Not For Sale, 1970 R5, Chuck driveway

[chuck peterson]

Found in a 2 month old CL ad, one line that said, "1970 R5, great original condition, $1200". I gave him $1275....Uship to my home from 600 miles, $340. The handlebars are so goofy I'm getting attached to them. Their perfect for the days when you just put on ape hangers and called it a chopper...right muffler has battery stains of course, missing taillight, didn't come with turn signals...various euro short small handlebars on order

Aug 1978 I gave away this model, my first bike,  to a friend because I couldn't get it moved to college. This week one in better shape came back to me...pretty much 40 yrs later. Strange, just strange...it makes a perfect bookend to the Honda 400f

[yogidozer]

shoulda kept the bike, and skipped college 

[Rich A]

shoulda kept the bike, and skipped college 

I sold a bike when I got married the first time...

Nice Yomamahaha, Chuck!

Rich

[Guzzi Gal]

 :1: Very nice!

[Bud]

Alright Chuck! Looks real nice. If I could find a nice example of my first bike I'd snap it up. Good for you, enjoy it. (now get rid of those little things you've been picking up that are supposed to help you pick up other things!)

[Arizona Wayne]

That's the last bike I road raced in my youth.  Finished in 2nd place for the year in soCal by 1 point.  I used to pass 750 Hondas & Kawasaki 500 Mach 3s on it in the corners.   Drafted them on the straights.    We used to run 250 to Open bikes together. The fastest bikes then were 750 Nortons, 650 Triumphs, Bsas.  The Kawi 500 was fast for 2 or 3 laps before it's pistons got hot.  Then I passed them.  That year the fastest 350 production bike class was a blueprinted Honda 350.

Ironically the next to last race for the year both the Honda rider (broke his leg) and I crashed out @ Willow Sprigs raceway.   I didn't know it and decided to make that race my last before taking a job  in Portland, Or.  Had I known he had crashed out too I could have run the last race of the year and come out the class winner for that year.     Hindsight is 20 20. 

[Chesterfield]

Great find! Good for you for stepping up and paying up!

[sdcr]

That is very nice, cool color combo!
In the Philly area, there is a group, Oily Pipes I think, that put on a nice meet/ swap meet every August. The 2 strokes are getting some love!

[cruzziguzzi]

I can SMELL it running now!



Todd.

[canuck750]

Nice bike!

I sold this one about 10 years ago, another one I should have hung onto I paid $350 bucks for it / $1 per cc, and I sunk a couple grand into it and ended up only loosing $500 bucks in the end, better deal than most of my sales.



70's Yamaha design is fantastic!

[gentlemanjim]

If it's smokin' it ain't broken.  Need at lest one 2 smoker in my shop.

[Arizona Wayne]

I paid a little over $516 OTD for a new `69 Yamaha R5 350 that looked exactly like this 1.   This was the 1st year they were made.    My how our $ has inflated since then.

I raced my R5 for a year.  Then moved to Gladstone, Or. and rode it there for a few years year round and finally sold it w/26K miles on it.  Never had any issues with the motor.   Few years later bought a used RD350.   My it was faster and handled much better than the R5 ever did.   But it didn't get the 40 mpg like the R5 did no matter how I rode it.

[chuck peterson]

You've ruined me Canuck...I thought my bike DID look like yours....not anymore... geez Louise that looks insanely new!

Thanks for oily pipes link sdcr.....found a source for vintage looking tires in modern compounds at economy cycle, as well as a ton of two stroke stuff...huge rathole after that for r5/rd/400f, like $700 for electronic ignition charging systems! Egad...ordered a set of points and condensers for $40...

[Jim Rich]

Cool bikes guys.  Pocket rockets.

[Lannis]

That is very nice, cool color combo!
In the Philly area, there is a group, Oily Pipes I think, that put on a nice meet/ swap meet every August. The 2 strokes are getting some love!

I have to say that the coolest color combo (not to mention the coolest rider in the county with the longest hair) was my black and bronze R5 from 1972



They really were a very nice design.   This one did well for me for many years and miles.

Lannis

[Roebling3]

Chuck, Promise you'll ride it to the Log Cabin event! :) 12/4
Can't wait to see it. I had 2-350's and a 400. You've seen my RS 125, but not the T500/RD. Back in the day I would ride from northern NJ to Daytona every other year. There was some sh**full weather, over the years.  R3~

[chuck peterson]

Here you go Lannis, they older we get the faster we were....$2k running, plus shipping to your door and you can relive your youth...this is a better deal than my purple 70

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/mcy/d/1972-yamaha-r5c-350/6401330795.html

[Lannis]

That's beautiful.    I have eight bikes in the shop, four not running.

I have to hate you now ..... 

Lannis

Here you go Lannis, they older we get the faster we were....$2k running, plus shipping to your door and you can relive your youth...this is a better deal than my purple 70

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/mcy/d/1972-yamaha-r5c-350/6401330795.html

[brider]

How in the heck do those old Jap bikes age so well? Why does the '70 Ambo I bought look so hideous by any comparison?

I never knew there was a R5 version of the 350 2-stroke, I only remember my buddy "sneaking" out his dad's stock RD350 and taking he and I for a ride. I was scared shitless on the back when he opened it up. Another, older friend (we were in high school, he graduated and raced a Montessa in local motocross) had a similar RD 350 with Bassani pipes who used to do wheelies. Back then it was a big deal.

NICE find, can you still find Yamalube, or would you just use Golden Spectro (do they still sell that stuff? we thought it had the best Sunday-morning motocross-smell).

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I got my license on a '72 250 DS7, rattle can black with denim seat. Rode it to high school quite often. Wheelying through the parking lot earned me the name "Evel Boll weevil".  I later sold it and bought a mint '76 RD400, red w/Bassani chambers. Loved the sound of that when it "up on the pipe". 

[canuck750]

I learned a lot from my mistakes owning the R5, I stripped and rebuilt the carbs, it is possible to swap the carb slides from left to right and insert them backwards to the air flow, took me ages to figure out why I could not get the bike to idle properly and it was a real treat to start.

I had an old hand mechanic look at it for me and after an hour he called to say that some idiot had installed the slide backwards, damn previous owners!

Looking at the exhaust outlets I can still smell that lovely two stroke oil / gas mixture, a whole generation has no idea how great the two strokes where.

[Arizona Wayne]

I learned a lot from my mistakes owning the R5, I stripped and rebuilt the carbs, it is possible to swap the carb slides from left to right and insert them backwards to the air flow, took me ages to figure out why I could not get the bike to idle properly and it was a real treat to start.

I had an old hand mechanic look at it for me and after an hour he called to say that some idiot had installed the slide backwards, damn previous owners!

Looking at the exhaust outlets I can still smell that lovely two stroke oil / gas mixture, a whole generation has no idea how great the two strokes where.

That looks like a Dunlop K70 rear tire on this R5.  Back then this was considered a good street tire.  First time I road raced (`67) was @ the drag strip track on Oahu, Hawaii on my 305 Yamaha with that rear tire.  I literally wallowed(drifted) across the corners doing it at speed.    In those days road racers had very few tires to choose.  There were no slicks then even for the fastest bikes.  K81s were popular on the bigger bikes.

[Triple Jim]

You don't have a location in your profile, but if you're near me, let's go for a ride soon.

[mojohand]

My first bike: RD350!

My friend Rick playing his newly restored 1930 National steel guitar on it in 1975


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[Arizona Wayne]

My first bike: RD350!

My friend Rick playing his newly restored 1930 National steel guitar on it in 1975


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That's a `69 R5, not a RD350.  I've had both.