So, when I bought my 75 XS650B last Fall from an older gentleman in Minnesota, we became friends in pretty short order thru a series of several phone calls.
During many of the calls we've often discussed past bikes we've had and wished we still had. He brought up how he used to race RD350's and RD400's....uh oh, fish on.
This started getting me re-interested once again in finding an RD350. As everyone knows, they're not getting any cheaper....in fact, they're skyrocketing.
I know @Jim, @cra-z1 and @jpdevol are all well versed in the two stroke realm as well....so of course, my curiosity was peaked. I searched all over and found several prospects and put out wanted feelers on facebook groups, etc. Out of the blue a fellow in Eastern South Dakota reached out and told me he had two of them (1975's) he'd sell me for the price of one because the titled one was a runner and the "parts bike" had no title and was an as is barn find he got with the titled bike when he bought it.
Several questions/conversations commenced with numerous pictures and videos sent to me. Probably one of the most frustrating things for me was the fella was so enamored with the barn find aspect he didnt want to clean them up really well for the pics, short of a rub off of dust here and there....this of course made me ultra cautious but none the less intrigued. I was worried about seat condition, rust on chrome, etc of course but it was really difficult to tell in many of the pics.
The titled runner has only 1400 miles on it and was in an estate sale. The parts bike was turned in from a barn to a scrapyard but rescued and has 3800 miles on it.
Eventually a deal was struck and they were on their way.
During many of the calls we've often discussed past bikes we've had and wished we still had. He brought up how he used to race RD350's and RD400's....uh oh, fish on.
This started getting me re-interested once again in finding an RD350. As everyone knows, they're not getting any cheaper....in fact, they're skyrocketing.
I know @Jim, @cra-z1 and @jpdevol are all well versed in the two stroke realm as well....so of course, my curiosity was peaked. I searched all over and found several prospects and put out wanted feelers on facebook groups, etc. Out of the blue a fellow in Eastern South Dakota reached out and told me he had two of them (1975's) he'd sell me for the price of one because the titled one was a runner and the "parts bike" had no title and was an as is barn find he got with the titled bike when he bought it.
Several questions/conversations commenced with numerous pictures and videos sent to me. Probably one of the most frustrating things for me was the fella was so enamored with the barn find aspect he didnt want to clean them up really well for the pics, short of a rub off of dust here and there....this of course made me ultra cautious but none the less intrigued. I was worried about seat condition, rust on chrome, etc of course but it was really difficult to tell in many of the pics.
The titled runner has only 1400 miles on it and was in an estate sale. The parts bike was turned in from a barn to a scrapyard but rescued and has 3800 miles on it.
Eventually a deal was struck and they were on their way.
A short time later I bought a very lightly used 1973 RD350 and the two of us used to ride around together. I was more of a teen age hooligan than a mechanic back then, but that bike sure made an impression on me! 
