Post Listing Update: There were 28 bids up to $9,100, but then the seller got an offer he liked and pulled the bike off of eBay. Final sale price unknown.
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 example (VIN: NC19E-1002286) looks fantastic thanks to a cosmetic restoration, but it really stands out because the seller (who originally imported the bike from Japan) already has it registered in California. This NS has approximately 6,700 miles and the Rothman’s livery is just icing on the cake. For more photos to drool over, check out this Dropbox album.
Find this NS400R for sale in San Mateo, California with bidding up to $3,800 and the reserve not yet met