Just some of my old bikes

[Bake]

Thought as the new guy a few pics might come in handy to understand a bit about me.

My first bike, a 1967 Yamaha 305. I don't have a pic, this garnered off the Internet:

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/63454179-M.jpg


1971
Yamaha R5 350

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/46199455-M.jpg

Yes, that's a home made "Airhawk" seat pad. The seat on that R5 was murder.

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/63454182-M.jpg

1972
Yamaha DT2 250

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/51623072-M.jpg

1977
Yamaha RD400 cafe

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/46199451-M.jpg

Many years later, that white RD400 I modified again into this, with TZ250 crank bearings, fender, cut down and re-glassed seat, and JetHot coated DG pipes.

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/46199433-M.jpg


1982 Suzuki RM 250. Darn thing 'bout kilt me.
http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/49925556-M.jpg

1985
Yamaha RZ350

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/49925527-M.jpg



1991
1983 Honda Ascot dualsported

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/47115542-M.jpg

Above Monarch, Colorado
http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/46199488-M.jpg

1998
BMW R850R

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/49925520-M.jpg

2000
Yamaha YZF600R

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/49925534-M.jpg

2002
BMW R1150R

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/49925533-M.jpg

2005
BMW F650GS dual spark

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/58629893-M.jpg

2006
BMW R1150R dual spark

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/38266203-M.jpg

A pleasant surprise to catch one of these for sale with just 4,000 miles. The newest addition to my timeline: '03 K1200RS

http://bake.smugmug.com/photos/65161331-M.jpg

[Deans BMW]

Great pictorial history.

[Arby]

Great pictures. And welcome.

Bob

[DarthRider]

Bake -
Sort of a strange non-coincidence here...
I never owned a single one of those "back in the day" bikes.
But...the ones I did own during those times would be seen on the same trails, streets & roads, often together with yours!
You had a DT 250 Yamaha, I had an RT 360 (high sidin', bone breakin' sunofabitch!)
I crashed a buddy's RD 400 under the front end of a big old Chrysler...oh, the pain...
I like the Ascot trailie.
Etc, etc.
Memories...memories...

Dave

[BobFV1]

Bake - excellent pictorial essay - thanks for sharing!

[DJ Down Under]

Great pics..that old Yamaha DT brought back some memories...:)

DJ

[Bake]

Updated the pics with a few more.

[fganger]

Hey! Where did the "young guy" go? Oh, I see him; he's hidden inside that older guy.

Not that it applies to anyone else on this board, especially me.:037:

One of my early bikes was a Yamaha* as well. It was a 1961, pressed steel frame, rotary valve, 125 cc street machine. I put many happy miles on it. It had to go just as soon as Yamaha came out with its 250 twin. Still mixing oil and gas, but finally I could beat my friend with his Triumph 350 Speed Twin. Then a TD1 and I was speedy racer.

Nice memories,
Frank

* I'm sure many know that the word "Yamaha" means "mountain song" in Japanese. Or so I'm told.

[Wild Will]

I had one of those 305 Yamahas in '66. It was a superb machine, and it remains imprinted in my mind until I go to my reward, as my Dad says.
I also had an RZ 350, another superb machine. DT1, FZR 750, FJ 600, R6 - Yamaha has made some fantastic machinery, and they're still going strong.
Last year at USGP, Yamaha had a superb display of mant of their fglory days machines, including your 305 and 350. I was brought to tears. Thanks for the pix.

[Ed K]

Hey Bake...one of buddies used to ride an R5 350, while I rode my RD350.

I continue to be amazed at the number of folks who had that series...thru to the 400...

[DarthRider]

I once busted my ass BIGTIME on a friends' RD 400...does that count?

Dave

[Dallara]

Count me as one who had a passel of Yamaha RD's...

A 1973 RD-350 much like this one:


http://www.dease.net/photo/rd350/73rd350_factory1.jpg


It was stock when I bought it used with 1,100 miles on it, but later acquired some aftermarket expansion chambers...


