Outside Japan, the VFR400R (NC30) was officially imported to the United Kingdom for four years, but with a price tag of £5899[2] (similar to that of the 1000 cc bikes of the time and actually more than Honda's own VFR750F), failed to sell well.

It was also officially imported (in very limited numbers) and sold in Austria, France and Germany for a few years.

The first generation of VFR400 was the 1986–1987 NC21, which had replaced the VF400F when the Honda VF series was phased out (mainly due to reliability issues with the head and cam chain).

The "K" and "P" both had a single round headlight and bar risers to give a more upright riding position.

All had a single piece seat for rider and pillion, 3 spoke cast wheels (16" front and 18" rear), an aluminum frame with steel rear subframe, and a conventional dual-sided aluminum swing arm with single shock.

This model also had the 180° deg crank firing engine as with the NC21, but redline was raised to 14000 rpm and the CDI dropped the cam position sensor input that the NC21 used.

Note that the rear wheel on the NC24 was held onto the hub with 4 bolts (sometimes hidden with a plastic 'fake' single nut).

The VFR400R is restricted by means of an optical sensor inside the speedometer, and a black sector attached to the indicator needle shaft.

When needle swings round to 180 km/h (110 mph) the sector starts to block the sensor, ignition is cut to the front two cylinders thereby reducing power such that the motorcycle can not accelerate further.