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[1A1 engine, seems to be complete, and somehow it was fitted with a CDI ignition.]

After while of searching, I heard of a guy in the city of Cali (10 hour drive), that was selling two
bikes. Both were rd400´s, he said one was a 78 rd400, the other a 1979 "Daytona", the "Daytona"
one the ownership card, the other one didn´t. But again the one with ownership card was under
somebody else´s name and not the seller.

A quick search on Facebook and I came across the person on the card, he had his phone there, 
gave him a call and told him that somebody was selling a bike under his name, I wanted to
purchase it, but only if he agreed to sign over the ownership to me......  he agreed....  So I was in
business. He was really nice about it... and started telling me stories about the bike, and how he
had left the bike at a bike shop and sold it. But never transferred the ownership card of the bike to
the new seller.

So I found out that after him, the bike changed hands 3 to 4 times before arriving at the hands of
the one that was selling it to me. Who told me had no time to restore the "Daytona". He was busy
with other bikes.

He sent me pictures and we agreed on a price of $1500 for both bikes, I would pay $80 shipping
from cali to bogota with a driver he knew, and I would pay him if I liked what i saw 4 days after the
bikes arrived, so I had time to check them. (This is not common here or anywhere I know, I was
surprised that he wanted to do it that way, to trusty of people).  This gave me confidence on him,
so I agreed.

So this arrived:



The "daytona" which by this time and the little research I had done, i noticed that it was not an
rd400f Daytona special (2vo), but a rd400g (3m4) which is a mix between a 79 rd400e with
CDI ignition from the UK with a 79 Daytona special.
More on this bike later.



this arrived also











1A1 engine, seems to be complete, and somehow it was fitted with a CDI ignition.


The carbs are definetly not the original ones, have no branding whatsoever.



what appeared to be a 78 rd400 in boxes. But had a Daytona fuel tank, and bits from many
different bikes, the 1A1 engine appeared to be complete.


Once I assessed the bikes. i checked the rd400g and saw that one of the engine mounts was broken.

I did know of a shop in Bogota that specializes in fixing dirt bike frames, and is an expert tig welder.

I gave him a call and said that he could fix it.

But this gave me a little negotiating power, since the guy that was selling the bike never said
anything about a broken engine mount.

So in the end I agreed to pay $1100 for both bikes. A thought I could keep the 1A1 engine for
spares, and try to fix the rd400g.

The first bike I saw that had a good price was this 1977 rd400 which was going for $500



Pretty cheap you would say, but it had a catch:

First, i´m not sure how this works in the US or EUROPE, but here, you have to pay annual taxes on
vehicles. If said taxes are not paid, you can not transfer ownership of a bike to anybody. And if you
do not pay this taxes which are about 30 dollars for the current year, next time you want to pay
THOSE unpaid years, it costs around 100 US dollars more per year. 

This bike had not paid taxes for the last 5 years, and this is a recurring problem on must older bikes around here.

Second, every vehicle has a registration under somebody´s name, it's called an ownership card,
and this is the most important item of all, because if you happen to drive a bike, and the
ownership card is under a different person, and somehow the police impounds your bike. Only the
person on the card can retrieve it. And here in Colombia you get pulled over just by looking at a
cop funny, and they love to stop motorcycles and impound them, if any paper is not in order.

This bike was under someone else's name and not the seller, so I would have had to look for said
owner somehow and see if this person agreed to transfer ownership of the bike, but also I would
have had to pay all the unpaid taxes, and after the bike had passed our Colombian MOT, and
neither the owner nor I had unpaid speeding or parking tickets under our names, then I could have
transfered ownership.

So in the process of looking for this person, which took me around a week (the seller did not even
know who the person on the ownership card was) the only thing we knew was that it was not
reported stolen on the police files.

So long story short someone else purchased the bike for parts, so I missed out on this one. But it would have been a risk to have purchased it.....

But because of this bike I started reading about the rd400´s and fell in love with them, there appeared to be quite an interest in these two strokes all around the world.

Now: december 1st 2018 looking back, I regret not buying it for parts, I wish I knew back then what I know now about rd´s.

So know I knew what I wanted:

An rd400 which had to have at least an ownership card with somebody that could sign over the
transfer of ownership to my name.