Then later I got a 1977 RD-400, much like this one:

http://www.geocities.com/redrd400/rd/myrd.jpg


I was working as a mechanic in a Yamaha shop in College Station, Texas while I went to school at Texas A&M. It was brought in seized with 1,800 miles on it. Idiot who owned it ran the oil tank out of oil and cooked off the lower end. He didn't want ot fix it for the estimated cost so I bought it off him for a song... Nothing about it remained stock during the rebuild... TZ lower end bearings with silver cages, TZ crank pins, slotted rods, RD350 pistons with enlarged windows, TZ reed cages, ported cylinders, re-contoured squish bands in the heads and heads polished, Specialist II expansion chambers, Specialist II rear-sets, tapered steering head bearings, re-worked and re-sprung forks, bronze swingarm bushings, trick wheel bearings for less bearing drag, lightened and drilled brake rotors, S&W rear shocks, cut-down and re-foamed seat, Michelin DOT race rubber... Tons of stuff. The thing was a ROCKET!

Last but not least was a gorgeous 1979 RD-400-F "Daytona Special" much like this one:

http://www.strappe.com/ss_2.jpg


Got it in 1985 or '86, IIRC... I was a Honda dealer then, but one day I walked into Fred Trott's "Motorcycle Shop" (that was it's name, honestly, and still is...) in San Antonio, Texas. Fred was an old friend and I would drop in to visit him whenever I was in San Antone... Fred was a Brit who had a knack for finding the neatest used bikes. The RD "Daytona Special" I bought from him was a weird one. A guy who had been a Yamaha dealer had owned the bike, and when he sold his Yamaha shop he kept the RD-400-F. He put 900 miles on it and then parked it in the entry hallway of his HOUSE! A few years later when he was moving he sold it to Fred, and it was sitting on a high display stand in Fred's shop when I walked in that day, and it was PERFECT! Completely pristine. Fred didn't want to sell it, but after a bit of haggling (read: me begging profusely...) he sold it to me. I didn't do a thing to it except fit some Koni rear shocks, and then rode it around from time to time for fun. The rest of the time it sat on the showroom floor with the rest of the collection of bikes I had at the time, which ranged from things like a 1966 Honda 305 Super Hawk, 1967 Triumph Tiger Cub, 1975 Triumph T-160 Triple, 1972 Honda SL-350 Scrambler, to my 1983 Honda MVX-250 two-stroke V-3, Honda Gold Wing SE, 1984 Honda VF-750-F (with zero miles), 1986 Honda VFR-750-F, and 1990 Honda RC-30 (also with zero miles)... Without a doubt the Yamaha RD-400-F was one of the bikes that people ofte3n said they would love to own more than the rest of the bunch.

Man, Yamaha RD's (and R-5's, DS-7's, etc.) were some of the greatest bikes to ever come out of Japan, or anywhere for that matter.

Thanks for tickling the memory cells!

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)

[supermotoC]

Ditto on that!

I started out (after my formative years on MX bikes) at 15 on an LS2, which was a '72 or '73(?) 100cc twin, legal for 15year-olds (125ccc or less) in Texas. This thing flexed like a wooden snow sled, but predictably so - and sounded amazing when wound out to red line [which was always]. Top speed - 72mph (with the wind, downhill).

The 1982 RD350LC was by far the favorite - truly a motocross-power bike that handled OK on the street - I sort-of "imported" it from the great white north to Texas, in the crate ($2100 new). Long story, but in my case, ignorance was bliss. Registered w/no problem. This is the one to have back.
My Duke II is most like this bike - stupid-quick, wheelies at the flick of the wrist, very light, gets you called a "hooligan" often.

The 1984 RZ-500 was just a little too fast, a little too uncomfortable, and better to look at than anything. I was a Kenny Roberts/Giacomo Agostini/Jarno Saarinen junkie. This one also sounded like no other (not unlike an H2). Yes, 16 inch front wheel. Also from Hunt Yamaha in Quebec, via shipping-in-the-crate. $3100 new.

click for bigger pics



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