Remembering when they use to smoke

[Razor]

Use to ride in the 70's with a friend that owned an RD350. When first fired; it smoked like a mosquito fogger. Loved the sound thou

A year ago March, found this. It's a 1974 model. Ran, but needed some work.

Just after unloading it.




Had quite a bit of piston slap. Had to rebore, and put new pistons in. Afterwards, they got a coat of paint and a little polishing.




Replaced the clutch disc's and springs. One of the old disc was cracked.


Low beam on the headlight was out. At the time; couldn't find an OEM replacement, so modified the original with a modern bulb.
Like many headlights of the time; this is a one piece unit (can't just replace the bulb)
Ended up drilling the one bulb out of the housing and silicone'd a new one in its place.
Since then I've gotten a new OEM headlight, but I'll keep the modified in for know. It's actually brighter than the stock one.


Rebuilt the oil pump. PO was running it with premix.
Here is the pump being bench bled, ready to install.


Gauge covers were looking a shabby. Cleaned them up and gave them a couple of coats of paint.


The master cylinder had taken a hit at some point and needed to be rebuilt.




New tires. Trued the wheels too.


Final photo. Switched out the stock exhaust for chambers (love how they sound)

[Nemo_imp]

THE MASTER WIZARD STRIKES AGAIN!

[the Ferret]

Very cool Ray. Looks great!

I had a 73 RD350 bought new. Marroon and white. Great little bike. Fast in it's day, 6 speed trans, pretty stout front brake ( again, for it's day). Believe it or not my wife and I toured 2 up on ours with a Bates handlebar mount fairing, luggage rack and back rest. Doubt we would even fit on it these days ( we were much skinnier then) lol

[redbirds_imp]

One of my favorite bikes of all time. Beautiful job Ray and I'll bet it sounds awesome with those pipes.

[Razor]

Thanks guys!

Mickey, hard to think of riding two up for any extended time. The vibrations would do it me. Then again... to be young again

Under load and going down the road; it sounds like two chain saws.
Here's a link to a short clip just after initial start up.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PV4iqlreM1g

[TCinNC_imp]

Awesome!! Love the sound of expansion chambers, makes me almost miss my old Suzuki GT 380!

[Huladog_imp]

Great job! Brings back memories of my RD350 which I had to ride in college, always with extra spark plugs to replace the fouled ones.

Aloha,
Huladog


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rboe]

Full marks!

[Papa Weeley_imp]

Holy cow! What an incredible job!

[Tezza_imp]

I'm not biased when it comes to my 2 strokes
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