Attention Canadians!

PROJECT ALERT! I spied this 1970 Yamaha 350 R5 on Vancouver Craigslist. Don't ask how I wound up looking there. Anyways, the first $250 gets it!

Concept Renderings

Brian forwarded me this great portfolio of vehicle designer Heikki Naulapää. I've seen his work before in the very interesting Aprilia Magnet 3-wheeler. I also found this great Aprilia RAM concept concept pictured above.

Dig the reverse grips and levers, front swingarm, seamlessly blended multiple exhaust, and aggressive helmet-forward riding position. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this guy...

RD Compilation

Compilation of various Yamaha advertising for their RD models over the years. Gotta love the "soundtrack"!

More RD350 Videos

Chris has been posting a lot of videos of his RD (from a few posts back) up on YouTube. You know how the kids love the YouTube these days! I really got to get some video of my bucket of bolts up on there... Anyways, here is a great video walkaround of the bike:



And here it is making that sweet two-stroke music:



And, finally, the moment you have all been waiting for - the burnout:

Velorex?

My friend Russ just sent over an interesting vehicle offered up for sale on eBay - a 1968 Velorex 16/350. This crazy Czechoslovakian wonder is powered by (you guessed it) a two-stroke 350cc motorcycle engine. Check out those body panels... made of vinyl! And check out the crazy tubular chassis (and motorcycle gas tank) with the vinyl removed:

1972 Yamaha Commercial

UK 2-Stroke Rally Footage

As per the poster:

The Aircooled RD Club's annual rally run out at Ashbourne UK July 2006. 125 plus bikes en masse on the road. Probably the biggest 2 stroke meet in the world.

On Track and On Board an RD350

Chris' RD350 Progress

Chris wrote to me back in October of 2005 showing me his newly acquired 1973 RD350 (see here for post and "before" pictures). Well, over a year has passed, and he's made quite a lot of progress on his machine. Let's see what he's done:

• Newtronics ignition (I would recommend installing this, worth the money)
• New Wiseco pistons (lucky that the stock bore just needed honing after finding that one of the lead counterweights let loose off of the crank and went whizzing through the rest of the motor)
• Used crank from another R5 motor I purchased as scrap from local motorcycle shop (50 bucks! score)
• Polished all the aluminum I could on the motor before re-installing
• New stock seat cover (Ebay not cheap)
• All new black paint job
• New stock hand grips
• Rebuilt carbs (found the piece you posted quite informative)
• As the cold weather approaches, the next task to tackle is chrome spokes on some aluminum rims

I almost sold it on Ebay but, was able to feel out how much I could get for it. I couldn't bring myself to part with. Anyways, keep the website up. It seems that there is resurgence in popularity in these bikes.

I agree, there has been a resurgence in these bikes. They're cheap, simple, fun and good-looking. Good to see such interest in getting these guys back on the road, and in such good style as Chris' ride. Just take a look at this engine:



For those interested in the carb article that Chris mentioned, see my Mikuni tuning post here.

Entirely CNC-Machined Cycle

Another crazy O'Toole (no relation... ?) has just completed the RV100, a machine where all parts were designed on the computer, milled using a CNC machine, and where the only welds occur in the fuel tank:

The concept behind the bike is to eliminate the paradigm of the welded tubular frame. Welded tube frame are labor intensive, require expensive jigs and fixturing, and the quality of the weld is very much dependant on the quality of the welder. In contrast, the RV100 frame components are cut on a numerically controlled machine (CNC). This makes the production of parts very repeatable, and makes the production of unique parts routine.

Very, very interesting technique, and also pretty interesting to look at, even for a test mule.