New kid with a '78 cb400t

[919_caferacer]

Hey fellas!

New kid here from Michigan. Name's Eric Hoffman. I'm 23, and I've been riding dirt bikes my whole life, just finally stepped up into motorcycles. I'll just state right off the bat, I know almost nothing about this bike, but I'm excited to start learning and riding it! Anywho, 'nuff bout me. Here's a little info about my bike.

1978 Honda Cb400t Hawk II model
13k miles
pretty much stock
nothing fancy
missing misc parts
half of the electrical doesnt work
basically needs to be restored from the ground up

I got her for $275 in non-running condition(I know, dont remind me) but it didnt take much for her to start! Biggest thing I have going is the original VB carbs leak like siv. Bought a "cheap" carb rebuild kit, solved a couple issues, but still leaks from the nipples on the bottom of the carbs. So, Im gonna replace the floats and needles and see what happens. First thing I did once I bought this thing was download a shop manual for it to help. So far, it's been pretty helpful with what part is where and what it does, but sometimes it's kinda vauge. Anyways, I'm excited to tackle this project and to have a mild cafe to ride back and forth.

 

[tsbigdog]

Hey Eric,

Welcome to DTT. Looks like a good foundation to work on. Biggest thing is that most of the parts are there. I know you may wind up chucking most of it at some point, but trust me, don't throw any parts out. I made the mistake early on of getting rid of most of the parts that I thought were unsalvageable or I just thought "that's not worth the effort to restore, I'll just buy a new one". Also make sure you can get it running good before you start customizing it. Glad you got a manual. Between that and the guys on this site, you should be able to address any issues that come up. These bikes are pretty easy to work on. How much modification do you plan on doing? There are some good bikes you can use for inspiration on this site.

Best of luck with your build.

 

[haircuttergirl]

Welcome to DTT Happy to have you here.

Jenn

 

[919_caferacer]

Hey Eric,

Welcome to DTT. Looks like a good foundation to work on. Biggest thing is that most of the parts are there. I know you may wind up chucking most of it at some point, but trust me, don't throw any parts out. I made the mistake early on of getting rid of most of the parts that I thought were unsalvageable or I just thought "that's not worth the effort to restore, I'll just buy a new one". Also make sure you can get it running good before you start customizing it. Glad you got a manual. Between that and the guys on this site, you should be able to address any issues that come up. These bikes are pretty easy to work on. How much modification do you plan on doing? There are some good bikes you can use for inspiration on this site.

Best of luck with your build.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! Yeah she's missing some stuff but, its a treasure hunt, so I'm having fun! lol. As for the mods, I'm gonna stay close to stock for a while as you said.

But, I'd like to do:

Either clip ons or clubman bars
pick up a set of the wire wheels from the base hawk model(nothing against the comstars, just really dig the whire wheel look on these old bikes)
Better brakes front and back
good sticky rubber
eventually run the VB carbs off of pod filters or velocity stacks
rear sets of course
maybe a slightly better gearing ratio for more highway riding
cafe rear section
relocate front and rear turn signals/ rear brake light
new exhaust(not sure on what kind yet though)

thats just for starters

Id like to get a big bore kit
different cam
possibly lower the bike
new rear performance shocks etc

I haven't really gotten too far into looking up mods, because I'm trying to focus more on getting her riding again. I'll be sure to start a build thread and update that as i go.