The Thrill of the Ride

The Honda CB400F is thrilling to race due its power potential power and strategy challenge of keeping it in the 8-10,000 rpm power band. The configuration of this 400cc 6-speed 4-cylinder make for an exciting challenge on the race track to keep it inside of this narrow power band. Lug the engine and you go from 1st to end of the line while waiting for the power to match the gear that you mistakenly chose. This challenge makes it so that I will never get bored on the track year after year.

I got this machine from an source I will keep anonymous due to the fact he claims to never have let go of any motorcycle. He is a legend in the club vintage racing world. We had to trade a Honda CBX for it! Prior to the previous owner it was owned by a man that ran this bike in WERA. It has lived the majority of its life run hard but much loved.

Getting Ready for the First Race Day

Tight Ratios!

I wanted to purchase a couple sets of tires for the beginning of the race season so I called up Heidenau to order my K65Race compound tire sets. The rear I use is a 100/90-18. Well they were out of those so I ordered the 110/90-18 and hoped it wouldn’t make much difference. What I worried about was a slower turn in on the wider rear.

Took this tire set-up to Sandia Speedway for their first track day before race day to make sure everything was sorted. The error was that they ran what was called the Alt-Configuration. This very tight technical course had no long straights and the bike ran like a champ. Quick take off and I was able to use the whole tire so I thought all was well.

I found out that changing the tire size fromm a 100/90-18 to a 110/90-18 is the equivalent of increasing teeth in the rear sprocket. Race day was run in our regular configuration so there was now a much longer front and back straight. My starts were quick so I was running in front the only other bike racing in my class. I was amazed at how fast the rpms topped out in each gear and I found myself out of my regular shifting pattern running a whole gear ahead of what I usually find to be most efficient. I thought, “am I really going that much faster?”.

I was shifting up 3 or 4 gears on the straights and then had to shift down those gears going into the turns and I was counting in my helmet out loud to keep track of all this (while racing). I was making mistakes and could hear my competitors loud engine behind me. 1 lap to go and I would be first!! I came out of the the hairpin in 3rd gear (should have been in 2nd), rolled on the throttle and of course had no power at 6000 rpms. Just like that my lead was gone and I went from first to last. Tight ratios. I had to ponder what went on all the way home and thought my way through it. What I love about racing this bike is not my challenge as a physical rider but also the strategy involved get this bike to stay ahead on the track.