400cc bikes

[Calite]

Hey gents

Was just looking (dreaming) at big(er) bikes the other day for when I do my A2 when the weathers nicer (yeah yeah I know ). Was just wondering why 400cc bikes are so huge in Asia but seem to be few and far between in the UK.

They seem like the perfect cheap beginner / commuter bikes. That do a solid 100mph (unlike 125/some 250s) but still manage 70mpg well commuting. They also sit right on the 30-60bhp mark making them fairly awesome for A2 licenses without restriction messing with the powerband.

Is there something terribly wrong with them that makes them fail in western markets or is it just Japanese marketing that want "rich" westerners on there more profitable 650s? I also know that there was a huge amounts of grey imports in the late 80s and 90s of 400cc sportsbikes & commuters but I have no idea why that stopped.

[Blau Zedong]

400's were a product of Japanese licensing laws, nothing more. The home market was so huge and competitive that manufacturers went to the effort of building all manner of beautiful and impossibly trick 400's and 250's. The reason they came over here in droves is because Japanese MOT laws are so draconian once something is 2 or 3 years old it isn't worth the hassle of keeping it. Hence Johnny Foreigner would go to Japanese auction houses and fill containers with low mileage bikes to sell to UK customers at a combination of price / condition / mileage that made them very attractive. Then Japanese laws changed and 400's became less relevant (they still sell some of the gay commuter stuff but 400 race reps have been dead for a while). Other than the ZXR and a handful of FZR's and NC30's they never imported them officially as they didn't fit any licencing requirement and would of worked out about the same RRP as a 600.
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18:54:48 Rob Fzs: jews don't give away stuff for free

18:54:59 Rob Fzs: unless its their clothes/ hair/ golden teeth

[Calite]

[Derivative]

The 500's seem to fill the gap you're talking about.

ER5, GPZ500 and CB500 are all about 50bhp, will do a solid 100mph, still manage 70mpg.

There's also been a bit of a revival as of late for the 'sporty 500', though most of the attempts are kind of sedate to meet A2.

Not that I think they really hold a candle to stuff like the baby blade, but the CB5 has been a solid first bike for me and hasn't gotten 'boring' as I'd expected. You are fully aware that you're sitting on a shopping trolley, though.

[dydey90]

If I was a manufacturer, I'd be selling bikes that are exactly 70kW. The A2 licence is only meant be last for two years before you upgrade, but buying a new bike you're looking at least three years finance.
Buy it, restrict it, get full licence, unrestrict it and you've still got a more than enough power.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[Shinigami]

[flumpy7]

[Rogerborg]

There's still a few getting made, like the hilariously titled Ninja 400R.

It's an ER6-F with the cylinders down-sleeved. All the weight (a little more, actually), all the manufacturing cost, absolutely no point except to hit an arbitrary capacity limit.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Fwiw I like the SR400 - for looks and simplicity, plus my kind of size/weight too. So dear second hand though, for what it is. Night and day different than the baby blades and screamers of course. But it was again never much of a thing here and a grey import doobrey afaict. There was a rumour last year that yamaha were going to relaunch it, but then they said that about the rd350 as well. Heh.
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[wr6133]

[P.]

My only

Do not ever, ever buy a Bandit 400.

[Blau Zedong]

[c-m]

There aren't a great many 400cc bike around that is true.

One thing i've never understood is why people associate engine CC with cost?

[american muscle]

my first bike was a VFR400 nc24
i loved it, howling @14-15000rpm around the backroads of oxfordshire was ace
it was so loud none of my mates would ride behind me
then some kindly old gentleman in a volvo destroyed it for me

much sadness and pain
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gaffa tape is like the force
it has a dark side and a light side and holds the universe together
bikes: VFR400 NC24, FZR600R, BIG AMERICAN STUFF, ZX-7R P3

[Rogerborg]

[cbrtrxtdmvfrD...]

I rode this for around 10 years before storing it here, it still starts but i don't use it - i just haven't the heart to get rid of it
https://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg571/dboon11/8_zps5c53de7c.jpg
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Right' O

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[c-m]

Perhaps it's just a British thing.

I'd happily but a lower cc bike that does what I want, just for weight saving alone.

I guess that sometimes manufacturers are lazy though so there isn't always a weight saving to be had.

[american muscle]

[cbrtrxtdmvfrD...]

I understand your pain, one of the reasons why i still have it - It's the NC30's that appear to be more desirable and certainly that command an higher price these days - this as you know is a NC24, but what is a man supposed to do with something that has been an major part of their adult life? - about 25 years until retirement for me and i'll start riding it again at that point
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Right' O

[RhynoCZ]

NC27, great bike, terrible mpg

I also liked the performance, it could do 190kph+ and it was very smooth and the power delivery was also great thanks to the original exhaust and jets. The sound of the OEM full system was quite likeable.
Video: https://s970.photobucket.com/user/RhynoCZ/media/NC27/MOV_0047_zps034cb2d8.mp4.html?sort=4&o=27

https://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/RhynoCZ/NC27/DSC00462_zps188ce2e8.jpg
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Amber Phoenix]

[G]

Why focus on 400cc?
You can get 250cc bikes that make more power at the top of the range you specify and 1000cc nearer the bottom.

Fuel economy can range massively in 400cc - for instance a 2 stroke 400cc mx bike will be pretty terrible, while if you get a GPZ400 and ride it slowly everywhere, you'll probably be in c90 territory.

CC specifically makes not much difference - it's not something I'd worry about particularly when choosing a bike.

[Jiving Joe]

https://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm309/Jiving_Joe/DSC00184.jpg

ZXR400L , screams when it gets up the revvs. Great fun
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ZX6R B1H

[stevo as b4]

Unless I fell over a cheap and tidy one, I'd just forget Grey import 400cc's or even more so Grey 250cc's these days, as you should for two stroke road bikes too.

Everything old and good is too expensive, over hyped, over sought after by nostalgia grabber's, Mid life crisis's and collectors that just want bikes to display and hoard.

There's more merit in buying a cheap GPZ500S and making it handle a bit better, than buying a similar performance 400cc supersport that's much more expensive and harder to find and get parts for. The early 90's-early Noughties were the era of the Grey bike heyday, and back then they were cheap enough to buy, and people were making good business out of sourcing parts for them too.

You might as well buy a bike like the GPZ or another non valued middleweight, or else spend £1000-1500 on a very good example of a mid-late 90's 600cc sports bike. If you go bigger still, things like RF900's and Thunderaces can be had in stunning condition for not much over a grand, so 400's don't equate to VFM or make sense unless your happy to spend a fortune or are a 400cc fanatic above all sense!