This poor old bike has had a sad life. Before I bought it a old co-worker came to me and said he this dead RD400 in his shed with a title in his name. Went over to his house and picked it up for $150 bucks. This was back in 1996 and It was a pain to get parts and info to get it up to par.
I did my best and replaced the points with electronic ignition. Replaced the rotted pipes with at the time beautiful expansion chambers from a company called Pro-flo.
The hardest thing was the oil injection pump. The return spring was rusted and snapped. Found place in California but it took three months to show up. If I didn't use a oil pump I would have to pre-mix oil with the gas at every fill up. Not very practical for a street bike.
The hardest item to get was clean upper fork tubes and that same shop in Cali had set for too much money.
When I arrived at my forking (no pun intended) dilemma , I met my new girl friend and eventual wife. So House and kid followed and she (bike) sat in my dads garage for five years and then over here in the back of the garage for another six!
My friend seen it back in the day and bought one a few years ago and went cafe style with it.
Seeing and smelling it run re sparked my interest. Besides E-bay is the perfect RD parts shop.
Picked up a OK set of forks on e-bay and will only use one upper fork slider to get the job done.I hope to resell on e-bay to remake some money back.
No that is not the final seat but it will be a fiberglass section with half inch foam.Also those shocks will be going since they are so hard I can't even compress them, e-bay for that too.
Forks rebuilt using progressive springs and now running 20wt fork oil.
Rusty bolts are unsightly and unsafe. Quick trip to Ace hardware fixed that with some 8 grade bolts.
Not too bad for a 32 year old bike with a little work and polish.
Shop Troll trying to steal a bike!!!!!Next up will be getting the pro-flo pipes taken apart to get sand blasted and remounted.
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