Arte House is offering art prints as large scale murals, prints on canvas, as well as note cards, magnets and special signed editions from the image archive of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
The murals are particularly interesting, in that they can go up to 44"x60" in size!
Not too much Yamaha stuff, but a whole bunch of interesting vintage posters and racing photographs. Pictured above is Roberts Yamaha at the Laguna Seca GP, while below, Rob Morrison and Kenny Roberts battle it out.
One of the most frustrating aspects of bringing one of these old Yamahas back is finding a decent set of replacement tank badges. NOS is really nonexistant, and even replicas are getting to be very expensive. Here is a guy selling replicas on Ebay for very reasonable prices, and the duplication looks pretty spot-on.
One of the problems my bike suffers from (and I'm sure many bikes of similar age) is rotting or missing rubber parts. Nothing major, mind you, but simple little things like the battery and airbox straps, bodywork bushings, and lever rubber - things that don't need to be there for the bike to function, but sure would help finish things up. Details.
Well, HVC is now carrying a whole bunch of hard-to-find spares. Here's a list of the things I'll be picking up in the near future:
Right Side Cover Dampers (HVC20041) - mine are disintegrating
I was pleasantly suprised when I visited Glass From The Past today and found a fresh new site. There's a bunch of new products, as well as a few galleries of customer bikes and nifty old adverts. Drop by and admire those slick cafe seats!
My friend Brian forwarded me this link the other day. Metro Racing makes some great stuff, from T-shirts to restoration decals. There's a good bit of Yamaha kit on there too - check it out!
Last week, the Kneeslider posted an article about the beauty of Ron Wood's dirt track motorcycles. There was mention in the article that no one was building these for the street. I posted in the comments that, with a little help from Moto Carrera, you can turn a Yamaha R5/RD350/400/RZ350 into a "street tracker", combining the sleekness of a dirt track racer with the practicality of a street-legal road bike.
So they then went a did a little write up about it. Thanks for the shout-out guys!
Came across this cool little frame for mounting aftermarket cafe seats to the stock seat hinges on RDs (and I am assuming R5s), allowing you to bolt it to the stock location and maintain the flip-open functionality. This way you can still get to your oil filler and battery should you go with a lower-profile seat. I'm definitely interested. I don't know anything about these guys, the quality of their work or what not, but the pics look good. I'll be contacting them in the near future.
In the meantime, here is their product description from an eBay auction:
Now there is a simple solution for mounting your custom fiberglass or carbon fiber cafe seat or street tracker seat. Our all alluminum frames are specifically desiged to allow you to bolt the seat hinges and seat latch off of a stock DS7 or RD 250/350. You maintain normal seat operation. No battery modification. Best of all no ugly gap between the seat and the gas tank. Pre-drilled for installation of your latch and hinges. We supply stainless steel bolts, nylon washers, nuts and lock washers. All you need to do is align your seat and drill the holes to match using the pre drilled holes in the seat frame for the hinges and latch. Rounded stainless steel Allen bolts are easily covered by seat padding.
Will be listing models for XS650 and Triumph in the near future. Other models to come.
These are designed for flat bottomed fiberglass and carbon fiber seat pans. Curved models like the XR750 pans may require some modification.
BTW they make super-trick CF flyscreens too, to complete the cafe look. Very sharp.
UPDATE: Jerry Jensen from RD Innovations sent in some more info on his products:
Really happy to see your piece on our products in your blog. Just to let you know our seat frames are made out of aircraft aluminum. We are currently supplying seat frames to Moto Carrera and HVC. My business is new and little promotions like this are a real shot in the arm. Thanks for helping us out!
SimonX wrote in this afternoon to say hi and ask a question:
Hi,
I just happened upon your site while looking for a clutch cable for a 1971 R5 350. I have called and emailed dozens and dozens of people to no avail. No one carries it or has one. Do you have any suggestions on a contact? I would appreciate any help you could give me.
Thank you very much.
I pointed SimonX to Classic Cycle Parts, a retailer with an eBay store... I haven't ever used them before, so I can't vouch for them... I think they only do online transactions via eBay. But they do have a 99.9% positive feedback rating, and have had over 15,000 transactions so far, so they seem pretty reputable. Anyone else had experience with these guys?
I recently submitted the R5 to the Reader's Rides section of the Old Bike Barn, a purveyor of all things motorcyclic... and was accepted. You can see the old girl in all her glory here.
A bunch of guys fom work and I stopped by Fast by Ferracci after lunch today... what a treat. Lots of Yamaha goodies (including branded mesh jackets... damn!) and a bunch of drool-inducing sportbikes. Of particular note was this monster from Benelli which utilizes dual fans at the rear to suck hot air out from the radiator under the seat... wild in both theory and looks.
I had come across James Franzen’s unbelievably cool café Bimmer in my search for cool bikes. The Bimmer has a great one-off solo seat - I emailed him to inquire about it, as to how to go about making or finding a similar one. Here is his response:
The seat was a one-off unit made by a guy that designs stuff like this for a living - so the unfortunate thing is he's the one with the fiberglass tricks and not me.
I am considering some of this guy's offerings on an old Ducati single I'm building up: http://www.dropbears.com/c/cmf/stock.htm It's in Australia but the US dollar goes farther there.
Because I want to run the old Ducati single with a bumstop seat and no rear fender on the street, I'm designing a tail light/ brake light/ turn signal unit that is ultra small - only 1/2" extension beyond the license plate and super bright - with license plate illumination included. I only have photographs of the prototype as the refined product is in fabrication now: http://www.culayer.com/ASAP.htm
Received my shifter yesterday, and dropped it off at the shop. The shift rubber arrived today. Mike assured me he’ll be taking the bike out for test runs this weekend.
Also, wound up buying a jacket as well. Knowing the way I sweat even on cold days, I opted for mesh one. I have read a lot of good things about them as well, being just as good as leathers. Originally thought I wanted a Joe RocketReactor or Rio, but after trying them on at the Philadelphia Cycle Center, I was disappointed at how high they rode up in the back, even when not in a riding position. I did however try on a FieldsheerTitanium.Air jacket, and loved the way it fit and looked. After reading this review, I felt confident enough to snag my own.
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.