Two stroke memories

ken65 said:
This is my rd350lc . The closest one is mine and the other ones a mates from down the road.
I restored it 5 years ago or more and its just been run in on its second rebuild with me.
I don't think these made it to the US. It never fails to make me smile.
35019670613_cf1bfa4228_h.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah, those are beautiful bikes. The ultimate expression of the RD line. Thanks for posting.
 
That's awesome Johnny! Triples sound so cool, they just have this natural snarl to them, then make it a two stroke and they sound even snarlier, add expansion chambers and it's the snarliest! Thanks for the vid!
 
Question for any of you guys riding two strokes , what kind of oil are you using? Two strokes don't seem to smoke as much as they did in the 70's. I'm assuming it's the oil?
When I had my bike in the 70's , Bardahl oil was king!
IMG_5305.JPG
 
I use Yamalube in the oil injection system and also mix it 40 to 1 in the fuel for the first 1000 km of engine break in. I only use 94 octane fuel from Petrol Canada. My H1 only has about 450 km since the engine was rebuilt so I'm still running premix as well as oil injection. It will lay down a good cloud if you wind it out.
 
Last edited:
johnnyc14 said:
It will lay down a good cloud if you wind it out.
Click to expand...

I'll betcha it will Johnny!!

That's what my Uncle Dave's bike is like (except it has a drum front brake which often actually works....): it all sounds quite civilised and ordinary until you uncork it - and then.....:yikes:
 
First bike in 1965 was a 1961 175cc 2 stroke single cyl Jawa Californian. God awful ugly. Shifter on the left. You pushed the shifter in and flipped it over and it was the kick starter. Gave $90 and a .22 rifle for it. 160cc Hondas didn't have a chance against it.

Second bike was a 180cc Yamaha 2 cyl 2 stroke. Wicked little bike.
 
2M I sometimes put a bit Castrol R30 in my lawnmower petrol. Makes mowing the lawns less of a chore.
Really enjoyed reading this thread, thanks guys.
 
Haven't been on the site in awhile - vacation (4500 mile sidecar trip - awesome!), followed by the requisite weeks of overtime making up for the vacation...:shootme:
Sigh. I hope I live long enough to retire.

I used to race Open Class in AQMD District 37 desert races with a stripped DT250. The Ponderosa was about 10 miles from our house! Best I did was 7th overall (out of maybe 100 riders) in maybe 1968, maybe 69? I was about 14. The reason I did so well is that I had a major get-off on the first lap - the damage locked the throttle full open... finished the race with a ON or OFF throttle! Talk about peaky!

Anyhow, here's one almost running...
Started with a 1980 DT175. The weight is at the max for strapping onto the MoHome bumper.
Doing a few upgrades to bring up to Y2K+.
Disks front and rear, EXCEL 18" rims front and rear (great for sand), upgraded swingarm/shock/forks via a 1998 RT180, KX100 seat, low fender, fork brace, and a retro early 175 tank graft.
dt175%20TANK%20TESTING-XL.jpg

Going to keep the engine stock (about 15hp), as upgrades mostly decrease reliability and seem to make it real peaky.
OTOH, a 200cc Blaster engine is almost a bolt in...20HP stock, and 25HP mods are still pretty reliable - and if I want to go nuts, guys on the Quad sites have taken the 200cc Blaster to 38HP!
As the 200cc equates to about 12 cubic inches, that's about 3HP/cubic inch!:doh:
As a comparison, a well-built 350 Chevy can give you 300HP - call it 1 HP/cubic inch...

On another 2-stroke topic... here's a video of a great 2 smoker "build" and race. Great photography - some superb slo-mo's of suspension work over whoop-de-doos. The speeds the long travel suspension allows would have killed me on the DT250...

 
Last edited:
My friend has a bit of a rare bike a Japanese market Yamaha SDR200, it is a joy to ride and beautiful to look at.
He has restored it comes from the factory with what looks like a nickel plated frame. He has it on a raised shelf in his workshop.
Also included a photo on a new motor we are building, if you have restoration OCD then don't look.
Waiting for some parts to arrive then the fun /nightmare? will begin as we start building and trueing the crank.
Petes SDR Compressed.jpg
RD 700 Compressed.jpg
 
Signal said:
My friend has a bit of a rare bike a Japanese market Yamaha SDR200, it is a joy to ride and beautiful to look at.
He has restored it comes from the factory with what looks like a nickel plated frame. He has it on a raised shelf in his workshop.
Also included a photo on a new motor we are building, if you have restoration OCD then don't look.
Waiting for some parts to arrive then the fun /nightmare? will begin as we start building and trueing the crank.
View attachment 104856 View attachment 104857
Click to expand...

Well that's a new one on me, I've never heard of a SDR200, it looks like a quick little bike though. Also I see a nice little Kawasaki in the background, is that yours by any chance?
 
Remember when factories raced 250cc road racers? I used to go riding with this old guy that owned a motorcycle dealership in Iowa, he was quite a guy. Been around bikes his whole life, anyway he raced a factory 250 Yamaha at Daytona in the late sixties. He knew Gary Nixon. Here was Gary Nixons 250. That little peashooter could do 148 mph!
image.jpeg


Back in those days most of the factory riders raced back to back events in different displacement classes. They would hop off of a marathon race on those little 250's and then jump on the really terrifying open class bikes and do it again. I remember Kenny Roberts saying it was actually harder racing the small bikes because the motors were so peaky and the power band was so narrow that you just constantly were changing gears. I remember the motocross guys saying the same thing, that the big open class bikes were easier to ride than the little 125's.
 
A bit of a tangent but it's my thread so what the hell? As long as we're on the subject of racers, Gary Nixon was a personal favorite of mine. Kenny Roberts got most of the attention back then because he just dominated, but Gary Nixon was cool. He seemed to truly love what he did, and he overcame a lot of problems, came back from bad crashes and was always in the running. Kenny was king, but Gary was the MAN! Passed away at the age of 70 in 2011.
image.jpeg

image.jpeg

image.jpeg
 
Mailman, Sadly no the Kawasaki is not mine, the photo was taken at a bike show. I remember vividly passing the Kawasaki dealership on my way to school and pressing my nose against the window to ogle the new triples lined up.
 

Similar threads

Mailman
1971 Yamaha GL750 the factory two stroke prototype
Replies
3
Views
1K
Raymond
Raymond
Mailman
Remembering Japans hot 700cc bikes from the 80’s
2
Replies
29
Views
5K
Tinker Taylor
Tinker Taylor
MaxPete
The Big Sue resto-mod thread
2 3 4
Replies
72
Views
2K
MaxPete
MaxPete
halfmile
Kansas City VJMC Fall Finale
Replies
4
Views
556
Mailman
Mailman
Mailman
Japans 250 to 400cc hyperbikes from the 80’s and 90’s
Replies
14
Views
4K
BlueR32
B
Back
Top