Reply With QuoteLoved the X7 I had back in the 80's. Unfortunately no photos of it from back then, tho my mate in Canada has got one and when he restored it did in a similar shade of red that mine was...
What a great thread. Pictures of loads of bikes I've owned.
I started with a metallic purple FS1E. Till I blew it up with a Micron pipe.Then I had a Honda MT5 like one on here but red. Then it was a Yam DT100,175 twin shock and 175mx A Suzuki RM100,250, and a 465 on the road. Kawa KDX125, 200 Honda CR125,500 KTM 500. A Yam IT465 as above but blue. Yam TZR250 . I'm sure there were more but I can't remember the rest.
Twin shock racing has resurrected a lot the strokers. Only now they are 10 x the price. 7k for a 1981 Maico 500.
And of course Castrol R racing oil is the best smell in racing.
Loved the X7 I had back in the 80's. Unfortunately no photos of it from back then, tho my mate in Canada has got one and when he restored it did in a similar shade of red that mine was...
remember the x7 coming out - it was much faster than anything else at that time.Originally Posted by BDStevens
Loved the X7 I had back in the 80's. Unfortunately no photos of it from back then, tho my mate in Canada has got one and when he restored it did in a similar shade of red that mine was...
Ohh cool! Looks like a 31k from what i can see, so the first of the YPVS's which are collectable of course. :)Oh dear. Just bought this:
Got a bit carried away so no doubt I've paid way over the odds, but I've been after a mechanical project for a little while, and this is the bike of my dreams from when I was a young chap into his bikes. For those who don't know it's a Yamaha RD350LC YPVS :)
JonW, you might be getting a few PMs in the next few months!
Simon, no worries mate, PM away. join RDLCCrazy and the 350 side of the rzrd500.com, both great sources of help and inspiration, I am of course well known there for my sins.
Can't wait to see what you do and how you go with this, take your time and research before you choose what you will do, restoration to as new is very expensive and modding can be a challenge, both give you a superb bike you will enjoy tho. Welcome to the LC fold! :D
Edited to add... looks like you also have some later clocks there (with the original kidney units as well) and also possibly an R6 rear shock upgrade, both useful and gives you options... and also a metchamex swingearm, very nice. Immediate obvious thing not there is the bikini fairing.
Those pipes will sell well on ebay... no one needs the original boat anchors these days, plenty of better options now that work properly, not like the old days LOL
Last edited by JonW; 7th October 2012 at 11:55.
Thanks Jon for the kind words, it is indeed an early 31k :)
Interesting info re swingarm and shock, I knew they weren't standard but didn't know much else. The rev counter glass on the original clocks is missing so the previous owner sourced a similar set from another model, don't know if they will be of use yet or not.
There are some fairing bits not in the picture but I don't think it is complete (screen certainly missing).
I can't quite decide on my approach, part of me just wants to put it back together as is and see what we end up with, another part wants to finish off the strip-down and check it all out properly. My ultimate aim isn't a full restoration at this point but to get it to be a tidy runner, which I think this bike can be as it is in a far better state than I anticipated. The only thing is the frame was shot-blasted and painted black, and should be red, which I want to sort, and the wheels have been painted yellow for some reason (well, the previous owner said the plan was to turn it into a race-bike in blue/yellow colours).
Anyway, today was frustrating as I had to go visit my mother when I really wanted to get at it, but next weekend going to be busy taking a better look at everything.
Well, if youre doing the frame and the wheels then it will be hard to ignore doing the rest I reckon. These bikes are not hard to put together, so you could assemble it quickly and see if youre issing anything major and then decide what you think it looks like, they look great when repainted but its not a 5min job of course.
Sadly with the clocks, the later F clocks wont fit in the 31k housing... The rev counter also is electric on those models and runs off a cable on the 31k. You can fit them if you use a Zeeltronic and make a bracket, but if you want the 31k look you will need to source the originals I reckon.
Have you decided on an engine spec? plenty people out there who will relieve your wallet of hard earned to make it go faster and sound better :)
Exciting times...
that's very nice! is it a mugello?
here's my malossi vespa
- - - Updated - - -
that's very nice! is it a mugello?
here's my malossi vespa
- - - Updated - - -
that's very nice! is it a mugello?
here's my malossi vespa
- - - Updated - - -
that's very nice! is it a mugello?
here's my malossi vespa
what the heck happened there???
That is lovely.
Nice to see some scooters on here.
