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-twin 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 specific Honda NS400R is adorned in the replica paint scheme (a blue/white option was also available) – plus it seems that the seller added some “Freddie” stickers to the front fairing to make it look more like the race bike. The odometer shows 7,769 miles and the seller says it’s completely stock and needs nothing. Find this NS400R for sale here on Craigslist in Clinton, Iowa for $11,500.
This bike-uriousity brought to you by John K!