Great Reader Mail

Dave Hess from Selinsgrove, PA, wrote this excellent letter to me earlier this week. Stuff like this makes working on this site worth the while:

Lawrence:

Two months ago my mother had to move to an assisted living home, so we had to clean out the old homestead. I came across my old Yamaha R5B I parked in her summer kitchen (shed) back in 1979. Wow, what a mess! I was going to roll it into the dumpster we rented but my brother told me I should try to get a few bucks for it on ebay. When I checked the prices these old bikes were bringing on ebay I just about fell off my chair! I decided to try to clean the bike up in hopes of upping the value of the old girl.

Needless to say, when I saw the shine come back on those fenders and the mandarin orange paint come back to life, it took me back to my college days when I used to jam a few bucks in my pocket and disappear on my R5 for days on end. That old sense of freedom I had back when times were much simpler struck me! All I wanted to do was fire up my old R5, listen to her throaty two-stroke rumble, smell the blue smoke coming out of her exhaust and ride into the sunset! I remembered riding with a gang of my friends back in the 70's, and just what a performer my bike was. They all had bigger bikes with far more cc's, but my R5 just blew them all away.

In doing research on the bikes I came across your website, which I must tell you is a real breath of fresh air. It shows the genuine appreciation you have for the Yamaha R5's and it has really motivated me to get my bike back on the road. Needles to say, I'm about half way through my restoration project. I'd like to share some pictures when I get a chance.

Thanks for the site. It's a real pleasure and something I look forward to seeing when each update comes to the net!

Dave Hess
Selinsgrove, PA

Dave, thanks for the great letter! I'm also very proud to know I played a (small) role in getting your bike back up and running. Please send in those pics and keep us updated!

Rebuilding the Carbs

Finally got a nice Saturday with no real plans - except tackle the R5's nagging problems, of course!

Drained the oil and transmission fluid, cleaned the carbs, and right now the bike is slowly coming back up to charge. We'll see how I did soon enough...

Jesse Writes In

Jesse from Arlington, Virginia, writes in to share some pics of his newly-acquired R5 and ask a few questions:

Hi Lawrence,

I just came across your R5 website. Very nice! I just took posession of my 1st R5 this weekend. It's an orange 1972 R5C that is need of some restoration. I have restored 4-stroke British bikes in the past (I'm currently riding a 1978 Triumph) but this is my 1st 2-stroke machine. Are there any listservs, discussion boards, etc. that focus on the R5 or Japanese 2-strokes in general?

Good-lookin' bike, Jesse! Love the exhaust! You can see more of Jesse's bike on his Flickr page.

Jesse raises a good question in his email. I've gotten a bunch of similar emails from other readers who are looking to ask questions in a firum setting. I've come across a number of sources for R5-related info in my research - here are a couple of links:

Here are some discussion groups:

Yahoo! R5 group - http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/r5yamaha/
Yahoo! YDS Owners group - http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/yamahaydsownersgroup/

A couple of other forums to try - much more generic, for a wider variety of bikes:

USA 2Strokers - http://www.usa2strokers.com/forum/default.asp
OBB - http://www.oldbikebarn.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi
Cycle Forums - http://www.cycleforums.com

There are also some shops out there dedicated to these bikes. Some good ones that come to mind are:

HVC - http://hvccycle.com
Moto Carrera - http://www.motocarrera.com
Spec2 - http://www.spec2.com
Omar's - http://omarsdtr.com

Check out the links in the sidebar for more. Hope that helps!

More on Martin's Gorgeous R5

A few posts ago I presented Martin's beautifully restored R5 road racer (see Martin's Gorgeous R5 April 13, 2007). I asked Martin to elaborate a little more on the bike, to tell me the specs, the restoration, the original history, etc... Well, he responded - check out the before and after above!

Here is a little of its' known history:

I purchased the bike in 2006 and it was in the condition shown [in top photo]. It was in running condition although all of the fibreglass was crazed.

The bike was originally sold by Granby Yamaha in 1970 and set up with the full sports fairing from new... The bike has only had 2 previous owners the first for 2 years and the 2nd from 1972 to 1980 when I an told he unfortunately died of cancer, the bike was then looked after by a friend who started it regularly and rode very occasionally.

