“I own a Honda NS400R”
The Honda NS400R is just one of a number of exotic Japanese sports bikes owned by Owen Cashin. “I meant to buy one when they first came out in 1985 to replace my RD350LC but my girlfriend at the time flatly refused to go on the back!” he recalls. “So this bike is a bit of a nostalgia trip.” With less than 1500 miles clocked and in spotless mint condition, the NS400R is Owen’s most recent acquisition. Like most of his other machines, it’s a sports two-stroke from the 80s and 90s, a period when the Japanese factories were competing fiercely on the domestic market to technically upstage each other. “The NS400R came from Aberystwyth and it’s absolutely mint condition with only 1500 miles,” says Owen. “I reckon this one is worth £10,000 now. It would be hard to find another like it. And only three years ago they were going for £5500!” A lifelong motorcyclist who started on Vespas in the Eighties, Owen soon graduated to the 350LC and after owning big sports bikes in the 2000s found their appeal waning. That’s when raw 250cc race replicas caught his eye. “I got bored stupid with what the factories were producing, so I started looking for Japanese market models.” The 250cc machines in his collection include a Yamaha TZR250 3XV RS V-twin, a TZR250SP 3MA parallel twin with reverse cylinders and a Honda NSR250R MC28, the last of the line. Just as tasty is a Yamaha RZV500 V4, the Japanese model with an aluminium frame, a Yamaha OW-01, an FZR400SP and a Suzuki GSX-R400SP. In the meantime a mint RG500 was replaced by a Yamaha OW-02 R7. Next on Owen’s wish list is one of the first Yamaha FZR1000 Genesis models.