I know lots of companies made them in the 60's, 70's, and i occasionally see talk of them on the board here. How many two strokes of >250cc actually exist, and where do i find out about them? Any bikes of note for being especially fast or light? Gimme the rundown.
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May 1, 2009 9:09 a.m. Jamesc2123 New Reader
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May 1, 2009 1:08 p.m. Appleseed HalfDork
Anything Suzuki before 1977. 750 2-stroke? Yowza.
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May 1, 2009 1:24 p.m. Ian F Reader
My mother's husband has a early 70's Kawasaki H1 in the garage... 3 cylinder 500cc 2-stroke... from what I've read it was a monster in it's day... don't ask it to stop or turn, but in a straight line it could more than get out of it's own way...
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May 1, 2009 1:30 p.m. Woody Dork
Ian F wrote:
My mother's husband has a early 70's Kawasaki H1 in the garage... 3 cylinder 500cc 2-stroke... from what I've read it was a monster in it's day... don't ask it to stop or turn, but in a straight line it could more than get out of it's own way...
My neighbor has had Kawasaki Mach III since new. Loudest bike I've ever heard. When he leaves, you can hear him for about two miles. Seriously.
He's mentioned that it's hard to keep the center cylinder cool.
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May 1, 2009 1:52 p.m. spitfirebill HalfDork
Pretty much anything 250cc and over is fast. Yamaha made a fine line of 2 strokes from 200 to 400cc. Most were the RD series. The last one was water cooled I believe. Suzuki made some neat bikes that include the X6 Hustler and its successors. One was recently available here by a fellow board member. May still be. Suzuki also made a 750 water cooled bike, their last road going 2 stroke.
Kawasaki made a 350, 500 and 750 2 stroke. All were fast. The 750 was a killer. I came across one a few years ago on a site I was walking. It had been packed away in a storage container. The owner of the property said his son was going to make a race bike out of it.
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May 1, 2009 2:28 p.m. Xceler8x Dork
spitfirebill wrote:
The owner of the property said his son was going to make a race bike out of it.
He must not have wanted to live long.
I had an Yamaha R5C for quite awhile. The precursor to the RD series by Yamaha. Great little bike. Incredibly light weight. There is a serious underground of guys who keep these bikes alive. Ebay is your friend if you own one. Relatively quick for their age. Thirsty for fuel. MPG was never their strong point.
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May 1, 2009 2:36 p.m. Cotton Reader
I have a 1980 Husqvarna 390 2 stroke. Mine is all dirt, but they made a street version that was pretty much identical except for lights. They are pretty mean bikes.
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May 1, 2009 3:05 p.m. Jensenman MegaDork
Is your 390 an automatic, by chance?
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May 1, 2009 3:21 p.m. Cotton Reader
No it's a 6 speed. It looks a lot like that one, but doesn't have the taillight. I'll try and take some pictures of it over the weekend. I have about the same look on my face as the guy in the picture when I'm riding it!
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May 1, 2009 3:34 p.m. Jensenman MegaDork
The autos weren't anywhere near as quick as the 6 speeds but man they were cool. Until I saw one, I never dreamed you could pack a fully automatic tranny inside a set of motorcycle cases.
A bud got a drag race converted Kawasaki 500 triple in a trade, it had been stripped, had clip on bars, rear set pegs, a slick with screws holding it to the rear rim, expansion chambers, tiny fiberglass seat, you name it. I rode it a couple of times up and down his street but never got a chance to actually drag race it. That thing was terrifyingly fast in a straight line.
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May 2, 2009 7:29 a.m. Rusnak_322 New Reader
I have two friends who imported three Aprilia 250cc streetbikes back in the late 1990's - before they had the Aprilia cup race class. They took the bills of sale to the ohio DMV and got them titled and registered for street use here in ohio. One got sold off, one got turned into a racebike and the last one is still run on the street. They are light, handle well, but not what I would call fast.
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May 4, 2009 11:16 a.m. spitfirebill HalfDork
Xceler8x wrote:
spitfirebill wrote:
The owner of the property said his son was going to make a race bike out of it.
He must not have wanted to live long.
Exactly what I told his dad.