Cheers,
Neil.
Hello
Yes it's a Mugello with GP crank, variatronic ignition, 5-plate clutch, 26mil carb, GP 200 gearbox sprockets. Nice Vespas!! I used to have a few vespas - et4, px125 and gts250. I had 70cc Mallossi cylinder in an Aprilia sonic, went like a rocket!
I learnt to drive on a BSA Bantam 175cc.
Well, that and the RAC/ACU course where we had the 125cc vesion of the Bantam and some scooters.
All great fun and the first thing we had to learn was how to ride very slowly. Stood me in good stead.
Very late replying to this - but yes, rode a 600cc too, before they brought in the 125cc learner law - then I had to pass my test :(
It's just a matter of time...
As a kid I acquired a corgi folding parachute bike with a small 2 stroke, passed my test on a 2stroke Bantam, had a newish 380 GT SUZUKI, my all time fave was a DKW jeep with a 3cyl 2 stroke motor in it. Is the mystery bike on the first page an MZ ?
My first leagal bike on the road was a Cagiva Mito Evo 6. I bought it brand new and de-restrict as soon as it was run in.
It was lovely, as it looked like Ducati 916 but a little smaller with high tune 125 two stroker that would do 100mph everywhere and 120 mph with my back side on the pillion seat.
Some of my mates had cbr400's and rvf400's but even they couldn't live with the Mito on twisty roads. I had to get rid of it as it was going to kill me as it would carry ridiculess amounts of courier speed and ether some one was going to pull out on me (again.... I got knocked off my bike on the way to my bike test and I was riding as if on my test!) or I was going to hit a patch of diesel on a fast corner or roundabout and end up in a field or worse.
Still miss the smiles that bike gave me :D
Which country was this in?
Oh dear. Just bought this
Got a bit carried away so no doubt I've paid way over the odds, but I've been after a mechanical project for a little while, and this is the bike of my dreams from when I was a young chap into his bikes. For those who don't know it's a Yamaha RD350LC YPVS :)
JonW, you might be getting a few PMs in the next few months!
That was a very familiar sight in our back garden many years ago ,my brothers not mine he stripped the engine on it waiting for a part, must have laid there for about 6 months it used to drive my old man crackers I think it was a suzuki GT 750 after he put it back together ,he said it went like a dream, don't know about that but it was bleedin quick.
gl with your project.
Last edited by the big fella; 25th July 2013 at 18:36.
My only Two Stroke was my first Superbike - Suzuki GT750 water cooled triple - affectionately nicknamed the Kettle
At the time I thought it went like stink - smooth but effortless power - It hated pootling around town but get on the open road and it was superb
Mine had 'Lester' mag alloy wheels which were a real novelty. I can remember fitting Dunlop TT100 tyres to it.
A mint one of these bikes now is worth big money
Similar for me.
I started at 16 with an RD50MX, then had an NSR125 before swapping it for a TZR125 - would have been 1987-1989. I locked open the powervalve on the TZR (naughty teenager that I was) - nothing at all until about x thousand revs then all hell was let loose.
passed my test on a bantam and straight out and got a Suzuki t500 twin....them were the days
TZR125 did over 22k without a rebore or seizing (had it from new)
RD350YPVS track bike put back on the road
Ah happy dayz!
I remember the kettles and their legendary fuel consumption LOL. Lovely sweet bike tho.
Have you noticed how skinny the tyres were on the old superbikes compared to the modern stuff ? I remember the TT100 tyres and i am guessing you fitted them to replace the standard " Yokahama Deathmasters " ?.
( Younger F1 fans might be puzzled by this, but in the 1970's, when you ordered a new bike you paid the shop to remove the standard fit Yokahama and Bridgestone tyres and fit Dunlops or Pirellis before you took delivery because Japeneese tyres were appalingly bad in those days)
Yamaha Five Speed 1 Extracted for me also.
Harry Moss expansion chamber, back pegs down, laying on the tank, chin on the speedo, elbows tucked in I could manger 55mph in very favourable conditions.
PRT 650R would be snapped up tomorrow if it turned up.
Paul
Ring ding ding ding ding ring ding ding
Suzuki GP100 first at the age of 17 followed by a Yamaha TZR125. Seized both more than once, don't know how much time I spent with the baffles, a blow torch and a wire brush...
...Happy days!
Another Kwacker here - KR-1S (white & green like the pictures on page 2).
