10,000 Hours: Rick Denoon’s turbocharged Honda CB400F

In 1993, the Swedish psychologist Ok. Anders Ericsson hypothesized that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of apply to really grasp a ability. Over a decade later, Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling novel ‘The Outliers’ would affirm this speculation, declaring that The Beatles spent roughly the identical period of time honing their craft in strip golf equipment round Hamburg earlier than anybody knew who they had been again within the UK.

So what do scholarly papers, public intellectuals, and worldwide debauchery should do with {custom} bikes? To place it bluntly, Rick Denoon estimates that, during the last 16 years, he’s put about 10,000 hours of labor into this turbocharged Honda CB400F.

The story begins approach again in 2006. Rick had simply completed essentially the most spectacular construct of his life—an Egli chassised Honda 400F that made the quilt of the British journal Basic Bike Mechanics. Rick’s slab-sided Honda endurance racer was a factor of magnificence, however he was able to take issues additional with a whole ground-up construct like no different.

The planning course of for the bike you see right here started—however it will be a very long time earlier than Rick turned the primary wrench.

As a 3D CAD designer by commerce, Rick was uniquely certified to obsess over each element of the bike in digital kind. Earlier than something had been bodily constructed, he had run an in-depth evaluation of all of the Honda’s main elements—from the body, wheels, and entrance finish proper all the way down to the clip-ons he deliberate to make use of.

Because it presently sits, this CB is constructed to what Rick refers to as ‘Model 28’ of the design. Sure—Rick went again to the drafting board practically 30 instances since beginning in 2007. And whereas a few of these variations by no means made it past his laptop display screen, a number of had been totally constructed, torn down, and began over alongside the best way.

Hours had been poured into conceptual design, however ultimately, Denoon needed to start his masterwork in earnest. “It’s sort of embarrassing to confess, nevertheless it took practically 13 years to lastly have a operating bike on the highway,” he tells us. “It’s straightforward to get caught up in adjustments, and in some unspecified time in the future, it’s a must to simply cease and construct it!”

A hand-built body was made utilizing a mixture of metal tubing and T6 aluminum plates, and a brand new subframe, machined from T6 aluminum, was bolted onto that. Rick had designed the bike round a set of Honda CBR954RR forks, with the rake set to 24.5 levels.

For the swingarm, Rick sourced the polished angular magnificence you see right here from an Aprilia Mille. Then he narrowed it down by hand to accommodate a set of bespoke spun aluminum wheels, laced to CNC machined hubs through CNC machined spokes. His plan from the beginning was to make the most of a Honda CBR600RR shock—however, as is the case with the remainder of the bike, Rick went a lot additional than merely machining some spacers and bolting the factor on.

“The rear suspension was designed utilizing Tony Foale’s suspension software program to imitate the power curve of a CBR600RR,” he explains. “That ensured that utilizing the CBR shock would yield applicable suspension forces. The Foale software program gives you the vectors and the quantity of power being transferred from the rear wheel by means of the swingarm, into the hyperlinks, and ultimately into the body mounting factors.”

With the key chassis components sorted, Rick moved on to the brakes and controls. Triple clamps, foot controls, and clip-on handlebars had been CNC-machined from scratch. The only entrance rotor and caliper had been carried over from the CBR954RR, whereas a Brembo caliper was fitted to a rear disk taken from a CBR600F.

Rick is aware of his approach round a CB400F engine. He’s constructed quite a few 400F customs each for himself and on fee. And up till this construct, he’s all the time passed by what is usually thought-about the method for squeezing efficiency out of the little four-cylinder.

“The confirmed technique is to bore it to 458 cc, add a cam, bore the carbs to 24 mm, and spin the hell out of it,” he says. “400Fs are fairly gutless under 8,000 rpm, then there’s a little bit of successful, and the ability comes on till 10, 11, or 12,000 rpm, relying in your construct specs.”

Rick says that this was initially the plan right here, however about midway by means of the method, he stumbled throughout some cheap Chinese language copies of an IDI turbo. With nothing however time on his fingers, Rick started to marvel: may this be the ultimate piece that was lacking?

In fact, including a turbo meant that Rick must add gasoline injection. And that meant including a MicroSquirt ECU, a custom-fitted Bell intercooler, and a pair of CBR600RR throttle our bodies and injectors to deal with all of it. Sadly, even with all the proper components in hand, Rick realized that the 400F engine wouldn’t make practically sufficient amperage to run the brand new EFI system—so he cooked up a {custom} repair which he additionally pulled from a CBR600RR.

Becoming the brand new generator from the child ‘Blade was no straightforward job. Rick needed to machine a compound-angled sleeve from scratch to mate the large-diameter CBR rotor to the a lot smaller 400F crank. As soon as he succeeded in becoming the brand new system, a brand new housing was required to seal the entire meeting—therefore the {custom} CNC machined cowl you see on the present bike.

Energy on the crankshaft has practically doubled, leaping from 37 hp to a formidable 65 hp at 10 lbs of increase, and torque figures are up by about 27 Nm. Curiously sufficient, Rick says when the bike is ridden with out increase, it nonetheless runs identical to a inventory 400F and averages over 65 miles to the (imperial) gallon.

“The bike rides, stops, and handles like a contemporary bike as a result of suspension, brakes, and geometry, and within reason comfy to trip,” he tells us. “And it does get ridden. I’ve executed over 28,000 km [about 17,400 miles] within the final 4 years.”

With the key shifting components sorted out and years of trial and error behind him, Rick was lastly free to finalize his masterpiece. That carbon fairing you see on the entrance? It’s precisely what you assume it’s; pulled from a Buell Firebolt, magnesium fairing keep and all.

The matching carbon entrance fender was borrowed from an “unknown Yamaha,” after which made to suit utilizing hand-formed and CNC-machined aluminum mounts. The tank can also be completely hand-formed, as is the stomach pan, intercooler bracket, and chain guard.

The cluster of gauges is a mixture of a Koso RX-2 and an Accell increase gauge. added on to watch the turbo. The seats are hand-built from scratch, and all of the electronics are held collectively by a {custom} wiring harness operating off a Shorai Lithium-ion battery.

Rick’s turbocharged Honda CB400F is each bit deserving of the title of masterpiece—if for no motive than the truth that it’s introduced a beloved previous Honda powerplant from the Seventies into the fashionable period. A compelled induction sportbike with a kickstart is a breath of contemporary air we didn’t even know we wanted.

Properly executed, Rick.

Denoon SP | Pictures by Derek Molinski

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