I have always been into the whole Yamaha streetbike-to-GP-racer conversions. I've even come across official Yamaha R5-TZ conversion instructions as well as some aftermarket conversions, but these were always for making the road bike race-ready. What I was looking for was a hybrid - all the look and grunt of a GP bike but without the full-faired body, and with all the lights necessary for a street-legal bike.
Well, take a look at the above. This guy solves the problem of a legally-lighted TZ by hiding small headlamps in the forks and tucking a small taillight in the bumpstop. At first glance it looks like a TZ with the front fairing removed. Bad ass... Click here for more images...
I have attempted rough machine translation on the page, and it says:
Comment of [yusuke] Is concerning DX but… It is no [chi] [ya] [tsu] [te] TD3, (laughing) Still, as for the place where the hand is inserted there is Sawayama, but Slowly spending time, we would like to keep finishing.
Engine The core of the crank it puts out. Around front For SR. It is heavy, being long, there is no [iitoko] is. Chamber ○ [ni] make. The front owner attached with being defeated, but You do not understand whether according to rumor, with with setting [ru] whether it has not come out. The extension above is bad, is. Original back step The step position of TD3 was made in reference, but this position is a certain meaning training, (laughing) Meter The electric rammer of the manufacturer, pivot. With the stepping motor, being accurate, it does the movement where the response is good. Electric apparatus In addition to there is no light/write case, because you have supplied the battery in the seat cowl It recreated the harness entirely.
I had written a long time ago about Steve Carpenter and his awesome Honda cafe conversions... well, he's back with an updated site, chock full of video and imagery of all manner of interesting bikes. Check it out.
Alex wrote in last week to let me know about his RD blog called DOUBLEULTRA. Great looking site with some interesting stuff. Looks like he already has a winner of an RD, with some big plans for it.
Alex also wanted to give a shout out for his local shop Deus Ex Machina. Even more great stuff and a great site. Check 'em out.
Paul Watts wrote in to let me know about Stephan Morris' just-started teardown and restoration of his R5 in the UK. The level of detail in this article is excellent, going step-by-step and photographing everything.
I for one am going to be paying very close attention to this restoration as it progresses, so that I might pick up a thing or two - for the rest of you I'm sure this information will be invaluable as well. Thanks for sharing, Paul!
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...
This is a site dedicated to the 1970-72 Yamaha 350 R5 two-strokes. These bikes are surprisingly fast for their size and age, lifting the front wheel in the first two gears and keeping up with modern bikes twice their size. It's also extremely flickable and great fun around the city or carving up canyon roads. It was the direct descendant of the Yamaha factory TR production racers. Dirty, loud, crazy quick and relatively affordable when new (and more so now!), it was, and still is, a giant-killer.
I picked up an R5C for my first motorcycle a few years ago, and was frustrated with the lack of information on these bikes available on the web. The original purpose of this site was to document the process of bringing the R5 back to life. But as I spent time gathering as much relevant and entertaining information as possible into one place for my own reference, I thought it would be helpful to share it with people who are also interested in these bikes, as well as other Yamahas, vintage bikes, and cool motorcycles in general.