NC35 (re)build thread - tis the season for 400cc greybikes

There is no God but the V4, and Soichiro is his prophet.

I have wanted a 400cc bike forever. I had wanted a V4 forever, too, and I want more V4s after I bought monkeyneck's VFR800. But as a young lad, when my head was full of dreams, I was crushed to discover that the apex of motorcycling, a 400cc V4, was never sold in the USA. So when...



^ that came up for sale, I nearly pooped. It was listed on Craigslist, but had made it to RSBFS, and I just about shit myself worrying that it would disappear if I didn't get to it before the hordes descended. Luckily, it was buried in the middle of a huge post, and I don't think anyone else in the world noticed it. The ad said it had been stored for a few years, but was complete, a legit title (!), and a current non-op (!!!).

I talked it over with my wife, fully intending to sell my ongoing Porsche project to fund it. We had the money, but if I had to choose, an RVFlette would win every. single. time. She asked me where the RVF fit on my list of bikes - higher than a cherry FZR400, which I'd been searching for years? Oh dear God yes. Her response? "If you can tell me it's The One, I'll give you a kiss and tell you good luck."

I love that woman.

So I got in touch with the owner who said he'd stored it inside... like so:



Hey, that's what you do with art when you aren't using it. Put that shit on display!

Turns out he's a long-time friend of a guy I race(d) sidecars with down in SoCal. A guy I trust, and who doesn't keep shitty friends. Things were looking up. He confirmed that the title was real, that all the numbers matched, and that the non-op was current. In fact, he sent me photos of the current documents, completely unedited, so I could validate everything myself. How rad is that shit? Then he offered to knock a grand off the price because the friend he had list it had put it up for too much.

You could have knocked me over with a feather after that conversation.

So, after making arrangements to take time off work, numist tagged along and drove with me to pick it up, ever my enabler of stupid ideas. We headed down to Santa Clarita, and hour and a half north of this guy's house, to pick it up. Did I mention that the PO is a good guy? Because goddamn.

Turns out, it was just as pretty in person as in photos...



Hand over a check, sign some documents, load her up, and...



I think we're being followed!



Next up, photos of the bike as she arrived. I promise, if you like NC35s, it's pure porn.

Subscribed. And awesome tale so far....wish I was the one that typed it though.

Awesome bike is awesome.
Subscribed.

wow! keep us up to date as the story unfolds.

FWIW, I brought it home about a month ago, and hope to fire it for the first time this weekend. My next few posts will be a mixture of NC35 porn and catching up.

from what series / class / era is the race replica fairing decals / paint, etc. from?

She is a beauty!

--S

Awesome. Subscribed.

Please post a video of whatever the fuck that thing sounds like when you get it running!

.

GPzPop said:

from what series / class / era is the race replica fairing decals / paint, etc. from?

She is a beauty!

--S

Click to expand...

It's a replica of the 2002 Edwards/Rossi Team Cabin Honda Suzuka 8-Hour bike



I'll admit, I wasn't terribly sold on the looks at first. As stock, the NC35 has the really iconic HRC livery that makes people in-the-know do a total double-take, especially with the "fox-eye" headlights.



But in person, it's got serious, serious presence. With the single headlight and black/orange contrast, it's very arresting, and it's grown on me a great deal.

Subscribed!

Nice!

WANT!

What needs to be done to it? Looks like it's completely intact. So what's the (re)build?

Why oh why won't they build 4 cylinder tiddlers now and sell them in the colonies???
Ps. Sweet ride!

Cool I got one of these too,, err sort of. I had to have one so I imported the parts in boxes from the UK, Japan, and one little part from Australia. It actually wasn't as costly as I thought until my rationality took a vacation from my head and I started springing for fancy parts.

Here's most of it. The rest is in the spare bedroom and the wheels are now on my NC30 for the time being. Hopefully I'll get it put together and out to a track later this year. Just need a few small things like an engine build, sprockets, chain, calipers, MC, rear shock, brake lines, and some nicer rads.

That's a fine looking bike....bet it's a hoot to ride as well

Rico said:

That's a fine looking bike....bet it's a hoot to ride as well

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Thanks. At this point I can't really claim any credit for how it looks, and it hasn't run in about eight years either, so I can't attest to riding fun either! Tthat also, I suppose, answers DaveT319's question. It sat in the PO's home pub for a long, long time.

So you're just looking at the usual stuff to get it running again, like cleaning the carbs, fresh gas, cleaning the tank if necessary, oil change, etc.? Likely no major overhaul, and nothing like what numist is facing with his NC23.

Yeah, no engine build, though all the major subsystems need to be gone through. Luckily I haven't found anything really wrong yet.

That thing is awesome, down to the single headlight and track fairings. Cool thing is you can get re-pop headlights and some knock off fairings cheap on ebay if you don't want to mess up those cool fairings or if you want it to look more stock for street riding.