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Zach Reviews'84 RZ350
- Thread starter Evoex
- Start date
Mark Duc
Well-known member
Loved my RZ350 back in the day. The YPVS of which he speaks, varied the exhaust port geometry. Made smaller for low rpm and opened wide once in the power band. It made the bike better at low rpm. Before that bike I had 2 x RD350LC and they were faster than the RZ, easier to port and polish. The YPVS made the RZ tough to modify. Overall great bikes. To bad they killed the 2 strokes. Thanks for posting.
Have not yet had the opportunity to ride a 2 stroke at all, but that video makes riding an RZ350 look as fun as I imagined
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The Canadian blue '89 RZ was the best of the RDs. (If you are going to own an RZ: you WANT the ignition off the Canadian '89 model. It had variable timing... that worked.
The bike was continued in Brazil til '96, it was blue but had dual headlights... and a SEVERELY detuned motor
I don't get why people think these are hard to own. When they were current they were marketed to know nothing kids, who proceeded to go out and trounce pretty well anything out there.
When I was shopping for my first and second bikes, and RZ350s were still cheap and plentiful, I "knew" that the oil injector systems could break, every other bike for sale was advertised as having a top end rebuild which was off putting, and about a third of them had rattle can paint jobs (i.e. crashed).
Even if I had bought one at the time, very unlikely I would have held on to it for more than two years (I don't generally keep bikes very long). At least I would have had the memories of riding it though
Not watching a 35 minute video on these ...
I'm "that guy" who never saw the attraction of two-strokes. My first race bike was a Kawasaki EX500, and when time came to replace it I had an opportunity to briefly ride a RZ350, my only experience with one. It had all the bad features of the EX500 ... coarse, rough, unrefined, odd tire sizes, questionable chassis ... plus more of its own ... stinky, thirsty, oily, finicky. Then I briefly rode a Yamaha FZR400, and the rest is history.
I'm "that guy" who never saw the attraction of two-strokes. My first race bike was a Kawasaki EX500, and when time came to replace it I had an opportunity to briefly ride a RZ350, my only experience with one. It had all the bad features of the EX500 ... coarse, rough, unrefined, odd tire sizes, questionable chassis ... plus more of its own ... stinky, thirsty, oily, finicky. Then I briefly rode a Yamaha FZR400, and the rest is history.
DownUnder
Well-known member
The smell of 2 stroke in the morning is intoxicating. Back in the day used to ride in a group with 2 RGV250s an NSR250 and my RS250. Anytime wed park somewhere for a break people that arrived anywhere from 5 to 25 mins later would tell us they could still smell the 2stroke through the hills behind us. Good times and great little bikes that would run circles around pretty much everything through the tighter sections.
J_F
Guest
when they come on the pipe
the rush, the sound
don't know if the YPVS motors do that
never rode one
this neat
www.kijiji.ca
the rush, the sound
don't know if the YPVS motors do that
never rode one
this neat
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Did about 300 miles on my RZ 421 today. Always leaves me with a big smile on my face. Its amazing what a little bit of frame bracing and modern 17" rubber will do... 
I have a few RZ's that started life as a 350, some still are. I also have a 500. I personally feel that the 500 is the one for posing at Timmies or taking to the CVMG shows... the 350 is the one to ride... LOL
Thanks for posting.
I have a few RZ's that started life as a 350, some still are. I also have a 500. I personally feel that the 500 is the one for posing at Timmies or taking to the CVMG shows... the 350 is the one to ride... LOL
Thanks for posting.
Here's a '94 Brazillian RD350R, the last of the RD/RZs
www.bonhams.com
Notice the selling price... that's including Bonham's cut... that's not a lot of money for a fairly rare bike, particularity if you compare it to some of the prices we've seen for US RZs.
In the defense of the RD/RZ's; The 1980's was a VERY dynamic decade in the land o' motorcycles. We start the decade with Yamaha ruling the race track and selling as many RD's as they can get to the showroom floor. The RD/RZ's were based on the Yamaha production road racer TZ's. When you went to the track in the '70's and 80's 75% of the bikes in the 500cc and smaller classes were a TZ derivative, and depending on the track layout some guys could run a TZ350 in the 750 races and do quite well
King Kenny once said" Put the finish line close to a corner and I win".
