Post Sale Update: This NS400R sold for $10,600 after 24 bids on eBay in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1983, Freddie Spencer became the world’s youngest 500cc World Champion, and he did it on a Honda V3. Honda responded by releasing a 250cc production bike to commemorate the win, but it took them until 1985 to build something closer to the actual size of Freddie’s champion. That was the NS400R, and even though it gave up 100cc and plenty of power to the race bike, Honda called it a race replica.
The two-stroke V-3 displaced 387cc and it was good for 72 horsepower and 37 pound feet of torque, both at nearly 10,000 rpm. Oh – and the whole thing weighed less than 360 pounds. For more information on the NS400R, check out this article from Classic-Motorbikes.net. Depending on who you talked to, the NS400R wasn’t as fast or aggressive as the 500cc race reps from Yamaha and Suzuki – but the tradeoff was that this was a confident handling bike. A review rehosted on Motorcycle Specs says “the NS is exciting and pretty near faultless.”
The seller of this example (VIN: JH2NC1900GM000189) imported it from Canada about 7 years ago and then had a “full restoration/subtle restomod” performed 2.5 years ago by RestoCycle in Tucson, Arizona. The restomod features include 17″ Comstar wheels to allow for modern rubber, rebuilt adjustable Fox shock, and Cogent Dynamics fork emulators. “I did not have it done to a concours level restoration, it was meant to be ridden and enjoyed.” It’s also got Jolly Moto pipes. The seller states that everything works except for a low oil light that sometimes erroneously goes on. There are approximately 32,700 miles on the odometer, though it’s not clear how many of them came after the restoration.
Find this NS400R for sale in Cambridge, Massachusetts with an unmet opening bid of $1,500 here on eBay.
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