RD250LC Project

[Mike01606]

wonderful bike....great job........

have you thought about doing the twin disc conversion to the front ?

Thanks Mark and sorry I've only just seen this......

Wrt a twin disc conversion. I have thought about it....as well as the LH caliper, disc, line and splitter you need to change the master cylinder for a 1/2" version from the current 3/8" to cope with the extra fluid volume and pad movement.

I'll be opportunistic if I get the chance on the kit. The wheel has the disc mounting holes already.
I should really buy one of the OEM lookalike braided hoses first to improve the feel.

The front brake is a lot better than expected now it's bedded in and you can actually 'chirp' the front tyre.
The back drum is another story altogether!

I've done about 300 miles since last week and off to the Raven truck stop meet tonight on the A49 near Shrewsbury. There must have been 6-700 there last week.

M

 

[Mike01606]

Well since I put it on the road for my 50th not much to report other than I've put close to 1000 miles on it. Fantastic to be back on a bike and is been to quite a few meets.
Here's a couple of pics from the Raven truck stop on the A49 near Whitchurch which has a meet every Thursday evening.......the bikes attracts a lot of nostalgic attention!





This is an interesting machine. I believe it puts out around 280 BHP at the rear wheel.



I really must get my new swing arm and centre stand powder coated. I guess winter will be here soon enough!

 

[darft vader]

Great to see the bike being used and enjoyed,:thumbsup:that busa must be a real handfull in the wet.:yikes:

 

[Mike01606]

I think I said earlier that I'd sourced a new swing arm.

The original was quite badly corroded under the paint and after powder coating looked a bit 'Hammerited'. As it's just thin Japanese crapalloy I was also slightly concerned it could fail.

I picked the new one up from the powder coaters today. It is like new and already had sintered bronze bushes fitted that I left in place......



I also had the old centre stand done so at least I can lube and adjust the chain. The piece that shows is really good but the rest is poor and I will eventually replace it. I missed a new one on eBay a couple of weeks ago and they are still available from Yamaha for £160!



It'll give me something to do at the weekend.

The bike is running great at the moment and about 1200 miles so far.

 

[Mike01606]

A few years since I added to this thread, I still have Elsie but as I’m between Ferraris ATM I thought I’d update with my new
acquisition.

It’s an original unmolested survivor with two previous owners (one for 32 years), just 8k miles and totally original apart from the white paintwork which had to be done due to a cracked tank (common issue).

Just a lovely piece of 70’s motorcycle history for those of a certain age

 

[A348W]

Lovely bike Mike :thumbsup:

I learnt on my dads 350LC which he bought new...some great memories on that bike. He still has it tucked up in a barn; I'd hope to bring it back to look as good as yours ones day!

 

[Modificato]

Ah.... two strokes happy days

Use to production race LC's and had a lot of the RD series over the years. The last was an RD 400 / 350 LC project bike (preferred the 400 engine which I had converted to a 430cc monster).

Until my brother was killed I lived and breathed bikes racing them most weekends at Caldwell, Olivers mount, Carnaby and beyond.

Was on bikes since being a young kid learning to ride off road one bald tyres and on an MOT failure.

That teaches you the skills beyond the limit you cant learn on the road.

I will be getting a new bike when I move to Italy but anything bigger than 600cc scares me to death these days.

This video is from another era...

https://youtu.be/kW5FEL9kM28

 

[Mike01606]

Don’t look at what it’s worth!

They’re getting harder and harder to find, particularly a good one.

I actually prefer the LC’s as I turned 17 on the switchover from the air-cooled bikes. It’s a bit like the 355/360 change.... a lot of evolution in a single step.

 

[Mike01606]

Ah.... two strokes happy days

Use to production race LC's and had a lot of the RD series over the years. The last was an RD 400 / 350 LC project bike (preferred the 400 engine which I had converted to a 430cc monster).

Until my brother was killed I lived and breathed bikes racing them most weekends at Caldwell, Olivers mount, Carnaby and beyond.

Was on bikes since being a young kid learning to ride off road one bald tyres and on an MOT failure.

That teaches you the skills beyond the limit you cant learn on the road.

I will be getting a new bike when I move to Italy but anything bigger than 600cc scares me to death these days.

This video is from another era...

https://youtu.be/kW5FEL9kM28

[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Modificato]

This was my roberts rep LC - the eagle eyed will notice lots of trick bits made to lower weight / enhance the bike (nothing new there) it had a stan stephens tune which I improved as the work I received was not up to my standards - I had built many two stroke race engines and want to use the club race standard as a basis. Back then stan tuned most of the bikes on the grid. By the time I had finished it was easily the best engine on the grid if not rider !!!

 

[PAUL V]

A few years since I added to this thread, I still have Elsie but as I’m between Ferraris ATM I thought I’d update with my new
acquisition.