The outright track record at Mosport was held by Rick Trippidi on a 250 for almost 15 years, on an Aprillia.
BASTAGE!
Yamaha gave up developing these bikes (RZ's) in '82 when the TZ went to a "V" twin in an extruded aluminum frame and then Yamaha introduced the TZ/R street bike line... with a "V" twin and an extruded aluminum frame.
There was only minor upgrades in the RZ from '84 till the end, porting and minor suspension changes was about it. Yamaha was spending all their time and money on developing the FZ line.
The other companies tried, but no one had the total package like Yamaha.
But the days of the two stroke screamer was past, and the writing on the wall was all about 4 strokes, so everyone stopped developing 2T for the street, limited development monies for 2T racing and concentrated on 4T... and it only took 20 years for 4T bikes to catch up... and now we see Rotax 2T snowmobile motors with programmable power valves, direct fuel injection, pressurized oil systems, variable ignition timing, and friggin' TURBOS AND BLOWERS.
BASTAGES!
...but I digress....
The bike we ended the '80s on was very much more like a "modern".
Save the electronics, a 1989 repli racer is mostly the same as a 2021 repli racer. I mean the change from 1980 to 1989 was 500% of the change from 1989 to 2021... except the electronics which gives us ABS, traction control, EFI etc etc. The geometry is the same, tire sizes are the same, brakes are now radially mounted (not a big deal) but basically the same.
We start the decade with mild steel frames, spindly forks, skinny tires (my 1982 TZ350G, which goes 150 MPH, has a 120 rear tire. The size of your R3 FRONT tire) and new fangled disc brakes with 2 piston calipers, and ended the decade with the ZX7 and a REALLY cool Gixxer 750RR. I'm willing to bet that if you put the young Mr. Bostrom on a 1991 ZX7 at Mosport for the next CSBK race he would get the thing on the box, just like he ALWAYS did, then he would apologize for not doing better.
And then there was the TZ750.
A perennial favourite, the bike that King Kenny said "They don't pay me enough to ride that thing!"
In 1974, the Yamaha race shop, in their infinite wisdom (Bless 'em) decided that because the TZ350 was such a good bike, what they should do is splice two of them together end to end and make a 700 inline 4 cylinder... and put it in a good ol' featherbed frame with REALLY crappy brakes.
YEEEEEHAW!
Everybody loved it.
(Now this is back in the GOOD ol' day when to get the US #1 plate, you had to get road racing points AND dirt track points. Could you imagine wrestling that thing in and out of corners at full throttle on a dirt track?).
In 1975 the big TZ came back as a 750, with better brakes, a MUCH better frame/forks and a top end specifically designed for the bike, with reed blocks(much easier to ride, makes the throttle less of a on/off switch).
In the end of production the 750 had about 135 HP in a 300# package.
YEEEHAW!
It took well into the 2000s till anyone beat that for weight/power ratio, at that price point, so the TZ was a favourite with privateers, and today is the holy grail for vintage racers.
The only REAL development since '82, in the TZ/RZ, happened in the Banshee quad, that is competitive in sand drags and you can get big bore and stroker kits for the Banshee, that we use in RZ's, like Delboy's 421.
WickedATV has a 700cc banshee that makes 320HP.
So of COURSE someone had to figure out how to put 4 Banshee jugs on a stroked TZ crank... YEP.
It's supposed to do 225 to 250 HP, depending on tune, ALL DAY LONG, in a 300# package.
YEEEEEEHAAAWWWW!!!!!
It probably won't make Australia this year, BUT 2021 is doable.
Bonhams Cars : 1994 Yamaha RD350R Frame no. YA9C62UA003N0006975 Engine no. 2UA-006975
After only a couple of years in production, the original Yamaha RD350LC was superseded in 1982 by the RD350 LCII, a model better know by the 'YPVS' initialism standing for 'Yamaha Power Valve System'. Yamaha slotted this heavily revised engine into a new frame equipped with linkage-operated...
