Here is a series of pictures that recorded the making of Brian's custom RD400
It started out as a used RD 400.
Cool Bike as is, but not cool enough for Brian
It was completely stripped down to the bare bones and sand blasted.
First all the unnecessary brackets and doo dads were cut from the frame.
The rear of the frame was cut-off and a loop was added that would soon be the TT style rear of the seat.
Another loop was added where the rear of the tank will sit to fill in the gap and make the seat pan look more custom.
Next the seat and caps were filled in with hand formed sheet steel and welded. The seat area is now finished and awaiting final finish grinding and smoothing.
Here is the general finished fab work for the seat and tail.
Next a rear master cylinder was added. A FZ750 unit was used and new tabs were welded to the frame.
A cool set of rear sets were adapted and the linkage was fabricated. Here you can see the finished right peg and rear brake assy.
The left peg assy was added to make the pegs complete.
Here is the finished frame with a fresh green powder coat
The front end was added and some cool clubman style handlebars. The stock RD front end was used and the lower legs powder coated the same color as the frame.
The bike was finally ready to make a rolling chassis. A set of RZ350 wheels were fitted to the bike and all looked like it was well under way, BUT.....
The rear wheel inevitably was not going to work out. Brian tried hard, but without making some serious changes to the existing structure, it was a lost cause.
As nice as the matching wheels were looking, it was not going to work.
Reluctantly Brian added powder coat to the original RD400 wheel and it actually worked out well. It actually ended up looking good. He did not want to use the RD front because he had already planned for a R1 Yamaha front brake system that was a MUST for the project to be as he wished. The rear wheel ended being a small sacrifice.
As you can see in the pic a set of Emgo shocks was added and the look was coming alive!!!
Finally it was time to add the motor. It was starting to look like a bike.
Here are some close-ups of the R1 front brake system. A adapter bracket was fabricated to make the system work and the disk was a direct match for the RZ wheel.
Another cool mod was this one off custom made piston headlight. All hand made by Brian. How cool is that!?.
Wiring was added and not the bike was ready for the finishing touches to make it complete.
Check out this cool LED tail light built into the tail section!
Finally the bike was finished and ready to ride!
The project turned out great. I am happy to report the bike functions awesome and is a blast to ride. Brian did a great job!
CYCLE-RE-CYCLE Part 2 is happy to have supplied some of the parts to make this project a success.