Beginning of the Dream

And so to the Dream's beginning.

Who knows when she was actually built, but she was first registered in the UK in June 1978, (while I was sweating away doing my O-levels!), so I guess that's when she had her first breath, as it were.

She (for they are, of course, always "she") is officially a Honda CB400T Dream, also known in the States as the Hawk.

Reverting to a twin cylinder engine, this model took over from the legendary 400/4 - it was always going to be a hard act to follow in the UK, where the 400/4 had achieved classic status almost from day one. Reading contemporary road tests now though, the Dream eclipsed the 400/4 in most areas except swoopy exhaust headers and sounding like a sewing machine!



My 400/4 (c. 1984)



However, Honda very quickly realised that the styling was wrong for the time and within 18 months or so the bike was superseded by the Superdream - mechanically very similar but with much more modern "Euro" styling, whatever that meant!

Personally, I loved the styling, and still do. I had owned the Honda 360G5 and really liked the look of that, with it's upswept chrome exhausts.



My old CB360G5 (c. 1979)



For me, Honda got it bang on, harping back to that style, but with the short megaphone exhausts bringing something of the old British Cafe-Racer look into the mix as well. Maybe I was remembering that black Norton Commado again?

Anyway back to my Dream. She has only been ridden by one owner, who bought her from Horners in Manchester. Looking back on the MOT records, she racked up 10,000 miles in 8 years, but then appears to have been taken off the road in 1986. Stored for 20 years, in about 2007, the guy was coming up to retirement and concluded he was never going to get her back on the road or ride again, so offered her to a work colleague who was interested in a restoration.

He went as far as stripping the petrol tank and carbs off to try and get her running again and then also lost interest, whereupon she lay neglected for another couple of years. I then won her in an EBay auction (from memory, for about £250) and became her proud owner on 9 July 2009!

So what did I get - a gem or a pup? I think a gem. She is never likely to have mass appeal, but is a relative rarity. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I love her styling (but then again,  I am stuck in 1978!) As part of the deal, I got the original owner's handbook and toolkit. She was very rusty, from having been stood for so long, but pretty much 100% original and otherwise undamaged, so a fantastic basis for a restoration.