cb400

Hi all,
I'm in between Biology degrees and have been spending some spare time getting into and restoring old bikes. I started out with old motorcycles (by rebuilding a late 60s cb160 and a 1980 cb400t). I've now moved and don't have a garage or a parking space, so I decided a bicycle made a lot more sense as primary transportation and have been learning all about bikes.

I started out with a Le Croco (race bikes made in Montreal in the late 70s but with very limited information online). It's a bit of a frankenbike with Gipiemme crank, hubs, brakes and levers + Cinelli stem and bars (which is probably all original), suntour FD & shifters, weinmann rims, Nuovo Record RD which was rigged via a short chain to work with a 5 speed 14-28 Shimano freewheel despite 126mm frame spacing (I'm waiting for a 13-23 shimano 600 freewheel to come in the mail). All of that complication has taught me a lot.

I then bought a 1980 Apollo Gran Sport as a project, cleaned it all up, replacing some rusted out bearing races and am now riding it, I think it's a better size for me despite the top tube being a bit high. It does however have upright bars on it, which I am hoping to change for something resembling the original SR Champion + Shimano 600 arabesque levers.

I'm not allowed to post pictures yet so you'll have to be patient in that regard.

cb400

I'm also attempting to get my roommates to do some bike maintenance. One chain is so worn out the rollers jingle, another's front wheel turns like it has gravel in the hubs, and there are stuck seatposts galore.

cb400

Last excuse for a post is that I'm thinking about putting on modern drive-train components onto the Apollo to preserve the arabesque crank and derailleurs while I beat on the modern stuff through the winter and in rain etc. My thoughts are a cheap shimano triple (that may work with the existing cartridge BB that gives a 43ish mm chainline), long cage rear derailleur and probably front derailleur. I'm hoping I'll avoid any frame clearance issues and that the 47.5mm chainline on a new triple will work with the 43-45mm rear chainline/126mm spacing. It has a 7 speed uniglide cassette made of a uinglide lockring plus 6 sprockets with shimano HG markings, which I will figure out whenever I get access to two chain whips.

cb400bill

Welcome to Bike Forums cb400! Be sure to check out our Classic & Vintage forum.

cb400

Thank you! Will do, hopefully our very similar names won't be too confusing

cb400bill

My 400 was a four.

cb400

Those are real interesting bikes, they seem to be increasing in value pretty quickly these days. I met a couple last summer that rode a pair of them to Alaska back in the day.
Completely different animal from the cb400 twins though, after messing with the cb160 I am thankful for CDI ignition and slide carbs. Half the cylinders helps make them easy to work on too.

cb400bill

i sold mine about 15 or so years ago. Before the prices jumped up. Sure was a fun bike.

cb400

I'm sure, I still haven't ridden anything with 4 cylinders. Maybe some day, maybe not. At least there's old bicycles that I can satisfy my urge to fix old things with in the meantime.

cb400

3 more posts until I can post pictures of things I've been talking about

BillyD

Aha so CB400 is a motorcycle, I did not know that, Bill.

cb400

Some good two wheeled overlap going on. Seems like with e-bikes the line between a motorcycle and bicycle is getting blurrier.

VegasTriker

Any much older Honda riders will know what a cb400 was. I owned several Honda twins 360, 400, 450. They all looked a lot alike. All long gone but I still have a Kawasaki 440 twin awaiting carburetor balancing (for a couple of years).

cb400

I rode my bike last fall with fairly unbalanced carbs trying to work up a custom system for balancing. It makes such a big difference when you finally get around to it.

The type with two jars needs an airtight seal at every junction, I gave up on that and got two vacuum gauges, discovered that plumbing threads make no sense and eventually got some correct adapters. Once I've got 10 posts I'll post the picture. I find it much easier to match two gauges than fiddle with fluid transfer.

cb400

Okay this is just an excuse post for 10 so I can finally post some pictures

cb400

The Apollo Gran Sport

The Le Croco

Gipiemme Dual Sprint Crank

Synch Tool

My bike in the front, someone else at my former university with a 78/79 in the back

divxpr

Greetings from California!

Huszi

Nice pics

Rage

Hi!

c8h

Welcome from Seattle!

cb400

Thank you!

Thank you!

Hello!

Thank you and welcome to you as well!