I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about this.

Last September I bought a 1981 Honda CM400E to act as my beginner street motorcycle. I bought the bike on the cheap(which means it’s not in the best running condition) and quickly sent it off to a shop to rebuild the carbs. Since I got the bike back in October it has been an awesome ride. The only problems I have with it are that it’s ugly and I’ve outgrown the power. In January I started thinking about restoring or doing some custom stuff tot he bike. I was looking around on YouTube to see what other CM400 owners might be doing. In my search I came across this sweet looking thing.

I immediately messaged the guy and asked him a ton of questions. After a few back and forths he sent me a breakdown of his build and some more pictures.

Rob,

Basically i started off with a $250 dollar 81 CM400 and started goofing around with it as a joke. It obviously turned alittle more serious as parts started to actually look cool. What you see is still pretty close to a stock frame, tank, tires, and engine. The tank is the stock tank, i just molded the outside with bondo to make it look custom, then painted it with high gloss rust oleum (waxed it like 30 times, it looks like real automotive paint now). The frame was cut right behind the shocks, then the shocks were removed and replaced with 10 inch peices of steal makeing it a hard tail. I cut the stock rear fender and tucked it farther in the frame, and removed the front all together. Got the solo seat off ebay for 25 bucks, its got 3 inch springs that level it pretty well. The bars are Z-bars off a triumph, but can be purchased at www.jcwhitney.com for cheap and look great on these bikes. All the stock cabes matched right up with the higher bars. The exhaust is just 2 shorty pipes from jcwhitney and i have them wraped with black header tape for a v-8 muscle car (nice old school look). As for the electrical, i took the iginition and rewired it to be down by the carbs where modern bikes have it, and took the whole spedo and tack assembly off. I replaced the spedo with a small one from jcwhitney for about 40 bucks. The headlight is stock, but i got new brackets again from jcwhitney for 10 bucks that look much better. I made the rear plate holder with 2 pieces of steal and a license plate frame, then hooked up the maltese light. Also replaced the signals with vintage looking marker lights, not bad looking for 7 dollars a piece. I tried to keep it cheap, but looking good. It gets lots of looks and total price in parts is about $250 making it a $500 dollar bike! Anyway, these 400s are great bikes and they run forever if they are well taken care of. I have 18,000 miles and it runs strong. Here is the list again in short of what i did.

* Chopped rear frame
* Cut rear fender
* Solo Seat w/3 inch Springs
* Hard-tail Struts
* Smaller Speedometer (no tach)
* Re-routed ignition from handle-bars to the side (more modern)
* 12’ shorty exhaust pipes
* Wrapped Header pipes
* Side Mount License plate with Maltese cross taillight
* 4 vintage style turn signals
* 10” Z-style handle bars
* Maltese Side Mirror
* Stock gas tank, molded to look more custom
* Red Under-body lights
* New Grips
* New pegs
* New rear tire

Good luck with your build, and again if you have any ?s i can try to help. Ive attached some pictures, hopefully they can help give you some ideas. Also Id like to see pics when you are done, its always cool to see what other people do with vintage bikes.

The thing looks so sweet. I will be definitely using it for inspiration.

I plan on doing something with my CM400 but not entirely sure. I’m going to start putting more thought into it and should have some ideas soon.

Tags: 1981 Honda Cm400, 1981 Honda Cm400E, bobber, chopper, cm400, honda cm400, honda cm400e