakes have been bored too, and are matched to 26mm Keihin CR Carbs and 1 mm oversize valves and springs from Kibblewhite, plus titanium retainers. A Web Cam 63B hot cam with a Yoshimura HD cam chain and a TT400 slipper guide and adjuster were added.

Kemp then gutted the oil pump and installed rotors from a CB750, machined to fit. This mod doubles the oil pressure delivered to the custom-built Carrillo rods, which are fitted to a lightened and balanced crank. It’s a very trick (but also proven) setup, created with help from the engine gurus at Gord Bush Performance. A Dyna ignition, coils and wires keep the electrics in check.

To leverage the newfound power, Kemp has kept the bodywork as light as possible: he’s used an aluminum road race tank and seat, originally designed for the CB350F by Halcott in England many decades ago.

Connery Custom Paint applied the lovely Candy Apple Tangerine metalflake, with Black Pearl accent stripes. Bespoke Original Design upholstered the ‘bump stop’ seat, and Kemp found the little bullet fairing and fiberglass front fender in his garage stock of goodies.

“We made a custom electronics box and hid the Antigravity battery and Ricks rectifier/regulator under the seat,” he says. “We also went a little crazy with Motogadget parts, and sourced an m.unit Blue and a Chronoclassic 14,000 RPM analog tachometer, now in our custom billet mount.

Kemp has also sunk a RFID ignition lock into the billet top triple, and installed m.blaze turn signal, and an inductive proximity speedo sensor. The Honda’s new wiring system has all circuits on relays and uses waterproof ‘Deutsch’ connecters for the ultimate in reliability.

The brake master is a late model GSX-R750 item plumbed into Russell braided lines, and the tiny chrome headlight is from Bates and fitted with a LED bulb. Mechetronics helped again with custom billet aluminum headlight and fairing mounts.

There’s a vintage ‘ready to race’ vibe about this machine, but Kemp has yet to ride it in anger. “I have run the little beast in the garage, and the sound from the Yoshima pipe is awesome. We expect to see about 65hp at the rear wheel.”

He’s called this Honda ‘The Raptor,’ because “It’s little, fast and aggressive. A predator with a small footprint, designed to destroy much bigger prey on the roads and tracks of southern Ontario. We are absolutely frantic to get the beast out and on the hunt!”

The lockdown is bad news for Kemp, but not so bad for moto fans in the Toronto area. Pop over to Town Moto to get a closer look, because time is running out for classy old school builds like these.

Ripple Rock Racers | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Sid Tangerine