Nice special on the bay

[mthee]

Beautiful work to my eye - not a thumper, but it does use a front and back end that will be immediately recognisable to Bill...

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F202802441517

[Moto63]

Certainly not my cuppa tea but I know where you're coming from Matt 😁😉🤘

[JOOLZ]

Not keen on the seat the rest looks great

[themoudie]

Why oh why would you use a BROS front end and rear end on a bike like that?

The front end is known to be wooden and anybody wanting something that 'handles' replaces the whole of the BROS front end with one from a CBR600R, with twin disc set up.

The back end works OK, but not until the shock is replaced with one from a Fireblade that has some damping control.

Kat's BROS is bog standard, because she doesn't explore the outer limits of a bikes handling. Yes, the front end tends to clonk and can be made to bottom out, but everyday bimbling it is fine.

I suppose this might be considered a "show bike" and you don't need any guts for one of those, so the suspension doesn't really matter! 

As you can probably tell not really my cup of tea and the colour is gad to boot! 

Apologies for being curmugeonly about it.

Just to brighten your day, we have the first snow of the year on the tops to the north and west of us. Whilst the temperature has got as high as 5C!    Preparing The Duke for another canter afore the brine lorries get active!

Toodle pip, Bill

[Moto63]

"Just to brighten my day".... SNOW, SNOW. 😥😥🌨🌨⛄️🙈
That last bit of your post Bill was clearly just a joke right??
😁😁

[themoudie]

Aye Michael,

NO JOKE! Dead gen! Blizzard conditions forecast for the tops tomorrow, so winds over 40mph and heavy snow.

After the rugby I might give The Duke a canter to the edge of the snowfields!

I suspect the Pennines may have white tops overnight and you might get a dusting on the tops in Bowland.

Tobogganing anybody?

Toodle pip, Bill

[Moto63]

Aarrrggghhh 😥😥😥🌨🌨🌨... I hate snow.

[mthee]

Good info to have on the Bros, which is on my list  I expect you're right about the front end being retained for the look the builder wanted, as opposed to performance. I imagine the idea is to keep the right profile as clear as possible, what with the single sided swinger and all? I must say, I've never seen a special with a speedo mounted that far down the fork leg - more form over function 

[Moto63]

Back in the day (very early 80's) when I used to do a bit of trials riding, One of the bikes  I had was a Yamaha TY250 (twin shock version)  which was road registered.  The speedo on that was down that far on the fork leg, tiny little thing it was. maybe that's where he's drawn his idea/inspiration from, a bike like my old TY. ...cheers,Michael

[themoudie]

Aye Mat,

Kat's 1988 BROS 400 is now 98,500 miles young and still in regular use. They are a very unstressed motor and the close ratio gearbox is still as slick as a knife through butter. Starting to use a little oil but nothing dramatic so far. 

Spares are still widely available and for less money than Yamaha SRX bits.

Top end, with rider semi crouched still the wrong side of a ton, yet will bimble all day at 40mph in top with no lurching.

Make sure the chain is run on the loose rather than the tight side of 15mm - 20mm of play, with the rider on board, they can be fiddly to get right on the eccentric cam.

This is still after a lot of years one of the best websites for the Honda BROS 400cc & 650cc machines: Steve_Beatty's_Hawk_GT_website

Have fun, Bill

[Moto63]

Sounds like a cracking little bike Bill. I remember reading a write up on them years back, when the grey import thing was big business. Early 90's , and the write said don't under any circumstance compare them with the NTV600 as the 400 bros was by far the better bike... with 98000 miles racked up it really is proving it worth.  Cheers, Michael