Reader Mail / Relocating Signals

Michael Brito wrote in:

Great web site. Awesome bike. In fact your R5 inspired me to refurbish an R5 of my very own. I would like to know where you got the turn signals for your R5 so I can relocate mine. Did you farm out most of the paint work? How much $$$ did you put into your R5?

Thanks for writing!

I wrote a little about relocating my front turn signals here. After Mike wrote in, I realized now that I didn't go into much detail. I hadn't bought aftermarket signals, I just used the ones that were already there, but were mounted to the forks using brackets. From what I can remember, here's the process:

- remove the nuts on top of the forks
- slide off bracket and turn signal
- remove bracket from turnsignal
- replace fork nuts
- disconnect wiring to signals (no cutting necessary)
- remove headlight from bucket, reroute wiring (from bike) into the bucket from the hole in back
- remove nuts holding bucket to flanges on both sides
- run wiring (signal) through holes in headlight flanges and bucket
- align signal base to depression on flange
- use signals to hold bucket to flanges, reuse nuts to tighten bucket and flange to signal
- reconnect wiring, test
- remount headlamp

Sounds complicated, but I figured it out just by fiddling around myself, so with the above directions anyone should be able to do it no problem.

As for the paint, I was lucky and found a bike that had been parked in a garage for most of it's life. There's little damage, just a few dents and chips. I haven't done much in terms of paint besides cleaning and waxing.

If you're looking for the metallic Mandarin Orange paint, unfortunately you're out of luck as it's no longer made. Here's a link to some discussion about a possible House of Kolor alternative.

All in all, I haven't spent much on the bike, $550 to buy, and about $1000 in parts and work to get it running, inspected, new tires, new bars, one new sidecover, and a NOS matching mirror. Not bad for such a great little bike!

Ebay Finds

1971 R5-B AHRMA Racer


1971 R5-B Brochure

1973 RD 350 in Philly area

From Philly Craiglist:

73 RD 350 run good I have good title in hand with my name.11k miles after market exhaust and air cleaners new battery.side cover cracked $1500 obo SOON GOING TO EBAY

Motorcycle Classifieds Site Mash

This cool website combines classified and auction listings from various sites around the internet and displays them chronologically with photos, location and price. In order to actually see anything, select a motorcycle from the text cloud or pull-down. Want something added? Email the administrator.

BTW there's one for cars too...

LUCKY BRAND Yamaha Zip Track Jacket

Check out this incredible LUCKY BRAND Yamaha Zip Track Jacket. Finally a place for all my vintage Yamaha patches!

There's also a killer Kawasaki motocross version as well as a more generic Motor City version. Very cool...

UPDATE - I picked up the Yamaha jacket, and my business partner Brian picked up the Kawasaki version (BTW he's the one who alerted me to these finds, having a Bonneville he picks up Triumph-branded stuff at Lucky all the time). These are officially licensed products too. The jackets are extremely well-made, and surprisingly heavy. Worn it a few times now and love it!

Brittown - A British Motorcycle Documentary

Brittown is a feature documentary featuring vintage Triumph motorcycle racer and master mechanic Jeff "Meatball" Tulinius from the Hell On Wheels bike shop in Anaheim, California:

The film chronicles several months in Meatball's life as he runs his old BSA in vintage motocross races, embraces the legacy of Steve McQueen on his vintage Triumph Cub desert sled with the No Gooders motorcycle club, flies down the Willow Springs raceway on his Norstar, and uses all his skill to rebuild an old 650 Triumph Bonneville motor into a blazing road-ready screamer ... all while juggling his responsibilities to his family and his rock band Smiling Face Down.

From Scott Di Lalla and Zack Coffman, directors of the award-winning custom motorcycle documentary Choppertown comes their second intimate inside look at biker culture, Brittown: a British motorcycle documentary film.

FixTheBike.com

Came across FixTheBike.com while I was updating the links in my previous posts (manual downloads should work correctly now). It's a great idea, similar to this site but much broader in scope - bring together all sorts of documentation on all sorts of bikes in one place for free download. From their wiki:

The first place on the internet that will try to pull together a vast ocean of motorcycle information into one place for everyone to find and use completely free of charge or restrictions.

The site looks very empty until you log in. Once logged in you will gain access to everything. This is to help prevent spammers and other bots from wrecking the site.

So please enjoy yourself. Please strongly consider uploading any documents you may have as this is the only way we can grow. Donations are always more than welcome to help cover bandwidth costs.

