Frank from Rileyville, Virginia, writes in to share his bike and his "near miss" with my R5:
Pics of my bike, these are the only ones I have of it, but it hasn't changed any since.
It's a 71 R5 with RD top end, front end, and body, done by the previous owner. DG chambers, Y-boot with K&N, carbs re-jetted to match. Future plans include an electronic ignition, cafe seat, and clip ons. I have an R5 oil tank and side cover, I'll get them on too.
I've been visiting your blog since shortly after you started it. I remember being exited about the amount of enthusiasm you had for the bike and just how good it looked! It made me want to find the stock parts for mine and return it to stock! Anyway, I was looking through your pics and had seen a few that looked familiar, it didn't make sense since I've never seen your bike before. When I read that you bought it on Ebay, and the pictures were from the auction, it made sense. I was watching that same auction, I almost bid on that bike. I didn't for two reasons, I had a bike to resurrect and didn't have the time and money for two, and my wife would knock my head around if I bought another one. Just before all this I had 5 bikes, sold all but my R5. I regret not bidding on the bike since it was so nice after you cleaned it. I remember feeling a bit angry and "kicking myself in the ass".
But I can honestly say that I'm glad you got it. You've taken such good care of it and the contribution you have made to the 2 stroke community is immense. I come back to your site now and again because I know there will be something new and exicting on it.
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.