What's your thoughts on a early RD350

[perterra]

Originally Posted by jstrasser

Not about an RD, but one of the other 2T bikes of that era.

Late 70's I had a huge brain fart and decided to buy an H-1 to go roadracing. Ported the intake and exhaust, cut off all the unnecessary street stuff. Added expansion chamber exhaust, velocity stacks plus clip-ons and I fabbed some rearsets. PZ2 tires (remember those?) completed the build.

Until then I had just ridden a '77 Yamaha XS500 (parallel twin) which handled well- for those days- but was a bit down on power.

The Kaw 500 triple was the opposite. Good power once it was "on the pipe" but handled like......well it didn't.

Back straight at Bridgehampton was actually a series of slight lefthand kinks. AAMRR would have a second ambulance stationed at the end of those kinks and before the carousel. The H-1 would quickly weave down that section so badly that I figured that it would chuck me off and my body could slide right up to the waiting meat wagon.

THANK god current bikes have improved light years beyond those pieces of crap. I'll take a bike that can stop and handle along with accelerate.

The 2 strokes can take their place in the museum, IMHO.

I dont think the 2 stroke part had anything to do with bad handling?

[dwthump]

I love the smell of two-strokes in the morning...
I had a '75 Suzuki GT550 triple 2 stroke in high school, ping, ping, ping. Handling was crappy but when you were in the powerband at about 10,000rpm it really smoked, HOLD ON! It even had a digital gear position light that looked like a Texas-Instruments calculator.

[Florida Lime]

Originally Posted by jstrasser

Not about an RD, but one of the other 2T bikes of that era.

Late 70's I had a huge brain fart and decided to buy an H-1 to go roadracing. Ported the intake and exhaust, cut off all the unnecessary street stuff. Added expansion chamber exhaust, velocity stacks plus clip-ons and I fabbed some rearsets. PZ2 tires (remember those?) completed the build.

Until then I had just ridden a '77 Yamaha XS500 (parallel twin) which handled well- for those days- but was a bit down on power.

The Kaw 500 triple was the opposite. Good power once it was "on the pipe" but handled like......well it didn't.

Back straight at Bridgehampton was actually a series of slight lefthand kinks. AAMRR would have a second ambulance stationed at the end of those kinks and before the carousel. The H-1 would quickly weave down that section so badly that I figured that it would chuck me off and my body could slide right up to the waiting meat wagon.

THANK god current bikes have improved light years beyond those pieces of crap. I'll take a bike that can stop and handle along with accelerate.

The 2 strokes can take their place in the museum, IMHO.

Just to counter that a bit....

1984 - I was running a GPZ1100 in the AAMRR Open Production class (I won the championship), and after one practice at Bridgehampton, I was talking to two fast 2-stroke riders. One was the Formula 2 (TZ250) champion, and the other was the Formula 1 champion on his TZ750, and we had all been playing around together.

They asked me if I knew exactly what my bike was doing on that same back straight, with how poorly it handled.
They thought I was going to run off the track at the end.

I told them yes, thanks for the reminder, but that's how you rode it. When it stopped wobbling through the bumps was how you knew when to bank left toward the carousel, because your vision was so blurred.

They both said no thanks - they'd stick to the real race bikes -- 2 STROKES !

[DC2wheels]

Originally Posted by perterra

I dont think the 2 stroke part had anything to do with bad handling?

No but the Kaw H-1 certainly did and it was powered by an oil burner. My Yamaha 500 twin could handle circles around that limp pasta framed 2T

Originally Posted by Florida Lime

Just to counter that a bit....

......They both said no thanks - they'd stick to the real race bikes -- 2 STROKES !

Guess that was the diff btwn purpose built race bikes and racing a converted street bike.

[RattleCanRacer]

I'm jealous, my riding came after the end of the 2 stroke days. I had a yz225 i think as a kid and it would smoke the 4 strokes, I can only imagine how great a 350 would be, that would be perfect cause any thing bigger would scare the shit out of me.

