1979 Honda CB400T II Hawk Scrambler: Woodward Designs

silverstonepgt

The Beerfish
The bike as it sits now, with a new black headlight bucket with mesh guard, new black superbike bars, oxblood Biltwell grips, a borrowed garage sale seat, and small gp style hand controls from Dime City Cycles. Fork lowers to be painted black, fork gaiters are bunched up on the front tire waiting to be installed, and the headers are at an exhaust shop getting 14" straight pipe extensions w/ 13" baffles that will feed into two Emgo shorty mufflers:

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The bike after the motor swap:

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The bike last year on the tail of the dragon:

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A little backstory: my brother and I have had several projects over the years, and the current CB400 I'm working with is a bastardized conglomerate consisting of a 1980 Hawk electric-start-only engine and various bits attached to a 1979 frame/tank/forks/wheels that was originally bought as a spare parts bike we wanted the kick/electric motor from.

We've also worked with a couple Kawasaki KZ550s over the years. Here's some random pics:

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A bit more work done. Got the throttle tube trimmed down, master cylinder installed (needs replacing with something smaller though), found the correct diameter clutch lever adjustment collar, and slipped the baffles in the pipe extensions, drilled mounting holes, and mocked everything up before finalizing fit/wrapping the pipes tomorrow.

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Also, to deal with the Hawk's ugly stamped frame I took a bunch of measurements and then bought a seat off of a newer Hinckley Triumph - this should fit well and cover some of the frame.

I'm going to try and modify the bike to fit the seat rather than the other way around, then any triumph seat should bolt on.

Here's the one headed my way courtesy of eBay:

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Also ordering this master cylinder because mines pretty ugly:

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Some more work done today - cut down the wiring harness a bit, blew a few fuses, mounted this temporary seat to be able to ride this week, wired the taillight, mounted the plate, etc.:

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Wired the clutch safety circuit closed (just gotta be careful not to start it in gear) in order to avoid relying on the finicky neutral safety switch.

Also redid an old botched wiring job, and now it starts immediately, runs well, and is on the road!


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My Triumph Bonneville T-100 seat came earlier than expected, so here's how it fits the profile of the CB400T with no modifications (just sitting on the frame rails):

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Next step is to investigate mounting the seat by only modding the bike. (I'd like any Bonneville seat to essentially bolt right on).


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Redbird said:
Scrambler?

Well, tires are a clear next step, and I'd like to weld clevis mounts to the frame to be able to run taller Progressive shocks. After that, figuring out fenders.

It's a work in progress, with the caveat that I want it rideable in between mods because it's summer.

Any thoughts on what else to call it?

FWIW, I never knew what "style" to call the last one either:

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Good to see you riding it while you modify it. Tyres will make a mahoosive difference to the overall look as will another shorter/smaller seat. Not cheap items but along with the tank can define the style of any bike.

Guards could look a bit like mine, cheap used swap meet items....





Urban or street scrambler might work?
 
NoRiders said:
Good to see you riding it while you modify it. Tyres will make a mahoosive difference to the overall look as will another shorter/smaller seat. Not cheap items but along with the tank can define the style of any bike.

Guards could look a bit like mine, cheap used swap meet items....



Urban or street scrambler might work?

I really like that front fender, especially how it mounts. I can probably fab something similar from my stock front fender.

The seat is quite long, but my reason for modding the bike to fit the seat was to make seat swaps easy. I've tried my hand at making my own seats (see the other hawk above) and while it looks cool, a finished seat from nearly any decent company will be far more comfortable. I've been leaning towards this:

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I can't decide on a tank... CB360 tanks look clean, but may seem small.

Also, ordered more parts:

- License plate bolts.

- Weatherproof panel mount LEDs in blue, red, amber, and green for sleek indicators in the top triple. I'm ditching the gauges for a low profile phone mount (spare iPhone). I've had good experiences with an app called 'Here' for GPS navigation with speedo.

And this:

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Thanks Silverstone, I have to say it was pretty straight forward to make. I sourced 8mm thick wall mild steel tube, from a friend who bent it into hoops for me. The hoops follow the guard profile to some extent, front is fine but the rear hoop is slightly out of profile due to moving it from 90* to 45* from the guard. Button head allen head bolts used underside as they're smooth with s/s dome nuts for show.

The fork/hoop mount is the original Honda guard mount, cut n modified as everything matched up nicely. I only welded the hoops on the inside to leave a cleaner look.

The used ally guard was from a biker swap meet for £10 ($15).

See my build thread, link down VVV there.
 
The oxblood seat diamond stitched seat looks 8) Seems like everyone has one these days ::)

The brake lever m/c looks to be a pattern part, I've just used a similar one on the CBX to good effect (rectangular reservoir). The black finish is slightly rough, which is odd?, compared to the stock Honda finish, but mine worked well during bleeding (haven't had it on the road yet). It was such a close pattern I was able to re-use the stock cover and rubber diaphragm seal as well.
 
Redbird said:
Gotchya ;)

Street tires and low pipes were throwing me.

I wish I knew how to weld up exhaust properly - I'm jealous of the smaller earlier twins that can just keep an eye out for cl360 pipes and throw them on, though I bet they're getting rare.

I was glad to get ~3 inches of extra clearance by tossing the crossover box on this one, though it may cause a flat spot in the powerband with the shorter overall pipes.


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Painted the shocks, mounted the seat properly, replaced the master cylinder and lever, fabbed upper fork covers w/welded lower profile headlight ears, and added a fork brace created from the stock fender.

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