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May 4, 2009 11:16 a.m. spitfirebill HalfDork
An old buddy of mine had a Maico 501 MX bike. He said that thing was a death trap too.
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May 4, 2009 11:42 a.m. xci_ed6 Reader
I have an lt250r engine that makes about 50hp that has been begging me to find a ninja 250 roller...
There's the YSR50, it was an aircooled 2-smoker, there are a lot of easy 80-200cc swaps for it.
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May 4, 2009 12:47 p.m. Xceler8x Dork
Yamaha did start up the RD series in the early 80's if I remember right. 84 I think. They called it the RZ350 then...Let me verify.
HELL YEAH! I'm a fart smeller!
I bet they're rare by now tho.
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May 4, 2009 12:48 p.m. Jensenman MegaDork
spitfirebill wrote:
An old buddy of mine had a Maico 501 MX bike. He said that thing was a death trap too.
Man that was THE ultimate open class MXer when I started my MX career.
Yessir, that was a BAD sumbitch. It shook like a washing machine full of bowling balls, turned like it was on rails but was terrible over choppy bumps. But man that big motor would PULL.
They were fragile; 'MaicoBreako' was the common refrain.
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May 4, 2009 2:27 p.m. Gonzo_Bmod New Reader
This '92 RGV250M was brought over from England and assigned a frame number (much like a Spondon framed kit bike etc). The V-twin in it is very similar to the Aprilia but with a different power valve design. It will run with early Hurricane 600's etc. but anything in a newer 600 will eat it's lunch unless the road is chocked full of curves. It steers telepathically. There's only a few of these around in the US.
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May 5, 2009 5:21 a.m. foxtrapper SuperDork
spitfirebill wrote:
Kawasaki made a 350, 500 and 750 2 stroke. All were fast. The 750 was a killer. I came across one a few years ago on a site I was walking. It had been packed away in a storage container. The owner of the property said his son was going to make a race bike out of it.
Hehe, I HAD one of those race models. A factory race model of the 750 H2C. Went from a little Honda CD175 to this machine. That was an interesting upgrade. Only motorcycle I've ever had that got single digit gas mileage.
Hendrix did a song about it, purple haze.
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May 5, 2009 6:57 p.m. spitfirebill HalfDork
Xceler8x wrote:
Yamaha did start up the RD series in the early 80's if I remember right. 84 I think. They called it the RZ350 then...Let me verify.
HELL YEAH! I'm a fart smeller!
I bet they're rare by now tho.
Hah. I had a chance to buy a leftover Kenny Roberts edition RZ back around 1986 for way under list. They couldn't sell'em then.
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May 7, 2009 3:24 p.m. 16vCorey SuperDork
foxtrapper wrote:
... Only motorcycle I've ever had that got single digit gas mileage.
Somehow that's horrible and awesome at the same time.
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May 7, 2009 10:20 p.m. Nitroracer Dork
My Dad has been working on this bike for a year or two now, 77' RD400 with 96' FZR forks and swing arm along with a race ported engine. It'll scoot. Still a project.
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May 7, 2009 11:11 p.m. Taiden New Reader
foxtrapper wrote:
Hendrix did a song about it, purple haze.
I am gullible. Are you serious? I've debated about it being about either LSD or weed, but never a motorcycle.
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May 8, 2009 4:38 a.m. foxtrapper SuperDork
Taiden wrote:
foxtrapper wrote:
Hendrix did a song about it, purple haze.
I am gullible. Are you serious? I've debated about it being about either LSD or weed, but never a motorcycle.
No. Nononono. What I wrote I wrote in jest.
But, running that bike on BelRay synethic oil would produce the most prolific cloud of purple hazy smoke you could ever wish for.
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May 8, 2009 11:35 a.m. 44Dwarf Reader
I'll be selling off a bunch of R5 and RD's with stuff soon...
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May 8, 2009 12:40 p.m. Xceler8x Dork
NItroracer - it's a shame they didn't run the mileage meter off the front wheel on RD's. Those things are so nose happy you'd have a bunch of low mileage RD's even now. Oh, wait a minute! All the ones I looked at ARE Low mileage...hmmm...
