I've gotten a bunch of email from others looking for the orange metallic paint that's used on the R5... as far as I could discover, it was officially called "Mandarin Orange" and was used on the 71 and 72 R5s... see these documents:
1971 R5B(656k PDF) - Mandarin Orange over white 1972 R5C(756k PDF) - Mandarin Orange over black You'll need the free Adobe Reader to view and print these files. Thanks again to Don Q for this info.
Well, after rooting around a little on the r5yamaha Yahoo! Group, I found a response posted by the always-helpful Ed:
There are no codes! House of Color has paint that will get you there. here is a link: http://www.hokpaint.com
I have restored many early Yamahas and the orange you need is a candy shot over a silver base (fine grain) black is black as long as all the black body parts are the same black . I.ve gotten a dead on match to this color on my 71 R5 and I've matched the candy red on my 65 YDS3 and the candy blue on my 66 YM1 using these paints. the color varies depending on how soft or heavy you spray it on.Thats how candies work,all the metalics are in the base coat and the color coat is translucent so more = darker. I hope this helps. Ed
So there it is... no quick and easy bottle touch-up for me. O well - hopefully this info can get in the hands of some more people who need it by posting it here.
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.