Yamaha YR5

[Seeker]

Whilst working in the attic I found a couple of slides of my old YR5, still one of the best bikes I've owned. 36 hp (only 6 more than the 250cc YDS7), weight 330 lbs, top speed just over 100mph if you hugged the tank and gripped the left fork stanchion. Unlike my old YCS5e, this bike didn't smoke much and was pretty economical (for a 2 stroke) - best was about 60 mpg. On accelerating you would get a wonderful low pitched moan from the induction noise, on the debit side you could hear the pistons banging away when you changed gear and the load was taken off them briefly. Suzuki's had longer pistons and didn't clatter as much as Yams.


Note obligatory Dunlop TT100 tyre. This was the early YR5, the later ones didn't have a seam in the exhaust and had a darker orange/black paint scheme which looked more attractive (to me) but I couldn't afford the newer model.



Modern bikes have improved greatly but for my riding style this bike was perfect. It had a large seat so you could move around to get comfortable, the bars made you sit like you were in an armchair (no wrist aches but in a windy day you were a spinnaker). A sidestand and a centrestand, electrics were simple - no interlocks on the clutch but that weeded out the idiots. It had drum brakes (gasp) but it only weighed 330 lbs and stopped easily. It had mudguards that worked. The only problem I ever had was a coil failure on one cylinder, so I rode home as a 175cc single.

The RD350 was much quicker even though the engine looked similar - the reed valves allowed much more drastic port timing.

Super, what a nice bike.

Thank you for sharing that.


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[Craig380]

Very nice, I do love 70s strokers.