[Short story on the process of purchasing the project bike]

Short story on the process of purchasing the project bike

On 2015 I wanted to purchase a project bike (at the time any bike would do) I did not even know
much about bikes but had been reading about the café racer scene, watching videos of classic
bikes and reading about them on magazines, mainly PRACTICAL SPORTSBIKES, CLASSIC BIKES,
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE and whatever magazine I could get my hands on.

One thing you guys must keep in mind is that cars and motorcycles are extremely expensive here
in Colombia, as every new imported vehicle must pay a tariff of 35% plus 19% taxes as of 2018.

An example of this, so you guys can rejoice at the prices of products in the US and EUROPE, a brand
new 2019 bmw r nine t  in the USA costs $15.495.....  that same bike here costs $23.125


In the 70´s and 80´s being a third world country, Colombia was extremely closed to the
international markets and this tariffs were higher back then, so most cars and motorcycles were
crap, performance wise, had tiny engines and we got the weakest versions of every model. It was
extremely rare to see high end cars and motorcycles as they commanded premium prices when
new.


Cars and bikes were usually 2 times more expensive here in Colombia than in the usa or Britain.
So, the bmw´s, JDM motorcycles, British and Italian bikes of that era and anything above 250cc
that have survived, are extremely rare, many of this bikes of the era are in piss poor conditions
and have been hacked and kept alive by frankensteinian methods of organ transplantation.


Also it´s illegal to register imported second hand bikes and cars. So basically, we will
have to do with whatever was imported as new at the time.


On top of this, and because of this, the market that surrounds the classic, vintage cars and
bikes restoration is extremely underdeveloped. It´s hard to find mechanics or shops that specialize
in Anything.
as an example, I have not been able to locate a shop that does vapor blasting anywhere in the
country, the used parts market is almost nonexistent. So I have to rely on the ability to purchase
used and new parts, through the internet, mainly in the USA, EUROPE and any where that  has
shipping to the USA, as importing has to be done through couriers from Miami, Florida to
Colombia but there is an extra added cost to every part I purchase on shipping.

So here I am, looking for a bike to restore.

I'm going to try and detail everything about the story of this restoration, I have already written
many pages with pictures, let me know if you would like me to continue doing as I'm doing. I will
try to add to the project post on a chronological order every few days.

The first few posts might be a little on the heavy writing side with not that many pictures. But it´ll
get easier, faster and more "pictury" as it goes on.

hopefully everybody can give this project insight on any mistakes that I have made.....  and will
continue to make, we can all learn from this.


short background on me

I´m 39 and I have always wanted to restore a classic motorcycle. This is my first project. I´m not a
Mechanic, engineer (or a writer for this manner) but I pride myself on being able to self teach me
trough books, videos and plain stubbornness on the desire to finish a project.
so, god bless the interwebs and free time.


I have ridden motorcycles but I don't consider myself a good rider, I have never owned one either
until this bike came along, I don't even have a motorcycle license, but love the idea and spirit of
them. plus I have this urge of taking everything apart and putting it back together....

so....   Purchasing a motorcycle that later I found out was called here in Colombia "la muerte
blanca" (the white death), this is going to be a fun and interesting ride, so wish me luck.

DISCLAIMER: since the old forum died, with everything else in it, (good thing i saved this post on word), so i will be reposting it in the next couple of days in the same order. and try to fix any mistakes , spelling, grammar and the presentation if i see anything wrong.



INTRODUCTION
I got this rd400g in a really bad state.
got it on November 2016 and have been purchasing parts and trying to restore the bike ever since.
I will be posting the restoration, the purchase of parts and the decision making that has gone
trough everything. Hopefully you guys can correct me if I'm making mistakes,
and we can have a correct project post restoring the rd400g as I have never come across
one on the web.
I will also keep tags on the price of parts and labor, for future references.
I have decided to post the project now, since I'm almost done purchasing the most needed
parts in order to bring this beauty to its original glory.
English is my second language so sorry for any spelling and grammar mistakes in the future.
So to keep people interested here are the pictures of my 1980 rd400g. it was registered at
that time here in Colombia, don´t know if it was built on 1979 or 1980.
My guess is 1979 but I could be mistaken. Hopefully it´s 79 since I was also born on that
year and that would be cool.

yes this is the sorry state i bought it in.

Later i will post all the problems that this piece of junk had and all the mistakes i made as a rookie, but bear with me, it´s getting there








The story on this bikes is that they were used by the Colombian police force. But so far it´s been hard to get info on them locally.