Kawi2strokes.com Forum

I bought this KH400 in July, 2012 in Anchorage Alaska (my dad lives there). We put it in his shed and in July 2013 I went back to visit him. I bought the bike with approximately 150 miles on it. It had been dinged up some. The guy who sold it to me was the second owner. He said the first owner rode it around brand new, went off the road and put it away. It sat in a warehouse for decades, then the second guy bought it. He rode it for a few months, decided he didn't want it (he likes BMW's) and sold it to me.

This summer I put it up for sale on this forum and there were some inquiries but no takers. I shipped it back to Honolulu and will keep it.

What I've done so far:
1) Replaced the fork springs, which were just way too weak. Not wanting to spend a lot on custom springs, I bought a used set of RD400 springs on E-bay (about $20 including postage), then cut them to the correct size with an angle grinder. The RD400 springs have more "oomph" and hold the front end up better.
2) Put a new seatcover on, from Diablo Cycle. The cover that came with the bike was not the original pattern. This seatcover looks good and was pretty easy to put on. I haven't decided if I'll put the metal trim on or not.
3) Drained the oil tank to make sure the mesh filter was okay. Actually, the mesh filter was gone! I dumped the old oil and put in Motul 710. Then I bled the lines and used stat-o-seals for the banjo connecting the tank to the pump.
4) Got rid of the stock bars (way too high) and put on this set of superbike bars.
5) Replaced the top brake line with a new, shorter line that's braided steel with a black plastic coating.

The tank and tail have a number of small dents and eventually I'll have the bodywork repainted. This orange-ish color looks pretty gross and I'm trying to decide what color to paint it. The other color for a '76 is green, which looks nice. But I'm also thinking about not going with the correct paint for that year and doing another color/decal combination. Maybe the 1974 S3 in candy red. Any opinions on paint? Please let me know.

My wife is usually not enthusiastic about my motorcycles in the carport but she kept eyeing this one up. She used to ride dirt bikes when she was younger. Yesterday I had her put on a helmet, jacket, gloves etc. and let her ride it up and down the block. She was thrilled! Now we need her to get a motorcycle license.

Wow, that looks so clean..like new.

The odometer is almost up to 300 miles! By the way, the tires are Yokohama Speedmasters. I think they are original! No cracks or wear, but I think I will change them anyways just because...

That's great. Hopefully that ends up as "her bike" and you both can go out riding together

Jeff