In the defense of the RD/RZ's; The 1980's was a VERY dynamic decade in the land o' motorcycles. We start the decade with Yamaha ruling the race track and selling as many RD's as they can get to the showroom floor. The RD/RZ's were based on the Yamaha production road racer TZ's. When you went to the track in the '70's and 80's 75% of the bikes in the 500cc and smaller classes were a TZ derivative, and depending on the track layout some guys could run a TZ350 in the 750 races and do quite well
King Kenny once said" Put the finish line close to a corner and I win".
The outright track record at Mosport was held by Rick Trippidi on a 250 for almost 15 years, on an Aprillia.
BASTAGE!
Yamaha gave up developing these bikes (RZ's) in '82 when the TZ went to a "V" twin in an extruded aluminum frame and then Yamaha introduced the TZ/R street bike line... with a "V" twin and an extruded aluminum frame.
There was only minor upgrades in the RZ from '84 till the end, porting and minor suspension changes was about it. Yamaha was spending all their time and money on developing the FZ line.
The other companies tried, but no one had the total package like Yamaha.
But the days of the two stroke screamer was past, and the writing on the wall was all about 4 strokes, so everyone stopped developing 2T for the street, limited development monies for 2T racing and concentrated on 4T... and it only took 20 years for 4T bikes to catch up... and now we see Rotax 2T snowmobile motors with programmable power valves, direct fuel injection, pressurized oil systems, variable ignition timing, and friggin' TURBOS AND BLOWERS.
BASTAGES!
...but I digress....
The bike we ended the '80s on was very much more like a "modern".
Save the electronics, a 1989 repli racer is mostly the same as a 2021 repli racer. I mean the change from 1980 to 1989 was 500% of the change from 1989 to 2021... except the electronics which gives us ABS, traction control, EFI etc etc. The geometry is the same, tire sizes are the same, brakes are now radially mounted (not a big deal) but basically the same.
We start the decade with mild steel frames, spindly forks, skinny tires (my 1982 TZ350G, which goes 150 MPH, has a 120 rear tire. The size of your R3 FRONT tire) and new fangled disc brakes with 2 piston calipers, and ended the decade with the ZX7 and a REALLY cool Gixxer 750RR. I'm willing to bet that if you put the young Mr. Bostrom on a 1991 ZX7 at Mosport for the next CSBK race he would get the thing on the box, just like he ALWAYS did, then he would apologize for not doing better.
And then there was the TZ750.
A perennial favourite, the bike that King Kenny said "They don't pay me enough to ride that thing!"
In 1974, the Yamaha race shop, in their infinite wisdom (Bless 'em) decided that because the TZ350 was such a good bike, what they should do is splice two of them together end to end and make a 700 inline 4 cylinder... and put it in a good ol' featherbed frame with REALLY crappy brakes.
YEEEEEHAW!
Everybody loved it.
(Now this is back in the GOOD ol' day when to get the US #1 plate, you had to get road racing points AND dirt track points. Could you imagine wrestling that thing in and out of corners at full throttle on a dirt track?).
In 1975 the big TZ came back as a 750, with better brakes, a MUCH better frame/forks and a top end specifically designed for the bike, with reed blocks(much easier to ride, makes the throttle less of a on/off switch).
In the end of production the 750 had about 135 HP in a 300# package.
YEEEHAW!
It took well into the 2000s till anyone beat that for weight/power ratio, at that price point, so the TZ was a favourite with privateers, and today is the holy grail for vintage racers.
The only REAL development since '82, in the TZ/RZ, happened in the Banshee quad, that is competitive in sand drags and you can get big bore and stroker kits for the Banshee, that we use in RZ's, like Delboy's 421.
WickedATV has a 700cc banshee that makes 320HP.
So of COURSE someone had to figure out how to put 4 Banshee jugs on a stroked TZ crank... YEP.
It's supposed to do 225 to 250 HP, depending on tune, ALL DAY LONG, in a 300# package.
YEEEEEEHAAAWWWW!!!!!
It probably won't make Australia this year, BUT 2021 is doable.
With the throttle pinned open
A friends cottage neighbour was trying to tune his two-stroke sled. He took the hood off, aimed it down the lake and pinned it while leaning over the motor and fiddling with the carbs. It was working ok until he ran out of lake and crashed into stumps at full speed. On the upside, he didn't need to worry about carb tuning anymore.
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