9 Fastest 400cc Motorcycles Ever Built

Today I am going to look at a class that was once great, and with a little luck, will be great again.
Even in its glorious days in the 1980's, the 400cc class often took a back seat to its bigger brothers.
The Superbikes and Supersport 600's were without doubt always faster in a straight line, but many of us learned many years ago that the real joy of Motorcycles is in the corners.
These are all bikes that can carve their way past many bigger Motorcycles in the canyons, and terrorise them in the twisties.
They are Motorcycles that prove the point, that bigger isn't always better.

Full article here

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
03:15 RG400
06:30 NS400R
10:00 CBR4004
14:50 GPZ400R and ZX4R
18:05 GSXR400
22:20 FZR400
28:30 The New Breed
29:20 VFR400 and RVF400
32:00 Final Thoughts

more footage

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[peterkoning]

I had a ZXR400RR which I raced. Beautiful, lovely bike. A bugger to pull away as it had a close ratio box with a loooong 1st gear, also different carbs and it went like crazy ! The CBR400 could'nt stay with it. I loved that it revved forever and I had an open pipe and it sang !!!

[iqjobs]

Got an 94 nc30 vfr 400 and other several bikes including an Aprilia rsv4 RF and the nc30 is still by far my favorite one❤.
Great video 👍

[ZonkerRoberts]

The only one of these bikes that we got in the States was the FZR400. I raced one for years, culminating with running a team in the last motorcycle 24-hour endurance race in the U.S. in 1993. There was no lightweight category at that time, so we ran it in Middleweight Production and took 3rd place, beating all but two of the 600's. The trophy is behind me in my office right now.

[barryvercueil]

Riding a 400cc was the most fun i had on a motorcycle. Chose it over a 250cc two stroke. no regrets. Cheers

[thomassimonsen]

big thank you here from Denmark love you videos

[robertrishel]

I MUCH prefer smaller, lighter bikes. I wish they had continued developing the 250cc twin two strokes of the 80’s and 90’s. To me, they were THE perfect daily, track and back road/canyon bikes. The 400cc in-line fours of that era were also just so exciting to ride! I lived in Japan during my high school years and had a Honda VT250R four stroke twin. It was a fabulous little bike for my 16 year old self. Great times!

[lukeduke]

I owned a FZ400 then a CBR400RR both great bikes, the FZ would wind off the clock in 5th with a gear to go, and my CBR used leave my old mates Ducati 750 sport in the dust. Thank you for the memories 👍

[woooster]

Had a VF400F as my first big bike after passing my test in '89 on my Honda NS125F... I was 17 & I loved it! 😊

[scooble]

The NC35 was built for a more broader spread of power, with longer duration cams but smaller carbs.
Chucking the cams into the NC30 gave it a bit of a boost and made better use of the bigger carbs and slightly bigger inlet valves.
I had an NC30 with a full Yamamoto system. Sounded awesome

[finbarrsaunders]

As a freshly minted young rider in the 80's, with limited funds and parents to persuade, smaller capacity bikes were always where it was at for me. I distinctly remember poring over the mags at these bikes with my mates, debating endlessly the 1 or 2 hp or kg differences between these machines and how that might influence which one you'd choose. It was a great time to be into bikes, with manufacturers pushing eachnother to ever higher levels of excellence and almost unimaginable performance.
As I got older and the practical concerns around bike ownership largely went away, my tastes did not change. I still get more excited over big 2 & smaller capacity 4 stroke bikes than any others. Thank you for this wonderful video, and all the best!

[davidcook]

I raced the ex-Martin North RD400E in the 1980 season, it had been home tuned by Martin and his brother and featured in MCM magazine. What a beast that machine was, unlike the Beckett/Stephens tuned RDs, it had a very strong mid range due in part to increased primary compression ratio. My home circuit was Snetterton with a very long back straight, but if I got the exit from Sears just right, I could stay in the slipstream of the GS1000 / CB900Fs, all the way down the straight, then whip out of the slipstream at the end as they braked and stay flat out for another 50m. Boy that bike was fun, whupping the 1000s and 900s.

[nanaki]

Ive got an 87 VFR400 NC24. An absolute hoot to ride

[troyuk]

Had a UK spec FZR400RR for 7 years, same as the one in the video - it ran faultlessly and was great bike for the roads with Maxton TT spec forks. While it was off the road after a car knocked me off I had an NC30 with a standard silencer modified to run a straight through baffle like a race can. Sounded awesome! The Honda felt more powerful than the Yamaha but actually wasn’t, and the Yamaha handled better. The UK FZR400RR cost more than the FZR600 but you could see why with the much better finish and chunky aluminium chassis. The RRSP model cost even more but most of those went on the track I think

[mentula]

I had an NC30 in the proper RC30 colour scheme. Still the most fun I've ever had on a bike. It's not just a great little bike, it's a great bike regardless of its engine capacity. The V4 engine at high revs on a race can is one of the sweetest sounds you'll hear

[jimamizzi]

My favourite is the VFR400R looks just like an RC30 my all time favourite super bike, we did get some of these bikes in Australia but unfortunately not all and today there worth as much as newer super bikes. Excellent video as usual 👍🇦🇺

[xvdd]

The 400cc JDM had a lot of interesting models that luckily made it to the UK back in the grey import days many of which I wish I had owned, I do have a 1996 Honda CBRR 400 Fireblade, 2001 NC35 400 Honda RVF and a 1997 250 Hornet.

[Mark-pnu]

I owned a Honda NS400R back in the day and absolutely loved it! I had gone from an RD350Lc which was fantastic to a GPZ 600R which I was a bit disappointed with so in 1988 I found a two year old NS 400 and traded the Kawasaki in. To be back on a two stroke was epic and the NS sounded brilliant too! I love the smell of two strokes and I remember that I used to come home smelling much more from the NS with it's high level exhaust, happy days! I love lightweight bikes and went from that to a KR1 250 then two RGV 250s.:)

[Blueboy]

Excellent put together video with loads of great information. Thank you 👍👍

[matthewcochran]

Another banger brother! I'm in the US and for some reason many people look down on anything less than 650cc. A lot of people it has to be 750. My bikes are all on the smaller side, though. My daily is a 73 CB350. The crazy thing is a lot of the people that ride the bigger bikes don't have much skill and can't get much out of them. I can blow by them on a twisty road with not much effort and they always come up to me later and say "I don't know how you were able to go by me so much"

[grayfool]

I loved my CB400/4. Did everything I wanted at a reasonable cost. The RD400 was the hero bike at the time. It just begged to be thrashed all the time. Owning the Honda probably saved my license, and almost certainly my life. I had to use a car by the time the bikes you featured here (work and wife, you know).