Bought from Stan Stevens with no modifications, only a set of very grippy Avon Clubsports which gave stupidly stupid lean angles on all but the greasiest of surfaces.
Last edited by PJ S; 25th July 2013 at 14:56.
Had some RDs in my youth and as I enjoyed the garage side of bike ownership I have, for my sins, just bought this (I can't afford an RD they are tooo expensive now):-
Nothing like the smell and sound of a 2-stroke - ringdingding
Your Brother was quite right !!
I had a 750 Mach lV - "the widowmaker" - I sold it very quickly - "mental" just doesn't describe them.
BTW my very first motor bike was a BSA C12 (at the age of 14) and the car - Wolseley 1500 single carb.
B
Last edited by Brian; 25th July 2013 at 15:02.
Now that picture takes me back to my youth. They were a common sight back then - a GT380 on a trailer with a seized centre cylinder LOL.Had some RDs in my youth and as I enjoyed the garage side of bike ownership I have, for my sins, just bought this (I can't afford an RD they are tooo expensive now):-
Nothing like the smell and sound of a 2-stroke - ringdingding
Just kidding.
Nooooooo
For no reason at all that I can work out I've got a real hankering for a GT 380. No idea why. I've never liked strokers, only ever owned one. Good luck with that one ;-)
Loads of old two strokes when I was a teenager Lambrettas, Yamaha 175 enduro, and a great Yamaha RD 250 with a tear drop tank. All but the latter written off, fun days!!
Last edited by Martin123; 25th July 2013 at 19:26.
I had a Yamaha RXS100 with a micron can. The bike's long gone but I still have a piston with a hole in the crown somewhere.
I had the RD200 for awhile back in the early 80s while my mega bucks mates had the LCs. Stranger now, my neighbour for the last 20 years has had his Kawa Triple still covered up and sitting in his parent's garage for the last 25 years, not even seen daylight.......Keep asking him what he wants to do with it, but always the same answer, "oh I'll do something with it one day"
Oh and a RG250 hack that liked to flood itself, didn't have it for long.TZR125 did over 22k without a rebore or seizing (had it from new)
RD350YPVS track bike put back on the road
Ah happy dayz!
I had a hankering to get a 70's 2-stroke and was looking for an RD250 or 400 as that is what I had back in the day. Rembered these 3pots from a mate who had one back then and it was a pleasant surprise to fine that they are a lot cheaper than the Yams.
It is fun getting out of an evening to fettle and tinker........
Had an RD125 LC ( the mark 2) and then a Japanese import TZR250- After a Yamaha TZR versus Renault 25 collision-the insurance assessor said he'd never before seen a delta box frame flex like mine had ( the front wheel ended up touching the radiator) nice bike though....
I found this old photo of me on my 1977 Yamaha DT175. This bike had Suzuki PE175 front forks and rear shocks. A big improvement over the standard set up for off roading. Which at the time around 1982-3 was 90% of my riding.
slightly off topic, i spent quite an amount of time driving a chain saw, it ran on two stroke, it was a manual lube one, i then upgraded to a more modern one, that old manual homelight is in the garage, i once ran an old six volt vw on kerosene, by golly did it announce my arrival, times were hard, but it was away cheaper than petrol, also it was free, the farmer bloke ran his tractors on it, tvos they were called.
Before you chaps get too giddy about buying old two strokes, just remember that Nikasil coatings were not in common use in those day's.....
... Better stock up with feeler gauges, brasso, piston ring compressors and compression testers first... LOL
350 as a learner?
Not in the UK??
Im intrigued by this?
Its not a Jackanory is it?
I used to ride a half litre Yamaha Phazer II, bought new and long gone. On wheels all four-strokes, though.
Thats what i couldnt understand and why i asked the question. I did some inter-web trawling to refresh my tired memory and confirmed that UK learners were restricted to 250cc from 1960 to 1982 when the 125cc regulations came into force. It was a good law change too - 250cc was a lot of fun, but quite a few people, including some of my mates, got crippled / maimed / splattered riding KH250 / RD 250 / X7 on L-Plates.
The only short-lived excemption was motorcycle and sidecar combinations which allowed any size of engine, but these were swiftly outlawed after 1982 as people were putting notional 3rd wheels on bikes to get around the law !
There were other exceptions which allowed learners to ride large capacity bikes when undergoing vehicle training in the armed forces etc, but they could only do so when an instructor was present.
