Well, this one should raise some eyebrows! Steve Cooper is, as the young folk put it, dissing one of the Japanese classic scene’s sacred icons and bigging up its oft reviled successor.
Honda’s numerous 350/360 twins of the 70s were never the company’s best work and, realistically, they were little more than rehashed existing models. With its competitors stealing sales with raunchy two-strokes, Honda had to do something fast. So it reheated an old design that had bombed commercially. The resultant CB400F was without doubt a masterstroke and gave the CB350F on which it was based the cachet it always deserved.
But the 400/4 had one significant Achilles heel. To all intents and purposes, the sublime-looking and highly rated 400 was little more than a stop gap because it was expensive to produce. Even the 4-into-1 exhaust that was less expensive to make than the CB350F’s 4-into-4 wasn’t exactly cheap. Add in four cylinders and pistons, four bores to hone, a long camshaft plus eight valves with associated hardware… And then there was the assembly costs. The gorgeous CB400F was leaning on an unlatched door!
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1977 saw Honda take the wraps off the all-new CB400T which raised more than a few eyebrows. The somewhat bulbous styling and Comstar composite alloy wheels immediately polarised opinions, but the engine was intriguing. Two inlet valves and one exhaust (borrowed tech from the car division), ultrashort stroke/wide bore, two balance shafts and CV carburettors. Performance was good even if the new twin pot motor wasn’t as smooth as that of the 400/4’s. There was also a 250 version and, to really put the metaphorical cat amongst the pigeons Honda offered the 400 in semi-automatic form as well. However, the styling simply wasn’t a huge hit with buyers.
Just one year later the T model was on sale alongside the massively revised N variant and what a change! The revised 250/400N bikes ran Honda’s Eurostyle which mirrored the 750/900 fours and the public loved the look with the smaller bike becoming the UK’s top selling 250, even if it was underpowered and overweight. The new CB400N gained a quoted three horsepower and a second disc brake. For the American market the carbs dropped from 32 to 30mm but gained accelerator pumps to improve emissions and a revised transmission. Stateside, Honda catered for the cruiser market with two models based around the T and A versions in the guise of the CM400T and CM400A
The general consensus was that the 400N was something of an understated masterpiece and certainly more than up to the job. Road testers of the period praised the handling and were more than happy with the levels of comfort afforded. Kept below 70mph the bike could average as much as 67mpg when ridden with a modicum of restraint. Ultimately the CB400N stayed in production until 1986 and on sale from older stock for a couple of years more.
That might have been the end, but no. 1986 to 1989 saw a CB350S launched which was effectively a smaller capacity 400N housed in a funky perimeter frame reminiscent of earlier Bimota chassis. This was then followed by the CB450S and CB450DX which were made in South America and not officially sold in the UK. The final iteration seems to have been the
Brazilian CB450DX-K which reverted to the original style frame, angular panels and a slight increase in engine capacity.
Was the 400N better than the 400F? An emotive question, to say the least. The twin was some six horses up on the four, eleven kilos lighter, and with near identical top speed and torque figures. While the 400/4 might have ignited riders’ souls, it wasn’t profitable for Honda long term, and the design had been pushed late 1960s technology to its limits. The 400N was new technology allowing it to comply with 1980s emission regulations. Ultimately the iconic 400/4 was a convenient fill-in, but it was still a stunning bit of kit. Does anyone get nostalgic for a 400 Superdream?
