Thanks for yor input.
Freeway riding is no problem on the CB400T. I sometimes took it to work, 110 km away. Doing 120 km/h on the freeway, I had no problem keeping up with the other traffic.
On long trips, I try to avoid freeways as much as possible anyway.

This is the bike


I was wondering if anyone used a CB400T for a real long trip and I am curious about their experience.

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a BMW R1200GS

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Jan, I don't think you're going to find too many other people currently using a 400T for touring. They were only on the market for a year or two before being replaced by the "Euro-line" version with the much more slab sided look so they were not that common even at the end of the 70's. I think the best you'll do is to find people who have used something similar in the past or who own similar size "classics" now and use them for short trips in the summer.

Back in the 70's I did a lot of touring round Europe on similar sized or smaller bikes - Morocco (from the UK) on a Yamaha 250, Athens on a 300cc Honda, Rome on a 350cc Suzuki, Venice on a 550cc Honda. Most of those trips were done 2-up with huge amounts of luggage and the bikes were perfectly adequate. I've also recently toured the French Alps on my 400/4 without any problems. OK you have to flog it a bit on the steeper climbs and altitude affected the carburation but other than that no problem. Comparing the 70's with now though there are a few things that are worth mentioning. Firstly both cars and bikes have got bigger, faster and more powerful so the 400T feels slower by comparison. When it was new it was just under half as powerful as a top of the range bike (like a Honda CBX). Now the top end stuff is twice as powerful again (roughly) so the 400T feels like a toy by comparison. Nothing much has changed though, it's still just as quick as it ever was, it's just that it feels slower by comparison. If I had confidence in the bike (you'll need to do a few miles to get that) I'd happily do the distance that you're considering (about 2000 miles round trip?). As I mentioned earlier the electrical system, particularly the charging circuit, is something I'd look at very carefully but as long as the rest of the bike checks out I'd not have any worries. You said it'll cruise at about 120kph - my 400/4 will also - and that's good enough for all roads up to and including motorways.

Pic of my 400/4 in the Alps (no luggage on it though) -



Touring on a 350cc Suzuki in the 70's -

Touring on a 350cc Suzuki in the 70's -


[/QUOTE]


Those were the days!

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

None of your Touratech bling and Metal Mule kitchen sink cases in those days! (although the 400/4 pic was only two years ago ). I did seem to own an awful lot of bungie straps though

I also used a craven setup as per your Suzuki, I see you also have the pannier rails and QD 'clips'. I used this setup on both a CB350 and '78 Bonnie.
Still have the panniers in the garage.

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Back then the Craven stuff was about as good as it got. The first couple of trips we did just used normal "Tower" style chrome racks and we had loads of problems with breakages. The Suzuki was the first Craven rack we used and I was really pleased with it. We bought them for just about everything until Craven stopped production about 10yrs later.

I'd been looking for a Craven rack for the 400/4 as I bought a set of small Craven panniers some time ago and wanted to set it up for touring - as per Jan's original question. A friend in the US found one when I was over there in the summer and I brought it back as hand luggage. It's needed a few mods to fit the 400/4 and I've had to hand make all of the fittings but it's just about there now. Can't get the quick release pannier fittings though.

Since Ken Craven called it a day the manufacturing rights have gone through a number of small companies who promise a lot but never actually produce anything. A pity really as I'm sure there's a market there in the classic bike world.

I think you may well find some of the QD fittings and even genuine craven racks at some autojumbles, many craven topboxes turn up there, I have long since 'lost' my pannier rails, but when I rebuild my workshop, you are welcome to the QD's if they appear.

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.