Omegamanic hails from the Isle of Man, I think the laws regarding motorcycle provisional licence holders were different back in the day.
That was all part of the fun, remember those cold wet nights out in the front garden, with a torch, cheapo tools made from cheese, fasteners made from plasticine, no workshop manual coz you were too poor, trying to get the bike back together so you could ride to work in the morning :-)
Found these in the garage today, brings back some happy memories:-
GT 250 X7 pistons, holed, cracked, missing skirts my what fun we used to have, I ran an X3.5 for a couple of weeks after holing a piston and not having the funds to repair it, took the plug out and blocked the fuel pipe to the carb on the offending side and carried on riding to work lol.
There were many more pistons suffering similar tragic ends but I should admit this was not all Mr Suzukis fault, most of the damage was self inflicted as armed with a little knowledge and a couple of rotary burrs, electric drill and some rat tail files I set about making my X7 a "quicker" X7.
It was.
Much quicker.
Than standard.
To seize.
To empty a full tank of fuel (I think most went straight out the exhaust, unburnt!).
It also had a ridiculous narrow powerband that made normal riding quite a chore, but I loved it and keep looking for one needing a little tlc to get reacquainted with ( might be best for us both if I don't find one lol).
So for once i feel in the ascension , due to owning
57 year old moped running castrol racing two stroke great smell no speed 1.7 bhp
21 yr old Kawasaki Kr1S 250cc 60 bhp ( yep thats 240 bhp litre) as shown on Page 2 but mine is red .
Manic accelleration , just cost me £750 bottom end rebuild . But ,But When the power valves open at 7500 rpm and in about 2 seconds its 11,000 you are about 400 yds down the road in a haze of blue smoke ! There is nothing like it , it embarrases R1's pureley by it size and handling
Ps less than 25mpg I love it !
Last edited by higham5; 28th July 2013 at 21:42.
1974 in the low countries I had a temporary permit with restricted range and rode a Norton 500 Hopwood twin befóre I had my drivers license...
As to 2-strokes I had three MZ sidecars, an MZ enduro (a real one), a Fantic 80 Regalorita and offcourse my first bike; before the Norton when I had no nothing, just the Fantic 50 Caballero Regolarita. A few years ago I bought an identical Fantic again.
Last edited by Huertecilla; 28th July 2013 at 21:46.
Further to my earlier comments, i knew someone who had worked on performance engines professionally and was very credible about anything mechanical and after listening to a tale of woe about a Puch moped that had seized soon after a rebuild and had scored the barrel, he told me of the "Brasso Trick".
.. which i had never heard before, but instead of just removing the barrel, fitting new piston / rings and reassembling you remove the barrel to a bench, make a type of con-rod out of wood and put piston and rings in place in the barrel together with small amount of brasso below and above piston.
Then spend a few minutes working the "con-rod" and piston up and down the barrel over the brasso. This equals a gentle running-in and removes any rough spots off barrel and rings . When you clean and reasemble it properley on the bike it will run sweetly from the first fire up and wont nip up or overheat during those first 50 miles or so.
Seemed to work too and i always did that with 2 stroke re-builds afterwards. Probobly not neccesary with modern coated barrels but might work on vintage 2 stroke rebuilds
Ah ha such memories...
Like the extra power and response you get on a cold foggy night from a 2 stroke... :)
Like riding along flast out and hearing that tiny "ping" above all the engine noise as the piston or rings let go.... :( (RD200DX)
Like finishing the rebuild and finding a tiny washer on the floor and thinking "Well, it cant be THAT important ... " :( ( AP50 i helped my mate rebuild - turned out its function was to stop the gears smashing together when you select first, so that was as far as we got before having to strip it down again ....)
Like your mates laughing as you say "yes, its seized AGAIN " ( Puch Grand Prix )
I bought a new MZ ETZ 250 in 1984 to use as a winter bike and it was a fantastic bike - great handling and dead reliable - had it for nearly 10 years and it never let me down. Which i cannot say of the Honda 750KZ which the MZ was supposed to be the donkey for, i dont think i have ever made so many warrenty claims on a vehicle.
Yup Puch 50 decending out of LLangollen , big sieze at 42 mph. Head off at the side of the road, freed up rings , off we go, never did more than 35 after that :(
Hell yeah, I have had singles, twins, in line fours but man a 2 stroke is something else. The smell, whisper of the engine and the speed....awesome! A little high maintenance sometimes but boy a giggle! Shit for the environment though.......
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