Whoaaa fantastic

I'm not that familiar with RD's, but from what I remember of the local lads
that had them in the late '70's and early '80's they weren't that much
better than GT's. The Suzi's weren't that much slower on the road, didn't
handle that much worse, but were cheaper to buy which made them popular
where I was.

All the small bikes of that time had their faults and suffered a lot of
abuse. Any of them can make a fun and pleasant bike to own these days if you
can find one that hasn't been too badly neglected, especially as you're
probably not riding in a group of similar machines like you used to when you
were 17/18.

Regards
Ross

 

Regards
Ross

 

Ross says...

You are having a laugh? The quality of the Yamaha was streets ahead of
the Suzuki. They were a lot faster, a whole league more reliable,
better on fuel (which mattered as an apprentice on crap wages), they
handled far far better than a GT, they had brakes that worked and a
lubrication system that worked too. Add all that to the fact that the
RD actually looked like it was designed in the 20th century and it's no
small wonder the RD sold in far bigger numbers.

Have you seen just how popular the RD still is and just how big their
dedicated club is? Is there a dedicated GT owners club that covers the
200, 250 and 350 variants? I thought not, maybe that might tell you
something.

You must have lived in a very depressed area. No-one of any worth
around our way even looked at the things.

 

Thus spake TOG@Toil unto the assembled multitudes:

"Knocking" being the operative word, I assume?

 

Mine destroyed its top end (luckily under warranty). The performance
was OK, but everything about it screamed "cheap". The two-into-one can.
The missing sixth gear. And especially the blanked-off electric
starter. It handled better than a G5, but then so did a Raleigh
Chopper.

I'd have one as a cheap hack, I s'pose, but my CD200 Benly is nearly as
fast, more comfy, more economical and tougher.

 

Lozzo wrote:


Is there a dedicated GT owners club that covers the

Means there are more sad bastards like you around ;-)

 

TOG@Toil says...

*ding*

Btw, do you see an RD in my .sig? Even I got sick of the fucking things
cluttering up the garden.

 

I must have been lucky to have had a CB250-K4, funny how it didn't seem
so at the time.

 

A KH250 would piss all over it.

So to speak.....

 

In message

Yup had one of them too.

I think you'll find the Honda leaked more in both quantity and frequency

 

As I said, I'm not that familiar with RD's, but that's how I remember it(it
was a long time ago!). I don't remember getting off an RD250 and thinking
"that was so much quicker" or handled"so much better" than anything else.
Certainly there was plenty of scruffy looking Yamaha's about so generally I
wouldn't say the quality of finish was better than anything else, I seem to
remember more problems with electric's and seized brake callipers on
Yamaha's
than most.Personally I don't like the look of the coffin tank models, I
always preferred the earlier round tank ones, but styling is subjective.

Yeah, it's the most popular 250 of the time, I don't dispute that, I'm just
surprised it's viewed as so far ahead of the others. I don't know about a GT
owners club, I've never bothered to look, but seem to remember seeing
something about one for X7's, don't know if that includes the earlier bikes
or how relevant having an owners club is.

It wasn't what you would call an affluent area. Also there was more Suzuki
dealers about than Yamaha ones though, that may have helped.

Is the spares supply ok for the old RD's these days? I haven't seen any on
the road for a while. I've not had any problems getting mechanical stuff for
the GT, but trim and chrome work is getting difficult.

Regards
Ross

 

As you say, the bike was certainly built down to a price, but only had a
short production run as a stop-gap before the new Dream's arrived. But you
could argue that the two-into-one exhaust followed the same style as other
bikes in the range at the same time (550F, 750F1), the cowl behind the seat
was contemporary, and the quality of finish on Honda's was better than most
other Jap' manufacturers(but still not great!).

Still trying to flog it, eh? ;-)

Regards
Ross

 

Ross says...

You could probably build a new one from spares, if you could find
original mudguards. They are the hardest thing to find nowadays, just
about everything else is still available fron Mitsui Yamaha or
specialists who deal solely in RD parts.

 

That's certainly true. One benefit was it didn't have much chrome on it.

Given up. The Doctor wants to keep it, so keep it we shall. I'm not
flogging it for ukp350, which is what somebody eventually offered - it's
worth more than that to me/us.

Ho hum. I suppose the CB750F2 will have to go. Someone's offered me a
grand on it already.

 

I owned 2, destroyed the first in a spectacular crash[1] and bought
another some years later which was forever holing the RH piston. Sold
it before solving that problem.

[1] For any on lookers, I didn't enjoy it at all

 

I gave up on Yamaha two strokes when I holed both pistons on an 125
twin. The previous owner had left the keys out of the timing when he
reassembled the engine. Mind you it would go a bit it had been tuned
for production racing.

Ken Young

Maternity is a matter of fact
Paternity is a matter of opinion

 

says...

So you gave up on the best 2-strokes ever built because someone didn't
rebuild one correctly....very sensible, I must say.

 

Hmmm. Someone shot the horse so we had to break its leg.

doc
1970 Yamaha XS1
1965 Honda 50 CA110
1976 Garelli RallySport

 

I don't think they were as fast as the RD, but most of the RD's round our
way had knocked off 400 engines in em!! Like most people I'd tuned mine,
probably slowed it down, again like most people.

Ah the days of lying flat on the tank (can't do that now, stomach is too
big!) feet on the rear footpegs, hands up in the air, a following wind,
downhill, and 100mph on the clock. Those were the days.

As I recall The speed hierarchy was summat like RD, GT, KH, wasn't it? Can't
remember where the sensible honda's were

Peter,

 

Yeebut, we all knew that more noise meant it was faster, right?

Trouble is, I found myself doing that on my old CB750 the other day.

In the dealers, having their top ends rebuilt.