Post Sale Update: This NS400R sold for the opening bid of $7,800 in Vista, California on eBay.
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.”
This NS400R (VIN: JH2NC19026M000114) has some minor cosmetic issues as documented in the photos, but the “the previous owner installed a brand new engine which has less than 600 miles on it.” Per the odometer, the chassis has covered 26,296 km (about 16,400 miles). The bike is said to run well and it has Jim Lomas pipes, though it needs a new kill switch assembly. The seller and his best friend shared a collection of over 60 motorcycles, but the friend passed away and now some of the bikes are being sold off. It was serviced in August of 2019 with new CDIs and the carbs were cleaned last week.
Find this NS400R for sale in Vista, California with an unmet opening bid of $7,800 here on eBay.