On the day I collected the bike it started with no problems and I took it into my van to my local dealers where it passed its MOT test . So I arrived home with a fully working motorcycle after it had been mostly out of use for 20 years!

The 2nd time out the oil pipe came loose and it seized on one side. After some fantastic help from Governors Bridge Motorcycles in Atherstone UK (01827 712906) who had a brand new pair of 1st oversize Dykes type pistons in stock I decided to completely restore the bike.

The forks where slightly pitted so I sent them for rechroming and machining to Philpot's in Luton who did a great and speedy job, the barrels where rebored by Paul Jones at PJ Motorcycle engineers in Wolverhampton UK. I have used Paul for years and he is without doubt the UK's best 2-stroke specialist.

Finally I repaired all of the tank, seat & fairing myself. The fibreglass was completely rubbed back through the gel coat, then had several lays of finish re-applied to deal with the crazing. Mark Burgess at Jawell paints in Wolverhampton who I use regularly helped with advice, and the final finish was 1 coat etch primer, 1 coat high built acrylic primer, 2 coats of 2 pack white gloss which was hand matched by Mark to a sample of the original fibreglass colour, and the stripe is in 2 pack Rosso Corsa. The paint scheme has been based on Phils Read's 1969 factory bike.

Thanks for sharing, Martin!

Custom R5B For Sale

About a year ago, Jim from Salt Lake City wrote in to tell me about an R5 he had come across... Numbers-matching 1971 R5B that has had a fair amount of custom work done. Painted frame, engine, tank, headlamp and trim ring, sidecovers, as well as a custom seat. Also mounted are low bars, fuel filter, exhaust chambers, foam intake filters and rare matching left/right mirrors. Very cool - someone put some wrench time in on this one back in the day. Unfortunately the bike has not run in some time, but is not frozen up or rusted - just needs some time and TLC to get her going again. Looking for a good home.

Interested? Get in touch with Jim here.

R5 from Denmark

Flemming Juel from Frederikshavn, Denmark, writes in to share pics of his beautiful 1971 R5B. He notes that they "they speaks for themselves"... and boy, do they. Gorgeous!

Main Switch Diagram

A reader of the blog recently wrote in asking about the positions on the main switch, particularly the rightmost position. Here's a scan from the 1972 R5 Owners' Manual which sums it up nicely.

RD 350 in Plymouth Meeting PA

My friend Brian forwarded me this Craigslist listing for a 1971 (?) Yamaha RD 350, tricked out with chambers, clip-ons, and aftermarket tank and seat:

i have for sale a 1971 yamaha rd 350 is is an unfinished project but all the parts are included with the sale of the bike. it has after market exhaust system and clip on's.The engine runs very sweet it has a clean title.

Might be worth it for the parts alone!

AMD World Championships

I'm not much for Harleys and the whole billet-chrome-crazed chopper scene, but I must say there's been some interesting stuff happening in the custom world lately, as things get less OCC and more creative. Check out the AMD World Championships of Custom Bike Building, especially the latest Euro Finalists. Some good stuff here, like the hot-rod Rock 'N Bike from Art of Racer in France. Not a vintage asian two-stroke, but sweet nonetheless.

Lee's Barn Find

Lee writes in to tell us about his find - this 1972 R5:

I thought you might like these pics of my "barn find", a 72 r5c. My buddy and I bought this, 2 GT185 Suzukis and a Honda CB450 for only $400. They were all mostly complete and extra dirty, but otherwise in decent shape. I only have about $200 and some blood sweat and tears into it so far and it runs great after some carb cleaning/tuning, custom baffles, new ignition switch, bars, grips, levers and some straightening of some tweaked bits. Check out the tank emblems I made on the CNC at work out of stainless steel (about 8hrs. of cut time), I couldn't bring myself to pay what they want for reproductions. Thanks for the website, it's very informative.

Nice job on those emblems! They look great! And great job on finding 4 bikes for $400 - not bad!

Keep up the good work, and let us know how you progress on those other bikes!