RD400

My first bike.  The 1976 RD400 with a ’78 engine.  The story goes something like this.

When I was around 14 a good friend of my dad’s stopped by just around dinner time on evening.  “Say, Don, doesn’t one of your boys like working on motorcycles?”  “Well, Bill does.”  “Listen I’ve got this old bike I need to sell, and well, get it running or not, sell it and all I need out of it is $200.00.”  Not long after that we were driving home in the pickup with this “thing”.  It only had Yamaha on the engine side covers.  The paint was custom and a bit old but the thing was still in decent shape for its age.  It had a set of chambers on it with Super Trap mufflers.  To this day the only two-stroke I’ve ever seen with Super Traps on it.  Well, in about 30-minutes I had it running and it sounded wicked.  Turns out I spent more time riding it than trying to sell it and my dad made me give it back.

Later after I turned 17 I found my first bike.  When I called the guy and told him I was given his name and number from a guy who said he might have a bike for sale.  His reply was what color would you like?  I said I’m not sure.  So he told me to come over with $400.00 and he’d build me a bike.  That weekend I drove over to find this guy’s garage and entire basement full of everything RD400.  “Here’s a fresh set of bodywork, (gloss black), a mid ’80’s front cowl from a Honda Nighthawk, (also gloss black), a 1976 frame with all the electrics, bead blasted wheels imported from Panama, a set of Daytona chambers and a ’79 Daytona seat and tail.  I turned over the $ and he sent me home to put it together.  By 6:00 the next morning I had it near ready to fire but was missing two of the intake clamps.  I was amazed that it had gone together without missing anything else, he really knew his 400s.

I eventually went on to ride that bike for nearly 4-years before selling it not long after I got the LC.

So, the 400 still has a fond place in my heart.  There are many exciting and extremely radical performance aspects that can be applied to the 400.  Many world records have been set on the drag strip with this engine.  Let WP provide you with the very best in care and tuning of your 400.