[perterra]

Originally Posted by jstrasser

No but the Kaw H-1 certainly did and it was powered by an oil burner. My Yamaha 500 twin could handle circles around that limp pasta framed 2T





Guess that was the diff btwn purpose built race bikes and racing a converted street bike.

I had a TX 500, I think it was pretty close to what an XS was. Okay commuter bike but I dont think I would even try to compare it to an H1. Matter of fact when the H1 hit the streets I dont recall much of anything on the street that would stay close on any straight away. While I dont doubt the XS handled better, it's frame was stressed with about 20 less horsepower than the H1 was putting out. With my TX I steered clear of RD's, the Suzuki GT380's and the S-3 Kawasaki. I wont say my TX was a good bike because it wasnt, but I wont say the 2 strokes were bad bikes, because they werent.

As I said about the RD, he pulled away from the TR hard enough that he could go slower thru the corners and I was still far back.


Was your H1 a race series bike?

[Zippydapanhead]

Originally Posted by Red9

Or maybe just the smell of castrol.

The smell is the best... but, different scents for different gents. I had a thing for Bel-Ray.

[perterra]

Originally Posted by RattleCanRacer

I'm jealous, my riding came after the end of the 2 stroke days. I had a yz225 i think as a kid and it would smoke the 4 strokes, I can only imagine how great a 350 would be, that would be perfect cause any thing bigger would scare the shit out of me.

Bone stock RD's weren't bad. Red line wasn't way up there and they were pretty tractable in power delivery.

I don't recall one for the RD but for some of the others (twin jet 100, some of the DT's and maybe the YS 250 and 305's) Yamaha produced a GYT kit (git kit) that was a kit to basically turn it in to a race bike. Some of the little 100's were screamers.

The folks who talk about how crappy the 2 strokes handled and braked forget that everything was about the same in braking, and the ones that handled good mostly did so because they were low in the power to weight ratio.

[DNF]

Bought it used. It seized doing 140 kmh. I did a rebore myself and learned a lot. Fun bike. I had rz envy though. Sold it for a small loss. Don't miss dinking around with points and synching carbs though.

That was a 400 though.
My friend had a rd350 (new) and then a RZ. He loved them and still misses them.

[bloodandmotoroil]

well fuck and shit ,
sorry to get your hopes up, but he's desided that since he's had it so long it's got sentmental value and
wants more for it now. ... i'm not happy at all.


but i did buy a 1935 ford flathead v8 from him and a 70'a moto guzzi frame from him for $34, .. not
sure what i'll do.. but i may just have to build a bike with that..

the rd had the cafe rear and front cowl.. and it's still for sale.. so who knows.. mayhaps if he get's his
thumb out his ass and figures a price i might buy the rd.. but i don't trust him now. ..


what a rat fuck of a situation.


mayhaps i'll build something like a henderson streamliner with the guzzi and the v8. it's only a 80hp 8ba.

[markk53]

RD350.... thoughts....
throttle on
throttle off

yummmmm!

[perterra]

Originally Posted by markk53

RD350.... thoughts....
throttle on
throttle off

yummmmm!

For all the nay sayers THIS!

[doxiedog]

My son has a pic.of him 2yrs old sitting in front of me,on a new 72 750.
He finally got one,wants me to take it out.
NO THANKS,been there done that.:)

[stevepsd]

My first new bike was a 1977 RD400. It was $895 out-the-door. I was in my senior year of high school and just sold my CB400...it was like night & day. The RD went like stink, would wheelie on demand and sip fuel. I actually took it on a 3,000 mile trip thru the PNW the summer after high school. Wish I still had it. Nothing like a 2-stroke twin! Except a 2-stroke triple.

[PJay]

Shame the OP missed out on the bike.

The aircooled RDs were and are magic.

I did my first production racing on RD350s - won my first road race etc - and in total had 5 of them.



NZ rules required the footrest brackets to remain standard. As you can see, I used mine to corner on - when I wasn't using other bikes as berms. (This pic is actually post-classic racing, but it was an original racebike of mine that I just dragged out of the shed 20+ years after the day.)

Still have an RD400. Oh, yessss.