A proper rare groove, and not the sort of bike – or work – that we’d normally take in, this grey-import 2000 Honda CL400 single, but a young couple came in to see us over Xmas, and were really struggling because they couldn’t get anybody to do a 12,000 mile service on their bike. We agreed to have a look…
It uses an air-cooled XR400 engine, fortunately, which meant all the service items – an XR oil filter, Hornet air filter – fitted. But the bike also needed an MOT, and its indicators were going at 300mph, and this is where the problems of owning a grey import started to surface. We had a look, and found that the flasher relay’s wiring had been altered; when we put it back to standard, the two front lights dimly lit up as sidelights.
To sort this to UK-spec would need a wiring harness strip, another switch plus a lot of messing around. We explained this to the customer, so he just had it put back the way it was. The law states between 60-120 flashes per minute is permissible, and this thing was doing well over 240 per minute.
Some grey imports are easily swapped over, others aren’t. This one certainly isn’t.
It's got a certain classic style, has this CL400, but also indicators that flash like crazy!