It’s an original unmolested survivor with two previous owners (one for 32 years), just 8k miles and totally original apart from the white paintwork which had to be done due to a cracked tank (common issue).

Just a lovely piece of 70’s motorcycle history for those of a certain age

Nice looking bike Mike, just restoring my 76 400C that i picked up in 2014, Prices have gone mad :shocked:

Post some more photos up when you can

 

[Modificato]

I had an RD400E which I mono-shocked with a 350LC rear and much modified frame

I loved that bike and it was a great combination of special / quick / stealth that I loved.

Wasn't until I got to a GSX-R 750 that I felt the same...

The 1100R I graduated to scared me to death and my brother was killed on his...

That was the end of my biking days apart from a brief dalliance with a VFR400R pocket rocket.

Looking at bikes now I do fancy a 600 of some sort

 

[Mike01606]

I had an RD400E which I mono-shocked with a 350LC rear and much modified frame

I loved that bike and it was a great combination of special / quick / stealth that I loved.

Wasn't until I got to a GSX-R 750 that I felt the same...

The 1100R I graduated to scared me to death and my brother was killed on his...

That was the end of my biking days apart from a brief dalliance with a VFR400R pocket rocket.

Looking at bikes now I do fancy a 600 of some sort

I fancy building a 350LC based special.
It’s finding a bad enough bike at the right price to start with as it’d be sacrilege to use even a poor one.

I used to run a GSXR 750 in the early 90’s but found myself getting into trouble too often so got out of super bikes.

Now I’m happy with a bike that feels like it’s doing 90 at 60 MPH and the crap brakes keep you sensible.
I just love everything about two strokes also.

That said I’ll add an adventure bike soon. Probably a GS1200.

 

[A348W]

So that’s three of us who have had GSXR 750s!

I had a second gen slab side. Could never get on with the brakes on that. Thought about modifying it but went to the last gen carb Blade. That just actively encouraged you to drive like a nutter; but I did get the hang of doing decent stoppies on it :grin:

It’s a shame my dad won’t let me have his LC. (Well ultimately I will in his estate!) That would be a great project, and is mint except for the dent in the tank from my hand; the one and only time that bike was dropped ever!

 

[Mike01606]

Dents are easy fixable.

Just make sure the tanks drained of fuel and if possible get it sealed as the tin work is wafer thin and they fail on the lower left hand side.
A decent matching numbers U.K. 350 is well north of 10k now....
They were about a grand new and built to last about 2 years!

 

[A348W]

The dent/ crack was all fixed at the time, but would need to be done again as we just sealed it, faired it and painted it with a rattle can; rather than pulling the dent and welding the crack up correctly! It would also need to be painted professionally and the tank decals put back.

I still remember the day my dad brought it home. He was like a kid in a candy store and nothing was going to stop him picking up his brand new toy. I think he had ordered it before X-mas and it was ready in March or April, too many years ago to remember now. Just so happened we had a small snow storm the day he collected it, but he still got home in one piece :grin: Clipons, black chrome Micron spannies and a welded crank soon followed! (He still has a box of all the original parts.)

That thing was serious loud :laugh:

Didn't realise they were those sorts of numbers, I did realise they were worth a bit, but not that much!:thumbsup:

 

[Modificato]

I fancy building a 350LC based special.
It’s finding a bad enough bike at the right price to start with as it’d be sacrilege to use even a poor one.

I used to run a GSXR 750 in the early 90’s but found myself getting into trouble too often so got out of super bikes.

Now I’m happy with a bike that feels like it’s doing 90 at 60 MPH and the crap brakes keep you sensible.
I just love everything about two strokes also.

That said I’ll add an adventure bike soon. Probably a GS1200.

I Love 2 strokes and always wanted to do a street TZ750 in something like a spondon frame....

Or an RG500 in a trick frame

LOVE two strokes

 

[Bryan Baker]

I used to have a motorcycle before but I have to sell it last year due to the pandemic.

 

[Mike01606]

Today’s fun and games..... I stripped the top end off the LC to refinish the barrels/head as the paint I used originally started to come away....
LH piston has a crack in it. Looks like it was a good time to strip it down.
I think I’ll replace both as even though I have a spare 0.25 oversize, I don’t believe it is a TKR piston. I think someone’s put a cheap one in an old box
I need to dig into it a bit in case this is a symptom of something else not a random failure. I seem to remember this being caused by some other underlying issue.
Thankfully the bores are still perfect [emoji108]

 

[Modificato]

mike,

....knowing a bit about two stroke engines that looks almost 100% manufacturing defect to me

failure in that plane is normally only down to two things - Gudgeon pin to tight / small end heating problem or manufacturing defect / materials issue

It looks like the latter to me because the former would show signs of excess heat build uo around the gudgeon pin area of the piston