I already saw some stuff from this site up there, and I'm in the process of uploading some more...

Manual Madness!

Tom writes in with some great stuff he'd like to share:

I have been using your site for months now as I work on restoring my 72 R5C. I was kindly sent these files though from a fellow two stroker I met though Craigslist. He insisted that since this info is so hard to find that I should share it in any way possible. So I am sending it to you for if you want it on your site. I am not sure of the legality of this though. This info is very old and I doubt any publisher will say anything, but you never know. These files are quite large though and will take a while for people on dial-up. They have all been worth their weight in gold to get my R5C on the way to running again. Maybe in return if anyone knows of a killer deal on a pair of carbs for my bike they can drop me a line?

Here are links to the files. They're rather large, so be prepared for long download times:

Yamaha Service Manual for DS7, RD250, R5C & RD350 1972-1973
Yamaha Motor Corp, 1974
51.75MB, 113 pages

How to Fix your Yamaha Two Cylinder, Two Stroke Motorcycle
Intertec Publishing Corp, 1975
76.25MB , 86 pages

Yamaha 250-400cc 2-Stroke Twins - 1965 - 1978 - Service and Repair Manual
Clymer Publications, 1978
88.55MB, 190 pages

And please, let me know if you can help Tom out with a set of carbs!

R5C 350 Riders Manual

Seeing as it's extremely hard to come by these days, and seeing as how mine is slowly crumbling, I figured I'd scan and post the "Rider's Manual" that came with the R5 when it was new. Fair warning though, it's a fairly large file. Enjoy!

R5C 350 Riders Manual (25.5 MB PDF)

Martin's Gorgeous R5 on EBAY!

Martin wrote in this morning to inform me that his YR5 (featured previously on this site here an here) is currently up for auction on Ebay UK.

Here is his auction description:

Yamaha YR5 350cc 2-stroke twin also sometimes designated the R5

This is an original UK bike, it has some history to suggest that it was raced in the early 70s and then converted to road use. It has only had 3 owners. The 2nd owner died in 1980 after which his widow stored the bike until it was sold to a family friend in 1999, since then it has stood almost unused for 7 years until I bought it last year.

I recommisioned the bike from the ground up

New battery

Full service,

Mot,

Hagon rear Shocks

New screen & Nosecone,

Reground Fork Stanchions and seals

The frame has been powder coated

and many parts chromed.

It has been a great bike to ride and has always drawn crowds at places like Matlock Bath. But unfortunately I suffered a seized the engine when the right hand 2 stroke oil pipe came loose.

After searching all year I have managed to find some original NOS pistons, rings& gaskets from America and Japan and have had it rebored by PJ engineering (motorcycle engineering specialists of Wolverhampton).

So far it has been rebuilt and started, that’s it. It sounds ok and has not currently done any miles.

I realised this bike is too rare to use regularly. So I have bought myself an Aprilia 250 because I enjoyed the two stoke so much

This bike deserves a collector, or Yamaha Dealer as a show piece, it would be great to parade or show.

The bike is in a Phil Read replica colour scheme, It has original Mead speed sports fairing, race tank & seat. The wheels have been upgraded at some point to RD400 alloys.

The exhausts are 1970’s originals and are stamped into the metal “Codnor Light Fabrications” this is a Derbyshire company that we now know as Micron.

It is fitted with Piranha Electronic ignition and starts first or second kick every time.

Front brake is disc with braded hoses using a standard RD350 front calliper & disc, so parts are no problem

I have some correspondence that the last owner past on to me from Padgett’s of Batley, plus Classic Bike, Yamaha, and Len Manchester motorcycles. This seems to support the case that the bike was prepped for racing, as many where from new and then put on the road by the 2nd owner. This seems correct as the fairing tank seat exhausts etc are all period early 1970,s but the rear light is from an RD400 which was not made until 5 years into the 70,s

Also included are the original Yamaha workshop manual and several magazine articles from magazines of the time in the early seventies

This is probably the only surviving example of a Yamaha proddy racer put on the road in the uk. Grab a real pierce of nostalgia.

I am selling as I have 5 bikes and my daughter is about to turn 16. I need the space for her 1st bike!!!!

The bike is MOT,ed and Taxed to October. The tax is free as it is tax exempt! The bike is in immaculate condition and is ready to show

Please ring for extra photos and spec.
Martin 07988800194